AN ALIVE ROSARY OF SUPPORTERS
O. STANISŁAW TOMOŃ
Supporters of various sport clubs from whole Poland arrived on the 9th Patriotic Pilgrimage of Supporters on 7 January this year. The motif of this year’s pilgrimage were the 75th anniversary of National Military Forces and also the 75th anniversary of martyrdom of the Five from Poznań. The main organizer of this year’s prayer is Fr. Jarosław Wąsowicz from the Salesian Association of the Youth Upbringing in Piła. It is two years since compatriots from the Borderlands and supporters from Hungary have been participants in the pilgrimage. – next year there is going to be a jubilee pilgrimage. We want to invite supporters from abroad to it. We have already begun initial talks and sent invitations to our colleagues from whole Europe – said Fr. Wąsowicz.
At midday football fans in colourful scarves and with banners in club colours arrived at the Chapel of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady to participate in the Holy Mass. In his sermon Fr. Wąsowicz spoke about love to Poland and forgotten great national heroes. - We do not want Poland without God or religion, we want Christian Europe – he emphasized. In relation to Mary’s Jubilee Year we are experiencing now, sport fans began anew initiative with their pilgrimage to Jasna Góra – an Alive Rosary of Supporters. Patrons of supporters’ rosary roses are going to be saint and beatified people of the Church and great patriots. Through a special website it will be possible to join the rosary prayer. Supporters hope that it will unite them more. – The world is very uneasy, a lot of evil is happening also in our homeland. We hope that a lot of supporters will respond to our initiative because it is only a decade of the rosary a day and it can change the world – said Fr. Jarosław Wąsowicz.
Saying the prayer of God’s servant Fr. Piotr Skarga, supporters entrusted our homeland to Our Lady. After the Holy Mass ,supporters’ scarves were hallowed. Then the pilgrims went to the Hall of Fr. Kordecki where they had a meeting with Jarosław Szarek – the chairman of the National Remembrance Institute who told them about the contemporary purposes of the Institute.
Like every year, on the walls of Jasna Góra and on the square in front of the sanctuary, supporters presented their patriotic banners. The pilgrimage ended with a presented film in the Hall of Fr. Kordecki, entitled: ‘On the other side of life’ (a testimony of Andrzej Duffek - brother of deceased Tadeusz Duffek), about an accident, experiences during clinical death, return to his life and great power of a prayer).
AA
„Niedziela” 03/2017