WHAT MIRACLES DOES FR. POPIEŁUSZKO DO?
MILENA KINDZIUK
There is no week when somebody would not experience a grace through the intercession of Blessed Fr. Jerzy. And so it has been continuously for 30 years
In one of the Warsaw hospitals, a man in his prime was just having an operation on his backbone. But there were some complications. It ended with the implantation of a metal scaffolding stabilizing his backbone.
– Soon I had massive heart attack – he mentions. He was getting weaker every minute, balancing on the verge of consciousness. He was getting convinced that he was dying. Suddenly, one of the doctors shouted: ‘A blood vessel let go…’.
– I saw anxiety and much tension on the faces of other doctors. Once I lost consciousness, once I regained it, the drama of the situation was coming to me. Seeing that it was a critical moment I shouted with the remains of strength: ‘Priest Jerzy, help me…’
The treatments on the heart of the ill man were still lasting and he felt as if somebody was holding his hand very firmly. – I felt unusual warmth. I had chills, I understood that priest Jerzy was with me.
And the, slowly, everything started to return to normality. – I felt I was getting stronger, and after a while everything went silent and after some time I heard a doctor’s saying: ‘Everything will be all right’. I was sure that nothing bad would happen to me. Although from the medical point of view, my life was still endangered, the heart attack turned out to be untypical, unusually massive. Doctors said to the ill man later, that the moment when he called Fr. Jerzy loudly was decisive. It was the priest who had contributed to the healing.
Outside time and space
On the one hand there is more secularization, ridicule and mocking at values, going away from faith, whereas on the other hand, there is a real life of the Church somewhere in the middle of the ‘eye of the storm’. And there are real miracles. In silence. Because miracles are like that: they do not conspicuous, do not shout. Therefore ordinary people who come to the grave of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko in Warsaw and pray there, often come back from there changed. They got ‘struck’ by graces which they had not expected.
– Diseases which I had had for 7 years,went away – an older man says – These were cases of cancer. My requests have been listened to, through the intercession of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, and God allowed me to live up to the age of 80 – he adds.
A woman from Poznań who during her stay in Warsaw together with her daughter was praying at the grave of Fr. Jerzy, says:
– I asked Fr. Jerzy to take away my pain which I had had in my left foot. It was a constant pain, radiating in the whole foot. Surgeons were helpless, and said that the intervention might cause a harm of bones.
After her return home, the woman realized that she did not feel any pain.
– My foot is ‘clean’, without any purulence, wounds and the pain was not radiating onto the whole foot! It has been three months since that time and I and 100 percent sure that my prayer at the grave of Fr. Jerzy has brought a gift of healing – says the woman.
Moreover those, who pray at home or a parish church as well as on any place on the Earth through the intercession of blessed Fr. Jerzy experience the graces. For the space does not matter here. The saints are acting outside time and space.
– I had an attack of cholecystolithiasis. After an operation I was praying to blessed Fr. Jerzy and I recovered very quickly, without any complications. I am convinced that I owe it to the intercession of the Blessed Martyr – a man from Warsaw says about the events from August 2012.
A similar case happened to an inhabitant of Zabrze who ordered the Holy Mass in the intention of the recovery from illness of her husband who had cancer. Soon she received a message from her son that the medical examinations had not shown any neoplastic process. – I received this grace thanks to the intercession of Fr. Jerzy. I am completely sure about it – she admits. – Fr. Jerzy is a very effective patron of very painful matters.
Effective in looking for a job
Graces are as different as human matters are different. A married couple from Ostrołęka expresses their gratitude for their surviving a few serious crises. It is thanks to the intercession of Fr. Popiełuszko the couple did not get divorced. – My husband’s religious conversion also happened. Since then I have been trying to follow the motto of Fr. Jerzy in my life: ‘Overcome evil with good’ – that is, with goodness. I choose what is really good. Fr. Popiełuszko quite often intercedes for people who are looking for a job. A man from Warsaw says that his son-in-law could not find a job for a year after being sacked from a company. – Then I started to pray through the intercession of Fr.Jerzy. At present the son-in-law has had a permanent work for 2 months. I am grateful to Fr. Popiełuszko for the grace.
Another case:
I strongly believe that Fr.Popiełuszko contributed to a situation in which my husband returned to his permanent job – says a woman from a small town in the Małopolska district. – My husband is 55 years old, 2 years ago a chairman suggested his dismissal, explaining that a computer had selected him. I was praying to God through the intercession of Fr. Jerzy, believing that he would listen to my supplications. I was telling him: ‘Because you were a patron of working people, have mercy to me and help me’. Everyday I stood in front of the image of Our Lady with my children and I sang the song: ‘My homeland’. Without my husband because he does not practice religion. After two years my prayers were listened. It is a miracle that my husband returned to the same work. Fr. Jerzy has listened to my supplications. Now every day I pray for the religious conversion of my husband. I strongly believe that Fr. Jerzy will help me in it.
He is acting through newspapers and books
Religious conversions are another ‘area’ of blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. During his life he led everybody to faith, gave confessions to people, who had not come to the confession for a dozen or a several dozen years, he baptized adults and converted them to faith. After his death he is doing it more strongly. Among people who experience grace through the intercession of blessed Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, and there are also those who have converted under the influence of a film or a book they watched or read. There are many examples.
A middle-aged woman, mother of five children, came across a periodical with an image of Fr.Jerzy on a cover. – I looked inside, read an article about graces and miracles which people had experienced through the blessed priest – she says. And then I started asking Fr. Jerzy herself for help because her husband had had his outstanding salary for work in a private company. – Another school year was coming, we did not have school books for our children or current bills – she mentions. When she put the newspaper away on a shelf, she answered a phone. It turned out that her husband was to go to the company to be given his outstanding salaries.
– I owe this grace to Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko. I could not believe my eyes in what had happened. It may seem trivial to somebody but it was a very important matter to us. In ecclesiastical documents there are also testimonies saying about the influence of Fr. Jerzy on people through our weekly: ‘In the weekly ‘Sunday’ I have read an article about Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko. I asked him for his intercession to Merciful God for a successful operation on my daughter, mother of two sons, who was endangered by cancer. She received this grace, the operation was successful and there was not cancer. I thank Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko for that’. The archives also include letters saying about conversions under the influence of books of the Martyr. In of them we read: ‘I gave the book about Fr. Jerzy, by Milena Kindziuk, to my friend to read. As a result, my friend had a general confession and stated that he was internally changed. This conversion happened through Fr. Jerzy’.
– There are also other known facts that, being influenced by a film about Fr. Popiełuszko, somebody started going to church or after years somebody attended a confession. Many people watching the transmission of the priest’s beatification did similarly.
– However, not everybody was able to speak publicly about the experienced graces. And no wonder. For it is a reality which touches the deepest mysteries of the human soul. Hence, there have been testimonies till today, which say about miracles from many years ago. A mother of a thirteen-year-old daughter found out that she had cancer. – I fainted from fright, fearing what would be with my child because I brought her up on my own – she says. At the same time she learnt about the kidnapping of Fr.Jerzy Popiełuszko. She knew him from holy masses for Homeland which she attended regularly. – This kidnapping made me break down completely. I had such terrible stomachache during the funeral of Fr. Popiełuszko that I was not able to come nearer to the coffin. Whereas, after the funeral I had a dream about Fr. Popiełuszko who was cheering me up and telling me not to be afraid, that he would be with me during my operation. And it happened so. I went to the operating theatre with belief that everything would be all right.
– After removing the tumor the histopathological examination was all right. When the woman was released from hospital, she made her first steps towards the grave of Fr. Jerzy to thank him for saving her life.
– this place is holy to me, I come here to attend the holy mass, I light grave candles, thanking for my healing – emphasizes the woman. Today she is with her granddaughter Oleńka. – I take her with me here to pray with me.
– Life is a miracle
– However, not everybody who asks for a miracle can experience it. Why? It is one of mysteries to which there is no answer here, on the Earth. A miracle cannot be a mechanical action. God is not ‘obliged’ to do miracles in respond to all prayers. After all, it is not known what is better for whom in a particular moment of life.
– But it is important that miracles happen at all. A man needs outer signs. They reveal divine power, help us believe. And graces and miracles are for this purpose. Graces and miracles are always a testimony of the intercession of a saint or a blessed. It is not a saint who does miracles but he only intercedes for us to God.
– As other people who experienced a grace say, they perceive from the perspective of time, that they had been being prepared for the grace for a long time. For example, through events of life, their sufferings, through people who they had met on their life, through reading books which they had come across. There are a lot of miracles. The biggest one – is every holy mass. A miracle are also birthdays of people. Every confession and return to God. Finally – a miracle is the very life. and Fr. Jerzy loved them. And he was fighting for it to be worthy. Maybe because of it he is such an effective intermediary also in the issues connected with life on the Earth.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 42/2012