'Let us save man with Mary'
Dorota Skibinska talks to Fr Stanislaw Jarosz, OSPPE, Definitor General of the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit.
Dorota Skibinska: - On 8 December 2003 the Jasna Gora Shrine took the initiative 'Gift of Prayer'. What is it about?
Fr. Stanislaw Jarosz: - If we feel pain, our body suffers. The same is with the Church - Mystical Body of Christ. There is a need for great prayer for unity. This unity of the Church begins in me: when I accept myself in God I accept my life. I bless God in my weaknesses and like Mary I want to do his will. This is the way of the Church. Since I know Jesus and his Mother I want others to get to know God's love, I want them to be saved and that's why I pray for others. And here is our proposal so that we, in unity with Jasna Gora, pray for my relatives, offering them a gift of prayer on their anniversaries, birthdays or other occasions. We can pray for a relative or some known person for a given period of time (a month, several months, a year, all life). We can pray for one another in families. We propose a special prayer, the text of which is on the pictures of Our Lady of Jasna Gora. People can receive them in the Centre of Dedication. Additionally, we pray one mystery of the Rosary.
- Do we need to inform the person we pray for?
- If I want and know that this will be good news for him/her I can do that. There are special wishing cards that I can give the person I pray for. Every first Saturday of the month at 5.30 p.m., in the Chapel of Our Lady of Jasna Gora, we celebrate Eucharist, praying for the intentions.
- Can we say that there is some kind of a community of prayer?
- Where two or three are gathered in the name of Christ he is with them. We believe that God through his Son creates a community of the Spirit between us. Those who want to pray with us can take part in the special meetings: this year on every second Saturday of the month at 5.00 p.m., in the Chapel of St Joseph. I want to present my reflections and answers to your doubts. This year falls the 50th anniversary of the Jasna Gora Vows of the Nation and the themes of the reflections refer to the jubilee and the most important point is the Eucharist and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
- There is also an initiative of prayer for people whose salvation is endangered: 'Let us save man with Mary'...
- Until we live there is a battle for salvation of each of us. We experience the fragility of life and we can see that the greatest loss is the loss of eternal life; that's why we want to connect it with evangelization. If I cannot save people through proclaiming the Gospel I can offer prayer, sacrifice in order to save only one person from eternal damnation and at the same time I am called to constant conversion.
- We hear people grumbling, criticising, judging. We are being bombarded with bad news in various media. What can I who have no influence on politics or decision-makers do when I see so much injustice, unemployment, poverty...?
- Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski would have said that if we experienced hardship we should give everything to Mary. This is our light. She holds God - Jesus in her arms. Hope is in him, whom we still discover in the Gospels and the sacraments. The source of life and love, which never withers, is in Jesus Christ.
Taking the Jasna Gora Vows the Primate of the Millennium wanted to light a torch of faith in the nation. It depends on us what we do with it. Whether in the darkness of my life I receive this light, which is in the Church, the Gospel and the Cross. Is it lit in my life or does it flicker? May it burn like a torch. Today the Church needs people of living faith, of zealous prayer, people who live by the Gospel and follow the example of the saints. Cardinal Wyszynski said in the Vows that the programme did not only originate in the mountains but it also led to the mountains. 'It commands us to lift up our spirits and hearts, to lean our foreheads on the tops and look at God's sun. We are fed up with creeping over the lowlands...' ('Wszystko postawilem na Maryje [In everything I was counting on Mary], p. 127).
Therefore, instead of complaining I will begin to pray, instead of cursing I will bless.
We invite you to pray for those who are in authority at various government levels in Poland. Let it be our inner spiritual mobilisation and let us assume the responsibility for others. So I invite all people, those who can and want to pray for people in the Parliament, the Senate, for the President, the government and all the decision-makers in our country. Let us save Poland through prayer and our lives.
- Where can one get detailed information and materials concerning this prayer?
- In the Jasna Gora Centre of Dedication Prayer one can get the text of the prayer to God for a person who is involved in politics and social life. We will 'bombard Heaven' through the heart of Mary so that God would send the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Jesus Christ, upon our fellow countrymen in the Parliament, asking God for wisdom, prudence, ability and faithfulness to him. May our call to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary make her victory come quicker.
- Thank you for the conversation and we ask for your priestly blessing.
- I bless you all with joy from the Throne of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Information and materials concerning 'Gift of Prayer' and 'Let us save man with Mary' are available at:
Jasnogorski Osrodek Modlitwy Zawierzenia
ul. Kordeckiego 2
42-225 Czestochowa
tel. (0-34) 377-74-27
(open daily: 9.00 - 15.00)
dar-modlitwy@jasnagora.pl
www.modlitwy.jasnagora.pl
"Niedziela" 13/2006