ROSARY TO THE BORDERS AND BORDERLESS
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ‘NIEDZIELA’
And it happened. Poland got entwined with the Rosary. Millions of people undertook an initiative of prayer which had been suggested by three men: Maciej Bodasiński and Lech Dokowicz, and Łukasz Witkiewicz. And, as a result, on 7 October 2017 we were participants and witnesses of the nationwide prayer, a great national prayer taking place with complete support from the Polish Episcopate. On all borders of Poland people from all parts of the country appeared as alive links of the Rosary entwining Homeland. From the borders of our country, with a shield which is Mary, we are approaching the borders of our possibilities now, our fears, our desires, outside the borders of comfort, everyday life and our habits. It is how organizers of the great prayer spurt of Poles see it. So, we are approaching the borders, passing through borders so as to save Poland and the world with the Rosary.
A great lover of the Rosary was St. John Paul II. On the first days of his pontificate he confessed to the world: ‘Rosary is a prayer which I love very much. An unusual prayer! Unusual in its simplicity and depth, too. (…) For, on the basis of the words of the Angel’s greeting, the main moments of Jesus Christ’s life are presented to the eyes of our soul. Moreover, our heart can bring all matters of human life, family, nation, Church, humankind into the same dozens of the Rosary’. He noted that ‘the simple rosary prayer somehow pulses with human life’. It was just the Polish Pope who introduced the mysteries of light, prepared an apostolic letter ‘Rosarium Virginis Mariae’ and announced the Year of the Holy Rosary, 2002 – 2003 John Paul II called the Rosary a treasure which must be uncovered.
In uncovering the rosary mysteries cardinal Stefan Wyszyński helps us. As a bishop of Lublin he addressed moving words to his diocesans: ‘Rosary is a prayer of the little and the humble. Look at those bleached lips of elderly women and at trembling fingers of your grandparents; they find the Rosary as the most beautiful book of wisdom and there is nothing else they can read’. In the opinion of cardinal Wyszyński, ‘Rosary is a chain of safety on a steep rock of the mountain tops. We cannot stop at any mysteries. We must keep going. As the full of life is at the tops’. The Primate of the Millennium advised us to bring back an old custom at our homes to finish a day with the common rosary prayer. Rosary is a prayer for everybody, it is ‘a prayer of the most sublime spirits in the Church’. ‘This is a prayer of theologians, PhDs, philosophers and saints’ – cardinal Wyszyńki used to say. And we add that it is also a prayer of actors. They appeared in the prayer sphere ‘Rosary to the borders’. Cezary Pazura, for example, said: ‘Only love has not borders and I always pray for love with my beloved wooden rosary. Rosary has neither the beginning nor the end. Rosary is my shield, on which I meet with Our Lady’. Facing the Polish rosary revolution there reappears the question whether there is another nation in the world which loves Mary like Poles? Mary’s character is an example for the world. We can treat rosary as a help line joining the earth with the Heaven. Let’s hope that the national rosary prayer which reached Polish borders, will become a prayer impulse and people will hold the rosary in their hands more often than mobile phones, especially that the latter ones are usually in their pockets. As Poles will always be as they are.
(AA)
„Niedziela” 41/2017