OUR NATIONAL DNA

LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ‘NIEDZIELA’

Important things took place in Poland: on 3 May 2016 at Jasna Góra, where Polish bishops entrusted the Nation to Our Lady anew and on 8 May 2016 on Skałka in Cracow, to where saints of Cracow altars in their relics got in a procession from Wawel, and whose fates history of Poland is written with. Jasna Góra is an altar and confessional of the Nation, here the Polish, Slavonic and Mary’s spirit is expressed the most. Today we can say that religiousness to Mary is our national DNA. Throughout history, the road to Jasna Góra has been walked on by our Great Poles, at the helm with St. John Paul II and the God’s Servant cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. They also made pilgrimages with the royal treaty to Skałka, where Poland is present in a particular way, mainly through blood stains of St. Stanisław, who was killed by the king, as he had been defending the moral image of the state authority. On 8 May 2016, on Skałka in Cracow, archbishop Wojciech Polak quoted the words from the poem ‘Stanisław’ by Karol Wojtyła, in which the poet pointed to his great predecessor in the capital city of Cracow bishops – ‘as the man in which the land saw that it is related to Heaven’, and emphasized that just through the baptism sacrament which helps us grow to the holy life, ‘we are related to Heaven’. When we were listening to those words on Skałka in Cracow, our eyes fell onto the prime minister Beata Szydło present there, and who had participated in priestly ordination of her son’s diaconate the day before. In the categories of particular grace and sign from Heaven, one can see the fact that the prime minister of the Polish government is the mother of a priest.

Speaking about our national DNA, let’s refer to the statement of president Andrzej Duda, addressed to the National Assembly in Poznań on 15 April 2016. He pointed to a particular role of Jasna Góra. He noted that at present, in the year of the 1050th anniversary of Poland Baptism, the civilisational Christian circle is marked not only by Athens, Rome or Jerusalem, but also by new centres, like Gniezno, Poznań and Częstochowa. President referred to Poland’s rooting in Jasna Góra, pointing to the song ‘God’s Mother’. Considered as the first Polish national hymn, which is sung every day in front to the Icon of Our Lady at Jasna Góra. This statement is another sign that the President of Poland knows very well what is happening at Jasna Góra.

The new Act of Entrustment to Our Lady deposited by us on 3 May 2016 expresses gratitude ‘for including all generations of our compatriots in the stream of eternal life’. Through the Poland Baptism in the year 966, our Nation became rooted in Christ. And Europe is also rooted in Christ and has got excellent founders. This is mainly Robert Schumann – a French politician living as a monk. It was said that he treated his place on a parliamentary bench like a monk in a cloister choir, where the priestly breviary is recited. In the opinion of Schuman, service to the world should also be service to God. St. Augustine warned against neglecting God’s law, which may lead to loss. He said that ‘all kinds of authority which does not respect God’s law, sooner or later becomes a band of wrongdoers’. – Departing from Christianity, departing from the truth had to lead to disintegration of Europe. The road to return is only one, it is return to Christianity, return to the world of evangelical values – archbishop Stanisław Gądecki said at Jasna Góra on 3 May 2016. Poland engrossed in prayer, and present at Jasna Góra and on Skałka, will surely be able to help the Europeans in building Europe of new beginnings.

AA

„Niedziela” 20/2016

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl