Memories of holidays in Rome
I am for the second time on vacation in Rome. Someone could ask why Rome? Is there no other places to rest? Well, they are. And we choose and my choice was just one. In Rome, I find what's old and what is new and continues. The city of Rome shows the face of the empire and its size, power, majesty and strength. The empire that has fallen and remained only in textbooks and monuments. Nothing on the Earth can last forever. Only the kingdom of Jesus is eternal, but he is not from this world. The empire fell and faith in the Son of God continues. The second face of Rome is a place where about 1000 churches are located, where every day, so close to each other, the presence of God in the Eucharist takes place. I belong to the followers of Jesus Christ, here is my place in the Church, where the human authority is about the God's authorities. The Pope is subject to God and on his behalf he proclaims the Gospel. We are all brothers and sisters and greater power has the one who serves. Our superiors in union with the Church serve communities and support them. It's great that in a place like Rome there is our religious house. I feel welcomed here and always overjoyed in my heart. The international community inspires me to look for communication words and thus to broaden the thinking horizons. In my opinion, there is need to create a good community: - First want to have it - want to be with it (shared moments) - want to be in it (when I share with others) I hope each of us can create a community. S.M. Sylwia Frączek
The fifth request
We say the Lord's Prayer several times every day. Probably we have considered its content many times by listening, reading or meditating on what the Lord Jesus left us in it and to what he invites his disciples to. For some time, however, I have been paying special attention to the fifth request, which is conditional and touches the essence of Christianity: And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. The theme of forgiveness is closely related to mercy. Forgiveness is one way we show mercy. One of the more demanding ways I would say ... I trust everyone has experienced his healing power in their lives. Forgiveness received from loved ones teaches us to show mercy to other people, and also to ourselves, from childhood. People who are unable to show mercy to themselves usually have difficulties showing mercy to others, which makes it difficult to build social and community relations. Forgiveness serves our human and Christian development. He conforms us to Christ who invited his disciples to love their enemies (cf. Mt 5: 43-48). Jesus himself gave an example when he died on the cross for us, while we were still sinners (Rom 5: 8) and prayed in agony. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23: 34a). Most often we experience forgiving love from God in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. A well-lived confession allows us to mend our relationships with those who have been at fault towards us or who have suffered because of us ... Forgiveness requires rising above personal resentment, regret or such a natural but very primal desire to retaliate, which in fact does not help but drives the mechanism of evil. In the parable of the unmerciful debtor, the Lord Jesus invites us to forgive from the heart (cf. Mt 18:35), and not only superficially. In the Bible, the heart is the seat of feelings and will, it is the center of humanity. Forgiveness requires faith and trust in God, although it does not mean giving up your sense of justice and the expectation of restitution. During the trial before Annas, Jesus, struck by the servant of the high priest, asks him the question: If I said wrong, prove what was wrong. If that's right, why do you beat me? (Jn 18:23). With these words, Jesus touches the conscience, stimulates the reflection of a man seeking human favors. It teaches us to care for the souls of those who have hurt us. This concern involves prayer, if possible, conversation, and, if necessary, help from the culprit. Personally, I have found many times that forgiveness builds community. It belongs to its fundamental principles. When shown in a natural way, it helps to overcome difficulties that are not lacking in everyday life. Forgiveness is always possible. It leads to inner freedom even in difficult circumstances and helps to a fuller union with Jesus. Forgiveness received from the community brings us closer to each other and opens us to a variety of thinking, reacting and perceiving reality. Finally, forgiveness is combined with the gentleness which Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation on the call to holiness in the modern world Gaudete et exultate, describes as the style of Jesus (cf. no. 71). S.M. Michaela Musiał
I became a nurse from a seamstress and the miracle of Madonna dell’Arco
I would like to share a story that happened while I was working in a hospital in Naples. I will start my story with how it happened that I became a nurse, went to Italy and at a miracle in the hospital ward. I entered the Congregation when I was 20 years old. I started my candidacy. I remember very well one of the first words that Mother superior (Mother General representative in Poland) said to me then: "The candidate will be a nurse". These words were very memorable to me, but with time I had to forget about them…. but Mother superior did not forget them. I started my novitiate. We had various lectures during this time. There was also one sister from Katowice (I don't remember her name) who taught us how to give injections and how to perform basic nursing activities for the sick. When I was in the second year of the novitiate, we were informed that the sisters were to be transported to Otorów near Szamotuły, to a labor camp. I remember when Mother superior made the decision to strip the novices from their sisters in order to protect them from deportation. They were to take their personal belongings to their family homes. I was also supposed to pack my things, take them to my family home and come in secular clothes to the sisters' community in Nysa. And so I did. The sisters in Nysa welcomed me kindly. Soon they put me in the habit that was left by my deceased sister. Although it did not fit me and was too big for me, I was happy to be able to wear it again. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it for long, because soon at the gate, someone dropped us a letter informing us that they wanted to take us to a labor camp, so they ordered me to undress again. It must have happened about three times when they dressed and undressed me like this, but I knew it was the only way to save me from deportation. Herezwit's sister was in Nysa, she ran a tailoring course for girls. Since I was already studying sewing as a teenager in business school, I started helping her learn sewing. After a year in Nysa, Mother superior "remembered" what she told me when I was a candidate and that is why she moved me to Jaszkotle. There, in addition to working in the house, I visted the sick in the villages and gave them injections. I went from Jaszkotle to a nursing school in Warsaw for two years. After graduating from school, she returned to Jaszkotle. Then I was transferred to Ścinawa, where the sisters worked in the Health Center: in the delivery room, in the vaccination center and in the surgery room. There I was supposed to be a superior. I remember how I felt sorry to leave Jaszkotle and when we got off the train with my sister Helena, who was taking me away, she noticed that I was sad because I was going into the unknown, I did not know who I was going to work with. She started showing me the advantages of this place, saying: "look how nice it is here, the stream flows here, the birds sing so nicely" and then I replied: "but it's so strange". But God was with me. I started working at a vaccination point and traveled to the villages to visit sick people. There were 15 villages to handle. I worked there for 10 years.- To this day, I can hear the ringing of the telephone and a voice in the receiver that says: "Sister Vincentia, you will go to Italy. Get ready and quickly because the director of the hospital wants one sister to come to work in the hospital ward ”. I must admit that I felt sorry to leave because I got close to my sisters and people. After all, I didn't know Italian and I was going again into the unknown.
The three Fountain Springs – little known history
The Three Fountain (Three Springs) on Via Laurentina in Rome is a well-known place, because it is the place where the martyrdom of St. Paul took place. Legend has it that when St. Paul was beheaded as a result of the persecution of Nero, his head bounced off the ground three times before stopping. Suddenly, three springs gushed out of the ground, that is why this place is called "Le Tre Fontane", or "Three fountains". Near the place of the martyrdom of St. Paul, the Mother of God appeared, but let's start at the beginning; In 1913, in a stable on the outskirts of Rome, Bruno Cornacchiola was born. He was not baptized until his father returned from prison. He grew up and grew up in the godless environment of Roman slums, where almost all criminals and prostitutes lived. There were constant arguments, curses and beatings in Bruno's house. The older ones ran away from home at night. One day, when Bruno was wandering around the building, a monk became interested in him and took him to a convent. He was fed and washed there. The sisters started teaching him the catechism. After 40 days of preparation, sixteen-year-old Bruno received his First Communion and the sacrament of confirmation. At the age of 20, he was drafted into the army. After leaving the military service, Bruno Cornacchiola married a girl he had known from childhood and only thanks to her insistence, he agreed to a church wedding. Then Bruno joined the Communist Party. He went with the Italian army to Spain for the civil war, where he began to spy for the communists. In Zaragoza he met a German soldier who had impressed him a lot, he belonged to a Protestant sect and breathed hatred towards the Pope and the Catholic Church. Since then, hatred of the Catholic Church in Bruno grew to such an extent that he bought himself a dagger and wrote "Death to the Pope" on it. After the end of the war, he returned to Rome and began to work as a tram conductor. It was during this time that he made contact with Seventh-day Adventists. Bruno was very committed and zealous in fighting the Catholic Church, the cult of the Mother of God and the Pope, and did his best to convince as many people as possible and make them adhere to the Adventist sect. This prompted him to deliver a speech in Piazza della Croce Rossa, in which he was supposed to ridicule the worship of the Eucharist, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was a great honor and an opportunity for him to become a pastor. For this reason, on Saturday, April 12, 1947, were going to Ostia with his children; 10-year-old Isola, 7-year-old Carlo and 4-year-old Gianfranco. They missed the train, so he decided to go to ‘’Via Laurentina alle Tre Fontane’’ the three fountains’’ to prepare his speech in peace. It was a beautiful sunny day, the children started to play in the eucalyptus forest and Bruno was preparing his speech. There was a grotto near where they were. Bruno checked from time to time where the children are and what they are doing. One moment he did not hear the answer of the youngest son, he started looking for him very concerned. He reached a nearby grotto and found a child kneeling with his hands folded in prayer. Bruno called the other children. Upon arriving, they also kneeled in front of the "beautiful lady" who was in the grotto and whom only Bruno could not see. Bruno was terrified, his children were pale and motionless, he did not know what to do, he worried about his children, in his helplessness for the first time in a long time he asked for the Lord's help with all his heart. At this point, the darkness of the grotto brightened and he also saw a "beautiful lady". She was about five to seven feet, had a white dress with a pink band around her hips, dark brown hair and a green cloak around her head and hips, and hold a Bible in her hands. The Lady introduced herself as the "Virgin of Revelation." She said: "I am the Virgin of Revelation, and Revelation is the words of God that speak of Me as well. You are persecuting me, but it is high time you stop this. Come back to the holy communion of the Catholic Church. ”The first Fridays of the Month offered to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which you celebrated, encouraged by your concerned, faithful spouse, before you finally embarked on the path of error, saved you. She talked to Bruno for an hour and a quarter: she explained to him the meaning of prayer, invited him to confession and delivered a message to the Pope. Finally, she smiled, bowed and gradually disappeared, leaving only a beautiful scent in the grotto. Before she left, the Virgin of Revelation left him a sign, dispelling his doubts, confirming the credibility of God's message, and rejecting Satan's actions. The sign was about the announcement of Bruno Cornacchiola's future meeting with the priest, who would verify the truth of the apparition. After returning home, Bruno told his wife what happened and asked her forgiveness for his earlier behavior. Bruno Cornacchiola had subsequent apparitions on May 6, 23, and 30. On October 5, 1947, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the largest rosary procession in the history of Rome took place. It began in St. Peter and walked through the streets of the city to the grotto of Tre Fontane. Three pairs of white horses pulled a cart with a large statue of the Virgin of the Revelation blessed by Pope Pius XII. At that time, the Holy Father consented to the public worship in Tre Fontane and entrusted the Conventual Franciscans with pastoral care over pilgrims coming to the place of the apparitions. This place became a destination for pilgrimages, where many healings and conversions took place. On April 12, 1980, the 33rd anniversary of the apparitions, 3,000 people witnessed the solar miracle. This phenomenon repeated itself two years later .. Bruno Cornacchiola also met with successive popes: on July 8, 1959, he was received in private audience by Pope John XXIII, and on October 17, 1973, he met with Paul VI. He was also at a private audience with John Paul II. Thanks to the decision of Pope John Paul II, on March 17, 1994, Cardinal Camillo Ruini issued a decree ordering the construction of a church on the site of the apparitions, and on April 2, 1997, St. John Paul II gave this church the title "Holy Mary of the Third Millennium in Tre Fontane". Sr. Weronika Wojciechowska