Mar 18, 2022 | NEWS
The angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said: Rise up, take the Child and his mother and flee into Egypt. Remain there until I tell you, because Herod will be looking for this Child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother at night, and went to Egypt.
Mt 2: 13-14
This year our Congregation is celebrating the feast of St. Joseph our patron in the shadow of war – a drama of many defenceless people who are forced to leave their current lives and run away in search of shelter. It is an experience that we cannot imagine, but our Patron, St. Joseph experienced something similar in his life. He knows what it means to be a refugee.
In our prayers, let us ask St. Joseph, so that he could take care and help all of today’s fleeing mothers and their children, as he looked after Jesus and Mary. Let us commend to Him today all refugees who are forced to leave everything and flee into the unknown.
Or maybe, apart from prayer, we can be able to do some specific actions towards those in need. For a material gift, which do we also offer in this way to St. Joseph? May our love and devotion to St. Joseph also reveal himself in concrete deeds.
M. M. Sybilla Kołtan
Mar 17, 2022 | NEWS
My ministry in Ukraine began 20 years ago. On April 12, 2002, I left for our post in Sąsiadowice, a town in western Ukraine. Our activity there was focused on being and supporting the local people. We visited the sick, the elderly and the lonely. We served pastoral and charitable services in the parish. People were very kind and grateful. They often talked about their life during the Soviet Union. There were two denominations in the village: Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, but there were no great divisions. Greek Catholic believers willingly came to us for services, especially for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We also celebrated holidays together. After several years of activity in Sąsiadowice, our Congregation received an invitation and a request from the bishop to start pastoral and missionary activities in Koziatyn, in the eastern part of Ukraine. The further east of Ukraine, more people need spiritual care and missionary activities. The superiors of the Congregation decided to move our mission from Sąsiadowice to Koziatyn, we went there in 2006. People were very happy with our arrival. The parish and church were very neglected and people felt abandoned. At the beginning, we lived in the apartment of one of the parishioners. From the very first day, the parishioners were of great help. We could count on them in everything we needed so that we would only stay there. After two weeks, the bishop also visited us to see how we live. There was a great need for our presence in Koziatyn and we felt it very much, and it gave us additional strength to start our mission there.
After some time, the Congregation decided to start building its own house in Koziatyn with rooms for pastoral activities. A common room and rooms for children were created in the new building. We also had plenty of food for anyone who was hungry. We also visited the sick, the lonely and the elderly. It was through the conversations during these visits that I learned the history of Ukraine. Older people were eager to talk about their past and many difficult experiences. I heard what these people experienced in their youth. Their attitude towards us was also touching. Although they did not have much themselves, they wanted to help us very much and cared for us as if they were the closest family. Now, when I was leaving Koziatyn, they werecrying for me …
The war in Ukraine began in 2014, when the soldiers from our town also went to fight, and the people needed support and a kind presence even more. Apart from my daily mission, I tried to help as much as I could. I organized rosaries and medals, which I sent for soldiers to the front. They needed it much. Even non-believers, going to war, would come to me for a rosary and a medal with the image of Mary Immaculate. I gave away about 2,500 rosaries. But I did not only distribute rosaries. One friend from Poland gave me bulletproof vests, asking me to give them to the young men from our town who were going to war, because they were often called to the front without any preparation or protection. It was also an important help for them. Young boys sent to the war came to our house, to whom I gave vests, rosaries and medals. Together with the parishioners, we also prayed fervently for them. Since 2014, many people have died in the war, and in fact, there has not been a day when someone did not die there.
Due to personnel problems in the Congregation, a decision was made to end our activities in Ukraine. Until the formalities related to the building were completed, I was alone there, continuing my tasks. It was also a very interesting and beautiful experience for me. I had to organize many things myself, but then the people from the town helped me even more. I felt very safe with them and experienced their great goodness even more than before. I didn’t think so well about myself as they did about me … It was a beautiful time together!
I left the house before Christmas 2021. The Congregation decided to leave the facility at the disposal of the diocese, subject to pastoral activity there. Now I have constant contact with the parish priest and people from the parish. This is important, especially after the outbreak of the war on February 24. Currently, our house is inhabited by mothers with young children who have escaped from Kiev. They are very grateful because I have left in the house everything they need for a normal life – even food supplies.
Now I am preparing for new tasks in the Congregation, but I am with them with my heart and prayer. I have spent twenty years in Ukraine, it is a beautiful time in my life, so I am particularly touched by news from Ukraine, which is fighting for its future, and I understand well the people who are surviving the war and fleeing from it.
S.M. Fabian Furca
Mar 14, 2022 | NEWS
We are in the novena before the feast of Saint Joseph, who is the Patron of our Congregation, but also the Patron of the difficult times in which we live. How is it, however, with the difficulty that is being talked about so much now?
The Holy Family also fled from persecutors, they were refugees. Today so many of our sisters from across the eastern border share their fate, and they do not have the support of husbands or guardians, because they are defending the freedom of the homeland. Mary and Jesus had Joseph, the Guardian. The trouble of escaping does not concern us. Our monasteries are not in ruins. We have plenty of bread and water. Perhaps, in the spirit of solidarity, regardless of age and disease, could we share with those in need the poverty of their everyday life, remaining of bread and water, fasting to overcome this particular demon with fasting and prayer? Let us unite in fasting, which has great power, because it can expose our weaknesses, and then the Lord will come to our aid.
We unite in prayer because it is the heart of each of us. Prayer is this need of the heart, but also unity. We are united by the common path on which God the Father set us, but today we are also united by fear for the future. Let us use this fear creatively, let it push us to trust God more, to convert our hearts. Let us restrain the fear of many, abiding by the dying Christ, trusting in the Victory.
I accompany the sisters on this path of prayer, I thank those who were with us in Kalisz body and spirit on Wednesday, March 9, and I cordially greet you
Sr. M. Magdalena Zabłotna
Mar 10, 2022 | NEWS
Something good… what?
Recently, I had the opportunity to do my novice internship at the Center for Women of the PoMoc Association in Katowice, run by Sr. Anna, Sr. Barbara and Sr. Karolina. Amidst the time of prayer together, accompanying the women and their children at the Center, and many creative activities, I have discovered that the house is full of the abbreviation BCD.
What does that mean? I started to wonder. Of course, the Sisters rushed to help.
We are building something good. Is it just a building erected at the Center? Is it just an action to raise funds for the next stages of construction? No!
There is something much more behind this shortcut! BCD is a community that, for the glory of God, wants to build something good. Something? World! This world that is available to each of us, the world we are a part of, because it is the place where God has placed us. The goal is to oppose evil, physical and psychological violence, wounds, and torn relationships. How to do it? You have to start with the basics. That is, from building the right relationships for which we are created, because it is natural that we are simply drawn to another It is in families that good is born, acceptance of man, acceptance of him. Based on lasting intergenerational relations, we can create a society filled with a sense of security and mutual support, and make that the chain of misunderstanding and conflict will be broken.
And this is the destiny of the St. Joseph at the PoMoc Association and the priority of the whole community # building good to create healthy relationships in families.
And the most interesting thing is that it is already happening! The BCD team does not wait for the “headquarters” in the Center, where the workshops and meetings will be held, to be ready. They meet today – mothers who exchange experiences, fathers who want to experience their parenthood better, and a multitude of volunteers who not only work for the Center, but bring to this community all that they have the most valuable – themselves.
Each of us can become part of the #budujemycosdobrego team. Not only with real cooperation in Katowice with my sisters, but where we are – in our families, in our communities, in our workplaces. Because the point is that the good that we can pass on goes with us everywhere.
Sr. Justyna Wijatyk (novice)
Feb 12, 2022 | NEWS
In the Philippines, since February, we have the 2nd degree of epidemiological threat, which is already much milder. However, children still do not go to school, there is still distance learning. From February 10, after two years, the borders of the Philippines have also opened for tourists, and although people still suffer from Covid, everything returns to normal in small steps, but not like in Europe.
On February 1, we started the monthly “FEEDING PROGRAM” – feeding children in the Payatas district. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila, only a few minutes from our home. Unfortunately, due to Covid it is not yet possible to keep the normal Feeding program as it was before; that is, the children have joint educational activities, catechesis, games and a meal. Every day, from Monday to Friday, the mothers of these children prepare a warm, wholesome meal for their children, and we supervise the work. At noon, children receive a cup of milk or cocoa, a hot meal and fruit. The mothers of these children learn how to properly nourish their children.
There are 50 children enrolled in the feeding program, but in fact many more come, often around 80. We try to ensure that there is enough food for all children, because it is difficult to refuse a hungry child a bowl of rice. We received funds for feeding our children from the parish of the Philippines Fathers in Chioggia, Italy. As soon as we come to Payatas, the children run up to us, greet us and put our hands to their foreheads saying “sister bless” which means “bless me”. Through those children we already know, we get to know their families and their problems. We visit them every now and then, and if necessary, we help as far as possible. Sometimes this help is simply giving children intestinal worm medicine or other medications. We also convince parents of the importance of taking care of their health and healing themselves. Some people here are afraid of going to the doctor mainly because of the cost of treatment, which is very high here. Even though almost all of them are Catholic, most people in Payatas do not practice their faith. They don’t go to church; they don’t take the sacraments. Bearing this in mind, we always try to encourage all families to participate in the Sunday Mass, to pray the rosary in the family and the need for closeness with God in everyday difficult life.
We also often help in completing the formalities related to the sacrament of children’s baptism. In January, we helped six preschool and school children to be baptized. Many children do not have a birth certificate and therefore do not go to school. The procedures for obtaining a birth certificate are quite complicated, and the parents of these children are often illiterate. We help them with these procedures as much as possible. We make parents aware that education is important and thus children have a chance for a better future. The restrictions related to the pandemic limit us in our actions, but we trust that with God’s help this pandemic will end and we ask God for this in our prayers. In closing, I am asking you to pray for us and for our missions here in the Philippines, so that we may develop the work of our Founder here and that we may have many vocations. With heartfelt greetings and prayers for all those who support us spiritually and materially.
S.M. Agata Sobczyk
Feb 7, 2022 | NEWS
Finally, the long-awaited day has finally arrived. It is many years since the name Schneider began to be heard on the African continent, especially in Tanzania.
When we thank God for the great things He does for us in life we have every reason to say a word of thanks to all who made this Schneider name continue to be heard in every corner of the soil of our Region of Tanzania.
It is a great pleasure and joy to reach the climax and the very day to be able to bless our new and wonderful John Schneider English Medium Pre & Primary school, which many have dedicated their efforts up to this point.
To this day the joy that has reigned in our hearts is thanks to God for the congregation and all who in one way or another has been the reason for the existence of this school.
First of all, thanks to the leaders of the congregation, previous Mother General Sr. Alma Białek and her Council, the superiors of all our Provinces as well as our Region of Tanzania for their great efforts to ensure that Schneider School is built in Mwanga.
Thank you very much Mother General Sr. Sybilla Kołtan on behalf of all the superiors of the congregation who made their contribution by providing us with this great school support. Secondly sincere thanks to the economist of the congregation Sr. Luka who has always been at the forefront of helping us economically in the construction of this school. God bless you always.
When we thank God for the gift of school, it is our only opportunity to thank and congratulate the school leadership, all the staff and John Schneider’s students for their professional, ethical, and heroic efforts in their school formation, and especially in their examinations. The first fourth grade since the school started, have been able to do wonders in their performance, with the achievement of grade A, thus gaining first place District, first in the Region and within Same diocese are the only successful Catholic school. very nice. We thank God for that.
This joy of good performance has led to our school being awarded the Certificate of Excellence in the Diocese by the Rev. Father Bishop Rogath Kimaryo and the entire district Education department.
For us it is a great pleasure for our John Schneider school, our Region of Tanzania and the congregation as a whole. God bless all those who support us economically and in other ways until we can shine like this and today on.04.02.2022 we were able by the grace of God to bless and officially open our school.
Thanks to all the Sisters wherever they are and in every corner of the world where you are for your prayers and sacrifices that you offer always for us and especially for the construction of our John Schneider school in Mwanga
Special thanks also to all the donors of our congregation who support and enable us. God bless you and we always pray for you in our prayers and intentions of the mass. Thank you very much.
Sr. Agnes – Regional Superior -Tanzania
