Apr 12, 2022 | NEWS
On February 28, at our house “Jutrzenka” in Bardo, the first 6 people (2 mothers and 4 children) escaping from the war zones in Ukraine were admitted. Then more mothers with children started to arrive. 45 people found refuge within two weeks. One floor has been allocated for housing needs and has been appropriately adapted. The kitchens are equipped with the necessary utensils and the bathrooms have additional washing machines.
These people, leaving their family homes in a hurry, came to us in what they were wearing and with a small hand luggage. The priority task of the Sisters in the first days was not only to ensure a sense of security and rest after the exhausting journey, but also to provide clothes and food. Mothers with their children set off alone in the completely unknown and uncertain situation that will meet them, for many it was the first trip abroad. The women were very frightened by the war situation and the sudden necessity to leave their homes. The drama of the situation was heightened by the awareness of separation from loved ones. Despite the safe protection received, the traumatic experiences are intensified by concern and anxiety about husbands and parents left in Ukraine.
Immediately after arriving, worrying about their financial security, they were anxiously asking: what the cost of living will have to be and how long they will be able to stay in our house. Thanks to the openness of our religious authorities, the help received from Bardo’s institutions and individual donors, we were able to provide our new residents with things necessary for their further functioning and full board in the first days. Assistance in dealing with matters and documents sanctioning legal stay in Poland (PESEL, bank account, and assistance in submitting documentation for financial aid) was a big challenge. Still, in the midst of changing regulations and required documentation, we provide assistance in dealing with official matters and overcoming the language barrier.
After more than a month’s stay, the situation of refugees is gradually stabilizing. School children continue their education and preschool children attend kindergarten classes with great enthusiasm. Grateful adults for the help they received seek an opportunity to become independent and obtain their own financial resources. Therefore, we started efforts to find permanent employment. Thanks to the kindness of employers, 3 people have already started work and other 7 are in the process of arranging the necessary formalities to conclude a contract of employment. Despite the sense of security and decent housing conditions received, the ladies hope that the war will end soon and eagerly await the return to their loved ones in Ukraine.
On behalf of the entire community and the Congregation, we would like to thank all the people who cannot be mentioned here, who contributed to the implementation of this noble initiative. We would like to thank all the benefactors who helped with an open heart and care about ensuring decent living and material conditions for the people staying in our house.
sr. Oliwia
Apr 3, 2022 | NEWS
Easter is fast approaching; we feel it also in our Center in Jaszkotle. We want to experience Lent in a unique way.
Already at the beginning of Lent, we joined the collection in kind for refugees from Ukraine.
During the last retreat and the Way of the Cross, we considered the difficult experiences of the war and the situation in Ukraine.
The involvement of our children, their costumes, props and the way of conducting the Way of the Cross service meant that, we all children and adults experienced it very emotionally, feeling the fear and anxiety that comes with the threat to life.
The contemplation of each station of the Way of the Cross – Jesus’ last way was reflected in the events taking place in Ukraine. We prayed not only for peace for Ukraine and Russia, but for the whole world, that there would be consent, understanding and respect for every human being everywhere.
Meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament, through the intercession of Mary, we prayed for peace and cessation of hostilities,
We also apologized to God for our “little battles” which we fight among ourselves about meaningless trifles. The sacrament of penance ended our retreat day. May its fruits be good for everyone and change our everyday life for good.
Please see the photo gallery above.
Emilia W.
Mar 29, 2022 | FORUM, NEWS
I could call the Sisters of Mary Immaculate from the PoMOC Association in Katowice for Women and Children as angels on earth. My story of getting to the sisters is not simple … probably any girl who found herself in the Association Center is not simple …
The sisters saved me twice – the first time when I was thrown out of my family home with a 4-month-old son and referred by MOPS to the sisters. Earlier, in the Single Mother House, where I stayed for three days, it was so terrible that I knew that whatever it was there, it couldn’t get any worse. On a frosty February day, I was greeted by my sister Basia – she came to pick us up at the gate.
I will never forget it, and even as I write it, I feel warm in my heart. I fed my son, gave a bath, and my sister showed me our room. I walked in and saw flip-flops with cherries, colorful, and that’s when I felt a great relief and peace that I had never felt before. I managed to raise money for renting an apartment and the story should end here happily. But, unfortunately, life writes its script … My son’s father was released from prison, the relationship was great – for a year or two … Later I got pregnant for the second time and the horror began. From challenges, to beatings, renouncing the child that I was carrying under my heart and locking me at home for 12 hours in a threatened pregnancy and with my little son at home. I was able to find the strength to put this man in a prison for bullying me. And perhaps there should also be a happy ending here, but not. I was in my third pregnancy when depression attacked me insidiously (now I know it was him I didn’t know then). I perfectly remember the day when Sister Anna came to me with a food package. She quickly realized that it wasn’t that it wouldn’t help me. It was then for the second time that I went to the center and I gave birth to a wonderful son there.
What have I learned and what have I got from being with angels?
First of all, great mental support – thanks to this, I am currently undergoing treatment for depression. I gave birth to a wonderful son – I don’t know what would happen if during my pregnancy I didn’t start to heal depression … maybe I wouldn’t be able to love him as much as I love him now.
Raising children is easier for me – I drew a lot from Sister Karolina’s help and her valuable tips in this matter.
But most of all, and most importantly, love, warmth and understanding. For the first time in my life, I was not afraid to cry honestly and without inhibition, when mentally I could not cope.
I remember the Christmas situation. One of the girls from the center said – it’s always like home here.
Unfortunately, I had to answer that in my case it was better than at home …
Imagine a place where a 25-year-old girl can be better than at home …
And this is how I really felt that this place was my place on earth.
– Caroline
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
