I love it when the Father comes
because many people
can joyfully be together as a family
in the same place.
So,
I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.
I’ve had the chance to see him before,
but now I’m surprised
that he will be spending so much time with us.
Some time ago I met the Father
and told him that I am finishing my medical studies.
When we met this morning
he came up to me and said:
“Good morning, doctor!”
I thought:
the Father carries us in his heart.
We have to be happy.
We have to live with great hope.
Always hopeful.
The hope
that is also linked to joy.
As Saint Paul says:
Spe gaudentes - joyful in hope.
Somehow it has to also be
a definition of our way of life.
Joyful in hope!
Therefore, we aren’t joyful
because already, today and now we have everything resolved...
Rather, joyful in hope,
a hope grounded on God’s love for us.
SPE GAUDENTES - JOYFUL IN HOPE
Visit of the Prelate of Opus Dei to Poland June 21-27, 2022
WROCŁAW
Today Wrocław is celebrating and we as well.
Yesterday with the whole family we were able to
welcome the Father at the airport.
Maciek, our son,
gave him flowers with the colors of the Polish flag.
It was a great joy for us,
for our city
and for all our families.
My name is Father Andrzej Ziombra,
and I am the parish priest of the church of San Jacinto in Legnica.
Nine years ago
a Eucharistic miracle took place in my parish.
In 2016 the Holy See confirmed and approved it.
I took advantage of the opportunity
of the Father, the Prelate of Opus Dei,
being in Poland.
I invited him to visit our city
to pray in our church,
to pray for the Church and for the intentions
the Father has in his heart.
It’s a great joy.
POZNAŃ
My name is Olena.
I have lived in Poland for thirteen years.
But I come from Ukraine.
I asked the Father
how in such difficult times
we can love others,
even those who humanly
it is impossible for me to love.
Although I would very much like to be able to do so.
We are all praying for Ukraine.
It hurts a lot
to see so much suffering,
so much destruction.
We truly need to feel
all of this as very much our own.
The suffering in Ukraine and the whole world.
We Christians
have to feel the world as ours.
Because it is God’s.
WARSAW
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden,
in the East,
and placed in it the man he had formed.
And he gave him a mission:
to share in caring for creation.
I have just left the get-together with the Father, the Prelate of Opus Dei.
I am very happy to have taken part in this meeting.
What I remember
is that in our life, even if it is complicated,
we don’t always have to know why this is happening.
Thanks to the supernatural hope
that is inside us, that helps us a lot.
I want to hold on to this idea
to face the complications that life brings with it.
Faith!
That’s why it’s such a good aspiration
that our Father prayed and taught us.
In Latin: Adauge nobis fidem!
Some words Saint Peter addressed to our Lord:
Increase our faith!
Because sometimes,
when we are less happy,
when we are a little sad,
what we lack is faith.
Enough faith to see that this thing,
even if it makes us suffer,
is God’s love.
We don’t understand
but we can love.
And in loving, one is happy.
Because what makes us happy...
Our Father also said it.
What makes us happy is not a comfortable life.
What makes us happy is a heart in love.
It’s true.
A year ago I met an amazing girl
and we’re getting married in a month.
I want to ask you to bless our wedding rings.
And a question:
how can we be, how can I be
a good young husband?
What I can tell you is what
I can also tell those who have been married
for one, two, three,
fifty,
or sixty years.
What you have to do is
love each other more every day.
Loving each other more every day
seems like a nice phrase, but it is possible.
It’s possible, if we ask God.
If we ask our Lord for help.
It turned out that he is not going to bless them
since they are blessed on the wedding day.
But he kissed them.
He took both out
and kissed them and put them back in the box.
I will remember it for many, many years.
I know many parents
who put a lot of care into their children’s education.
They choose the best for them:
a good school, they bring them to the clubs,
they themselves take part in the Family Orientation courses
and sessions that we organize here.
But it can happen
that these families undergo sorrow.
The children distance themselves from the Church,
they lose their faith.
They also fall into addictions.
How can we support these unfortunate parents?
They are often discouraged, without hope... 0:07:48.450,1193:02:47.295 The solution has, as it were, two sides.
To put it in general terms,
then to look at each case.
Each case needs to be looked at concretely.
One is prayer.
We always come back to the same thing.
The first thing: pray a lot,
pray a lot, for those children.
With hope,
founded on the fact...
Our Father said it and I repeat it often.
Because our Father repeated it.
That nothing is lost,
nothing is lost, of what we do for God.
And nothing is lost of our pray to God for others.
Therefore, tell those mothers or those fathers:
Pray! Nothing is lost.
Even when you don’t see the result of this prayer.
You are praying for this son to stop using drugs,
or to return to the sacraments,
or because this daughter... whatever...
And you don’t see any result...
Don’t think that prayer is useless.
Nothing is lost.
Someday that prayer will bear fruit.
And then there is another aspect,
more human but also very divine.
The need for dialogue.
Mothers and fathers
need to be friends of their daughters and sons.
But when the children are a bit older
their friendship has to be authentic
That is, parents shouldn’t talk to them
from above, from their authority.
Rather, face to face, on their level.
And not to give lessons,
not to give orders.
Not to blame them for what they do wrong.
Rather, to express affection.
The Father for me
is someone who smiles, like during these encounters.
Thousands of people return this smile.
In these moments, the Father for me
is also a guide in discerning one’s vocation.
How does one come to see one’s vocation?
Certainly, by drawing close to our Lord.
in prayer,
putting oneself into the Gospel, contemplating Christ,
receiving Him in the Eucharist.
And so, with that presence of our Lord in your life,
we can come to know
what the Lord, with whom you have that relationship,
so frequent and so intimate,
makes you see.
My friends
think they have more bad habit than talents.
Really?
I too...
I would like to ask you
how we young people, who are beginning to mature
can have more sporting spirit,
more spirit of struggle,
a spirit that helps us to fight to be virtuous people
and face the challenges of each day,
also the challenges of the apostolate.
On the one hand,
prayer.
This is the key remedy for every
effort, resolutions for personal struggle, work, etc.
So first: ask God for help.
because we need help.
As I said before,
our Lord can and does help us.
A practical way is to live,
Saint Josemaría also said it, the "hodie et nunc,"
the today and now.
Facing each day with new hope.
Part of this is a youthful spirit.
Saying: Good, today!
Yesterday, I failed at this,
it didn’t go well...
but today I can do it,
today I start again.
I feel something in me
that moves me to do something for the world,
with a sparkle in my eyes
and the peace of my smile.
Pray for the Pope, for the Church.
Because we are the Church, a part of the Church.
The Pope is the visible head of the Church.
He relies a lot on everyone’s prayers.
You can imagine the amount of weight he has on his shoulders,
the problems he needs to solve.
And he relies on our prayers.
We have to have faith in prayer.
Because one could think:
What need is there for me to ask God for the things
He already knows much better than I do?
Well, yes.
He himself says so, right?
Ask and it shall be given to you.
Our Lord himself says so, that we ask Him.
And why does He ask us to ask Him?
Because in asking, what we really do is to open our soul
to receive the gift He wants to give us.