ANOTHER MODEL FOR YOUTH

 

SERVANT of GOD HELENA AGNIESZKA KMIEC was a young Polish missionary born in 1991 in Krakow and raised in a home of deep faith. She was related to Bishop Jan Zając, who was the brother of her grandfather. Helena's parents, father Jan from Libiąż and mother Agnieszka from Kraków, met while building a church in Olcza, Zakopane. Agnieszka died when Helena was six weeks old. She and her older sister were raised by their stepmother, Barbara.

She graduated from the High School of the Catholic Association of Educators in Libiąż. She was a scholarship holder of the Leweston School in Sherborne, England where she obtained her high school diploma, at the same time pursuing an individual course of study in her high school, from which she graduated in 2009.

In 2014, she obtained a master's degree in engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Silesian University of Technology, where she studied technology and chemical engineering in English. After graduating, she worked as a flight attendant for an airline

  From a young age, she showed a strong love for Jesus, attending Mass almost daily and devoting herself to service. Helena’s life was centered around the Eucharist.  She was known for her joyful spirit and relatability and her social media showed her as an ordinary yet virtuous young woman. Her sister, Teresa, testified  to Helena’s living fully in the love of God while engaging actively in the world, highlighting that a close relationship with God brings happiness both on earth and in heaven.

 During her university studies at the Silesia University of Technology, she joined the Salvator Missionary Volunteer Service, serving in missions in Hungary, Zambia, and Romania. She especially dedicated herself to children and young people in vulnerable situations. 

 On 8 January 2017, together with Anita Szuwald, she went on a mission to Bolivia, where she planned to help the Servant Sisters of Dębica in an orphanage in Cochabamba until June.

She died on the night of 24–25 January, 2017, stabbed during an assault on the facility. She was only 26 years old. In March 2018, a Bolivian court sentenced her killer, Romualdo Mamio dos Santos, to 30 years in prison.

The Holy Mass preceding the funeral was presided over by Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz.

 By the decision of the President of Poland in February, 2017, she was posthumously awarded the Gold Cross of Merit for her charitable and social activities and her commitment to people in need of help.

 After her death, her reputation for holiness became more well known, inspired by her life of dedication to God and her missionary service. In April 2024, the archbishop of Krakow announced the opening of her cause for beatification after receiving approval from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

 Currently, the Church is investigating her life and witness in the process that could lead to her being declared blessed.

In May 2017, the Society of the Divine Savior established the Helena Kmieć Foundation to promote help children and youth in mission countries.

 On 18 August 2017, during a ceremonial session of the Libiąż City Council, a unanimous decision was made to posthumously grant Helena Kmieć the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Libiąż. A motion to rename Kościelna Street to Helena Kmieć Street was also unanimously approved.

 In January 2020, she became patron of the Catholic Primary School in Warsaw.

HANGING OUT THE ALLELUIAS

 

In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene.

 The tomb, the tomb, that

Was her core and care, her one sore.

The light had hardly scarleted the dark

Or the first bird sung when Mary came in sight

With eager feet. Grief, like last night’s frost,

Whitened her face and tightened all her tears.

It was there, then, there at the blinding turn

Of the bare future that she met her past.

She only heard his Angel tell her how

The holding stone broke open and gave birth

To her dear Lord, and how his shadow ran

To meet him like a dog.

And as the sun

Burns through the simmering muslins of the mist,

Slowly his darkened voice, that seemed like doubt,

Morninged into noon; the summering bees

Mounted and boiled over in the bell-flowers.

‘Come out of your jail, Mary,’ he said, ‘the doors are open

And joy has its ear cocked for your coming.

Earth now is no place to mope in. So throw away

Your doubt, cast every clout of care,

Hang all your hallelujahs out

This airy day.’

from “Resurrection: An Easter Sequence” by the Irish poet, W. R. Rodgers, 1952

Art work:  Donald Jackson (British), St. John's Bible

EASTER

 

This very long poem is a good meditation for Easter. Having come out of Lent and Holy Week, we find that spring has sprung us many colors and light.  May the risen Lord, bring light and joy to all.  This poem is by SERVANT of GOD MARIE ROUGET (called “the Warbler of Auxerre”) who died in 1967, at the age of  84. Some consider her the greatest French poet of their time.

                                        Kateryna Shadrina

Hallelujah! Make, O sun, the house new! 

My sisters, let each of you move

With the hands of a housewife and cheerful fingers...

It’s Easter! Let's throw out the dark dust,

Let's scrub the keys and locks with fine sand,

So that the door can open in peace. Resurrection: Ivanka Demchuk- Ukraine

 

Wax gently, wax lively the cupboard doors,

The window laughs in their shimmer!

Scrub! Let it gleam in the glow of the floor.

Let's dress her curtains in fresh muslin...

What a work! Did we bake the filbert cake

            And put a bouquet on the table?

 

Hallelujah! We are done being dead,

From fasting, from closing our doors,

The heart closed and guarded by pious fears.

The priest delivered the flame and the wild waters,

Our soul goes out and has fun with our words

And our youth in our eyes.

 

Open wide the door to Holy Week.

My heart inside me skips and rings   

As well as a bright gold bell that fell silent

And returns from Rome after the mystical times

Giving me flight and the tone of the hymns

For the joy of salvation.

 

But with my basket I have to go away

Looking for fresh eggs in the straw...

In the surrounding vineyards the crocuses have bloomed

In circles of gold and holding their green hands.

I've seen in the ditch nests of violets

And cuckoos on the slopes.

The chickens have laid eggs far away in the countryside.

In the morning who accompanies me?

Come alone with me, my beloved...

What word did I say before I thought about it?

Where is this beloved, says, my little one?

Whom by such a name have you named?

 Is it Jesus, O I who knows no man?

The martyred God that in his sleep

Yesterday we stayed up all night in the choir,

Crying out for love over his tomb, of veiled grief?

Is it sweet Spring and his winged seeds

Who blew into our hearts?'

My beloved, it is only a word, it is no one,

            But to have said it makes me shudder

And I am fragrant and I am rumored

Like a fiancée to the king who loves her as a gift,

I shudder and feel like the earth, open

All big at the feet of the sower.

 

What seed in the distance floating is going to steal my soul?

            What is the grain she is claiming

To be with the flowers a flower of the summer

And to bear fruit when autumn comes? ...

He is soft, invisible and light, he hums

Through the enchanted wind.

 

What is Spring, O Jesus, my sweet Master?

            The Angel of revolt perhaps

Who changes at a glance both the earth and the waters

To seduce me and make me restless and rebellious,

-- I, who should be a quiet chapel to you --

            Like the grass and the twigs.

 

Ah! from him now will you be able to defend me?

            O Christ, you had to wait for him

On your cross of salvation every day without healing

And make me sink to my heart, from your wounds,

Your blood, so that looking for your thorns in the hedges,

            At your feet I love to die.

 

But this morning the Angel stirred the stone,

            O You standing in the light,

Resurrected from the dawn to the feet color of time,

You who in the garden met Mary,

What will you do, gardener of Easter in bloom,

To defend me from Spring?

(1907) Translation by Benjamin Crockett

THE HARROWING OF HELL

Your voice speaks to my soul:

 Be not afraid of my golden garments, have no fear of the rays of my candles,

For they are all but veils of my love, they are all but as tender hands covering my secret.

I will draw them away, weeping soul, that you may see I am no stranger to you.

How should a mother not resemble her child?

All your sorrows are in me.

I am born out of suffering, I have bloomed out of five holy wounds.

I grew on the tree of humiliation, I found strength in the bitter wine of tears.

I am a white rose in a chalice full of blood.

I live on suffering, I am the strength out of suffering, I am glory out of suffering:

Come to my soul and find your home.

 “Passion” (Exerpt) by Gertrud von Le Fort translated from the German 

by Margaret Chanle  in Hymns to the Church 1953

All during Holy Week we have been showing the art of Ukrainian artist Kateryna Shadrina. She has many icons of Jesus descending into hello to bring the souls awaiting His Glory.  Several of these icons have been labeled “Harrowing” of hell.  I had to look this one up. By definition harrowing in an adjective meaning extremely painful, agonizing, excruciating, torturous. We know that Jesus has died and cannot experience pain or suffering anymore, so the agony here refers to the poor souls waiting to be released from bondage.  

The artist's colors here are once again muted. I would sometime, when I have time, check dates when her icons were written, to see if there is a change after the Russian invasion.  In the past two years, this very young artist, has been busy at work.

In triumphant descent, Christ brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. The Old Testament view of the afterlife was that all people when they died, whether righteous or unrighteous, went toSheol, a dark, still place. The realm into which Jesus descended is called Hell, in long-established English usage, but is really Limbo so-called by some Christian theologians to distinguish it from the Hell of the damned. 

The Harrowing of Hell is mentioned or suggested by several verses in the New Testament:

Matthew 12:40: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth."

HOLY WEEK MEDITATION: FRIDAY

 

Kateryna Shadrina is known for her bold expressive use of unconventional palettes like the red, green, and purple with rich mixing of colors, but in her “Denial  of Peter”, we see more muted colors, perhaps giving us te dark side of this Apostle. Immediatly was he asking himslef, will the Lord ever forgive me? Had he then remembered all that Jesus had told him in terms of love- His great love for us all?

In Veil of Veronica we see Jesus again in the martyrs' red while other figures more muted tones. In the descent from the Cross most color is gone- to show us the life blood of our Savior is depleted. Kateryna uses color to portray the mood of each mystery, as seen by these icons.

Her exhibition at Iconart Gallery, Lviv, in 2022, entitled “Victima” reflected her views on sacrifice, faith, and love.

“Where there is true love, there will always be a place for sacrifice. Sacrifice can be considered as the level at which the power of love is measured. And the standard in this is God – the perfection of love. He sacrificed the most precious thing for our hope. But in our pragmatic world, it is very difficult to weigh the pros and cons so that one’s sacrifice is not made in vain. We are focused on the terrestrial things, we catch the moment and don’t know exactly whether to think about the salvation of the soul and the kingdom of heaven.” 

Veil of Veronica

BODIES GIVEN- LIBERATION- HOLY WEEK 2025

 

 

 LIBERATION- AUSCHWITZ- PASSION WEEK- January of this year marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over one million people were murdered, most of whom were Jewish. It is fitting this Holy Week to ponder this horrid part of history lest we forget and start all over again the discrimination and hatred mankind is capable of.

 80 years after the liberation, the world is again in crisis. We see in the world today a great increase in antisemitism, and it was antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. Jewish-Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and fanaticism.

 "The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing we inform our present and shape our future," King Charles said during a visit to the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.

 Until the liberation of some 7 thousand prisoners remaining at the site of the camp by soldiers of the Red Army, the German Nazis murdered approx. 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, the Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and people of other nationalities.

For the world today, Auschwitz is a symbol of the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II. In 2005 the United Nations declared 27 January as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Having visited it myself  in 1998, I can testify that it is a life-changing experience- one you never forget.  And if all these neo- Natzis, white suprematists, etc. were to visit, they would change their attitude fast!  

This Holy Week we pray that violence, hatred and down right ignorance be eradicated.  And we all need to look into our own hearts for where we have failed in judging others.   Lord have Mercy on us all!  

Art: Kataryna Shadrina- Ukraine ( Waiting for Salvation)

HOPE IN WAR- BETHLEHEM

 

 

During this week we call holy, we call attention to two very important issues dealing with suffering humanity. This one, is a program for children, and the next deals with those who died and whose descendants now live in same area.

The HOLY CHILD PROGRAM in Beit Sahour, a Palestinian town 2 miles east of Bethlehem and 6 miles from Jerusalem,  was founded by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist to help children who suffer from untreated complex mental-health issues and experiences of intergenerational trauma.  These are the same sisters whose order ran the ferry and general store on Shaw Island for 27 years, so we are very close to and supportive of their work.

Recently, with the help of many USA donations, they were able to buy the building where the school is, ensuring on- going programs.

 It is the only therapeutic and alternative education program in the West Bank. Right now there are 35 students at a time, about 60% Catholic and the rest are Muslim. Their motto is:  Instilling Hope through Healing, which fits right in with the Jubilee year of HOPE.

 “Almost 95% of the children, who range from 5 to 15 years old, come through our program and upon graduation either continue their education in government or private schools or enroll in special education or vocational programs. Some, if they are old enough, get a job,” said Francis Barillaro, vice president and treasurer of the Bethlehem Holy Child Program, told the Register in an interview. “We take kids who are often shunned because of their disabilities, and they are now able to go home and support themselves or help support their families. We bring some stability to them and their family and their community.”

There are also parent groups, which are free not only to the HCP parents, but to any family in the community, especially families who we are unable to enroll in the program but need special services.

Culturally, families who had children with emotional or physical problems would often experience shame and a limitation of marriage prospects, as such difficulties were looked upon as God’s punishment. Home visits, crisis counseling and referrals to medical and social services as needed.

 

All schools in Palestine are required to teach the Quran to Muslim children, even though the children study their own religion.  How do they integrate being  exposed to such different religions? Every morning they discuss with each other what they have learned in religion class, highlighting similar values and practices. They do not focus on the differences, but live, work and play together.  

 Palestine has no teacher training for special education, so our friend from Seattle, Diane Magdalene Rzegocki, who has more than 25 years of experience as a clinical social worker, helped the Holy Child Program adopt, and provided training to give teachers the needed skills.

Students are enrolled in the Holy Child Program for two to three years; 96% of the program’s graduates continue their education in government or private schools or enter vocational programs or the workforce. They are followed for two years afterward to make sure that they’re successful in their placement.

At a time when this area is suffering due to so much strife, it is comforting to know that there is a glimmer of HOPE for children and families, who can spread their knowledge and gifts.

(Photo:  Diane Magdalene on right with Cathy Goodrich, both on the Holy Child Board-  their children are married.)