A Catechist's First Year: A Spiritual Adventure!
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When I walked through the doors of the high school for the first time, I felt both excitement and apprehension. I knew that working with young people would be a challenge, but I had no idea how much this year would change me. The first day in a new role is always exciting, especially when it is your first time as a catechist at a high school. For me, the emotions were even stronger than I had anticipated. Being a religion teacher and a spiritual guide for young people is a profound responsibility, one that requires both commitment and openness to the needs of the young. So what does the first year in this role look like? ...
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"I Focus on What I Have to Do"
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Kacper Tomasiak is one of the greatest talents of Polish ski jumping in recent years. Born in 2007, the athlete of LKS Klimczok Bystra took his first steps on the jumping hill as a six-year-old. Raised in the Bielsko sporting community, today he is a student combining his studies with intensive training. At the Predazzo 2026 Winter Olympic Games, at just 19 years of age, he won three medals: two silver and one bronze – on the normal hill and the large hill. I conducted this conversation on the occasion of a meeting with the altar servers and lectors of the parish where Kacper served at the altar for many years...
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When Nothing Sounds Right
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Not every shadow is a storm.
Recently, the word "crisis" has become like a plaster: we stick it on everything that chafes us. Lack of enthusiasm? Crisis. Tiredness? Crisis. A need for silence? Crisis. Meanwhile, not every change of temperature in the heart means the fire is going out. Sometimes the flame simply changes. That is all. A few days ago I was saying to myself: "Uh oh, I'm having a crisis." It seemed honest to me. I was less engaged, less emotionally present in the liturgy, weary of my duties. But today I see that I was not having a crisis... |
Trust
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Let us start with something trivial, namely online shopping – Allegro and all that. I am the type of consumer who hates buying blind, and if something costs more than 100 zloty, I have to think hard about whether I want to buy it at all and whether it is not some cheap "scam". When you go onto such a site to make an online purchase, you first pay attention to the opinions of other users. You browse the reviews and check the seller's rating to somehow verify their credibility. After receiving the parcel, you compare the product with the photo in the listing – is this REALLY the thing I spent my hard-earned money on?...
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The Priest and the Doors of His Confessional
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A tiredness unlike any other
Since the holidays, practically until now, I have been trying to catch up on the sleep I lost during the Triduum. And I know I am not alone in this. I think every priest who has lived through Holy Week in a parish knows exactly what I am talking about. I have experienced more than one kind of tiredness in my life. I once worked late into the night at a sawmill, so hard that my arms were falling off... |
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I Have Loved You": Reflections Based on the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo XIV
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There are words that require no commentary. You can only hear them and let them remain. This is how Pope Leo XIV's exhortation Dilexi te begins: with a sentence from the Apocalypse that sounds like God's whisper addressed to the Church: "I have loved you" (Rev 3:9).
The Pope chooses no slogan and constructs no new thesis. He takes one sentence and allows it to become the light for the entire document. These words, spoken by the Risen One to the Church in Philadelphia, are still alive... |
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Ways of Presenting Death in the Acts of the Apostles
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Since Lent lies before us a time of silence, examination of conscience, and a return to what matters most a little reflection on death does no harm at all. The liturgy of these days reminds us that we are dust, that time is a gift, and that life in its earthly form passes away. The Church speaks about death in order to purify our perception of it from fear and anxiety. For only in the light of the end does a person begin to understand the value of the beginning...
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My Calvary
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Some places in a person's life are like stops along an ordinary route: you pause, look around, and move on, forgetting them after a few days. But there are also places which, in some mysterious way, write themselves into the history of your heart. You can drive away from them for many kilometres, you can forget them for years, and yet one day you return there again and discover that this place never left you at all...
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From the Spiritual Diary of a Young Curate: "The Shepherds Came for a pastoral visit"
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When Christmas arrives, for many it is a time of beautiful family gatherings. In parishes, however, every priest knows that it also means the time of the pastoral visit. The pastoral visit, affectionately called the "Pastoral visit", is that period of the year when a priest turns into a wanderer. The presbytery becomes a stop along the route, and the main dwelling place of the pastor is the stairwell (in towns), the street (in villages), or the thresholds of successive homes. This is the pastoral visit: a time when, for several weeks, I knock from door to door, never quite knowing what awaits me behind them...
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365 Chances
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A year has exactly 365 days. And although no matter how hard we try, we are not able to remember each of them perfectly. It is obvious that every day we deal with new challenges, joys, sorrows, and duties, of which there are so many that you could write books about them. But have you ever wondered what it means that every day of this year is a gift from God?...
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An Empty Tabernacle, Full Hearts
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When I set out on pilgrimage this year, I felt different than usual. It was my fifth time on the road to Jasna Góra, but my first time in the role of spiritual guide. On my back I carried the experience of previous pilgrimages, and in my heart something between excitement and a slight tremor. Over the years I had seen many guides: some with humour, others with great seriousness, and all of them were, in some way, an authority for me. Now, suddenly, I found myself in that role. I understood that I could no longer simply "walk". Now I was to be the one who led...
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Empty Pews and a Full Heart
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It was quiet. Terrifyingly quiet. When, as a seminarian, I stood in the sanctuary on Holy Thursday 2020, I looked at the empty pews. The church, which on this evening always pulsed with life- whispers, singing, the sound of handbags being shifted in the pews- was now silent. The scent of incense and of drops running down the wax candles hung in the air, but something was missing, something that had always made this place alive: people...
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One Full Meal, Please
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Fasting always sounded to me like a spiritual challenge with a high bar. One person gives up meat, another denies himself sweets, someone else limits the internet or gives up his favourite entertainments. The idea sounds beautiful, but when it comes to putting it into practice… well, that is when the trouble begins...
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