A Letter From Father Rafal – The Transfiguration of the Lord
The summer is going so fast. We will begin school on August 16. We hope the children had a great summer, that they rested well, and are ready to go back to school. My summer is going very well. I accomplished a lot. I visited many parishioners at the hospital. I can see their joy to see a priest who wants to be with them. They want to receive the anointing of the sick, have a chance to talk to a priest and sometimes receive the sacrament of reconciliation. It was also great to visit my parishioners in their homes and be able to talk to them and get to know them better. We are busy with so many things. That’s why meeting with people is a great chance to stop for a while and share our stories, our thoughts, our experiences, and our faith. Thank you for all the invitations to dinner, barbecues, and for paying for our meals in the restaurants. That’s very kind of you.
I’m going home on August 20 to see my mom and my brothers. I will be in Poland for two and a half weeks. I’m going to visit the mountain city of Zakopane with my family. We are going to do some hiking and shopping, of course. My mom walks slow, so we need to be easy for her. My youngest brother Karol is always in good shape. I will try to keep up with him. The food in Zakopane is delicious. They serve pierogies, different kinds of sausages and other food I love. For dessert they have faworki, a specific polish dessert, and babka, makowiec, or paczki. I love them all. I’m hoping to have a wonderful time in Zakopane.
We are moving forward with our pilgrimage to Poland. We have 42 people signed up so far. We still have some places left. Please join us and have fun in my home country. There is one more new thing in our itinerary. It’s Wieliczka Salt Mine. It has underground tunnels with chapels, chambers, and saline lakes. It will be awesome to experience that.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In our lives, God invites us to undertake the effort of the journey. Our goal is to conquer the mountains— the mountains of meeting, the mountains of transfiguration, and the mountains of eternal life. We can climb the first mountain through the effort of systematic and persistent prayer. It may seem that in a busy world where time is always scarce, it is very difficult, and maybe even impossible. From listening to God in prayer and from the silence that flows from it, we set off to the "mountain that transforms." The sacrament of penance is the mountain of transformation for us. In this sacrament we transform our soul. From a soul full of sins and evil into a pure and converted soul. As we all know, it is not easy to climb this "mountain." Thanks to conquering the two mountains of "meeting" and "transfiguration," we reach the mountain of "eternal life." From there we can see God who will reveal Himself to us in the fullness of His glory and majesty. It is not an easy road. But when we cross it, we will be able, like St. Peter, to confess: “Lord, it is good that we are here.”
We are all called to be like Jesus to each other. We need to think what Jesus would do in my place, in my situation, in my family. Just being an observer is not enough. We need to put our plan into action. Be a helper, understand the other person, love the other person and see the needs of our brothers and sisters. It requires a lot of effort to see Jesus in the other person. In a person that we meet every day, on the street, in work, in school or just at home. Sometimes it’s really difficult to be Jesus to the members of our families, to those who love us. Jesus loves us and He challenges us even when we don’t want that. We need to bring more joy to our homes so that it is easier to live with each other. A disciple of Jesus can’t be sad. A joy comes from the Gospel!
Fr. Rafal