Father and Shepherd #9 | Mary, given to protect the nation, visits Poland

Cudowny Obraz w ujęciu ołtarzowym w Kaplicy Matki Bożej, fot. Autorstwa Andrzej Otrębski - Praca własna, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47118424; kard. Wyszyński na Jasnej Górze, fot. Instytut Prymasowski Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński the Primate of Poland has remained in the memory of Poles as a statesman, defender of faith and freedom of the homeland, advocate of unconditional human dignity.

In the most difficult moment in our history, Mary has always been our hope and salvation. For centuries, Poland has been connected with the Mother of God in a special way. “From the beginning of our days, we needed a Mother from the Baptism of the Bellows! Therefore, from the very beginning, the Mother of Christ watches over us, as she watched over the cradle of Jesus and the cradle of the Holy Church.

The first Polish cathedrals and churches are dedicated to her. It is like the Marian cradle of Christian Poland. As the first word that a child utters is “mother”, so we had our first, national, children’s cry when our people began to sing in huts and on battlefields the song: “The Virgin Mary, praised by God” “.

Jasna Góra became for the Primate, especially during his imprisonment, a light from a lighthouse showing a safe harbour. In a letter to the general of the Pauline Order, he wrote from Komańcza: “I believe so strongly that Providence has given Poland additional help, binding the Nation in difficult times. Jasna Góra is the last resort for the nation. It is especially visible when it is difficult and when it seems that there is no help from nowhere. ”

In order to bind Poles as closely as possible with Our Lady of Jasna Góra, the Primate together with the Polish Episcopate took the initiative of the Visitation. It was a journey of the copy of the Image of Our Lady of Częstochowa from parish to parish.

Above all, however, the Visitation was accompanied by the moral transformation of people. It was not just an external, spectacular experience. The visit to each parish was preceded by a retreat. There were great conversions, confessions after many years, reconciliation of broken families, and the ordering of non-sacramental marriages. People said: “You cannot stand before Our Lady with disorder in your soul. I have to put everything in order, because I would not be able to look her in the eye. ”

Nobody foresaw great obstacles and adventures by the Visitation of Our Lady. However She did not manage to go all over Poland dureing the 9 years of the Great Novena. During the Millennium, the diocesan Visitation was stopped so that the wandering Image of the Mother of God could be placed successively at all stations of the Millennium Trail.

Unfortunately, Our Lady could not finish this jubilee journey calmly. On 20^th June 1966, on its way from Frombork to Warsaw in Liksajny, the Visitation Image was arrested. Officers of the security office department and civic militia took the Image from the Primate and brought it to Warsaw, directly to Cathedral, in order to prevent the ceremonial welcome of the Visitation Image in Nowy Dwór and in the Church of St. Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw. For several weeks, the Visiting Mother of God stayed in Warsaw to prevent another desecration of the Image.

However, when the date of the Diocesan Visitation in Katowice was approaching, Primate Wyszyński believed that he could not stop the Image of the Mother of God on his way through Poland. On 2^nd September 1966, the Visitation Image set off from Jasna Góra towards Katowice. Between Częstochowa and Katowice, the police stopped the car, ordered the Pauline Fathers and the Bishop to get out of the vehicle. The image of the Visiting Mother of God was arrested for the second time and brought to Jasna Góra Monastery.

Militia posts have been set up at the gates of Jasna Góra. The MO officers watched the Visitation Image day and night, checking all the cars leaving Jasna Góra. The imprisonment of the Picture lasted 6 years, until 1972. A priest from the Diocese of Sandomierz, Fr. Józef Wójcik then “kidnapped” the Image of the Mother of God and the Sister Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate from Mariówka, miraculously transported him to the Visitation in Radom. Since then, the Mother of God has been traveling around Poland without any obstacles.

In many ways, she travelled during imprisonment. The persecutors of the Church did not know that the Mother of God could not be arrested, because the Image is only a sign of her presence. When the Image was imprisoned, empty frames and a candle became a sign of her presence. The miracles of grace did not cease. People welcomed Our Lady with enthusiastic faith and fervour, until the Visitation Image returned to its journey. The first Visitation lasted 23 years. But the decision of the Polish Episcopate continues. The Mother of God, in the sign of the Visitation Image, travels from parish to parish, she is welcomed by new generations of Poles.

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Father and Shepherd #8 | Three years of imprisonment >>>