July 18, Bl. Alphonse (Alfons) Tracki, Presbyter and Martyr

July 18
In the Diocese of Opole
BLESSED ALPHONS TRACKI, PRESBYTER and MARTYR
Optional memorial

Alphonse (Alfons) Tracki was born on 2 December 1896 in Bliszczyce in Germany (currently in Poland). In 1912 he commenced novitiate in the order of the School Brothers of Mary in Vienna. In 1925 he was ordained in Shkodër, Albania. Due to his knowledge of its native languages and customs, he was assigned the missionary work in northern Albania. He was particularly dedicated to the ministry among children and teenagers. During World War II he stood up for the Albanians imprisoned by German troops, which occupied the country in 1943-1944. When the communists took over, he refused to leave Albania. He was a priest of the Pulaj parish. He got arrested on 25 June 1946 for having administered the sacrament of the sick to a young parishioner, who had been wounded during a fight with communists. He was tortured during the investigation that lasted a few months. The military court sentenced him to death for anticommunist activity and cooperation with the invader. The penalty was executed on 18 July 1946 (other sources say 19 July) in Shkodër. On 26 April 2010 he was declared blessed together with Vincent Prennushi and other 37 priest murdered in the prisons of the communist Albania (during the regime of Enver Hoxha) in 1945-1974.

Common of One Martyr.

June 20, Bl. Ladislaus (Władysław) Bukowiński, Presbyter

June 20
In the Archdiocese of Kraków
BLESSED LADISLAUS BUKOWIŃSKI, PRESBYTER
Optional memorial

Ladislaus (Władysław) Bukowiński was born on 22 December 1904 in Berdyczów. Having graduated from law, politics and theology on the Jagiellonian University, he was ordained on 26 June 1931. In August 1936, upon his request, he was transferred to Lutsk in Volyn. In January 1945 he got arrested and sentenced to 10 years of forced labor, some of which he spent in a mine in Jezkazgan, Kazakhstan. A year after release (1954), he became a Russian citizen in order to be able to work as a pastor in Kazakhstan. Arrested again on 3 December 1958, he was sentenced to 3 years of camp. In total, he spent over 13 years in jails and forced labor camps. Upon release he stayed in Kazakhstan, serving as a priest among Catholics of various nationalities, visiting them in far-off places. Exhausted due to arduous work in camps, he died on 3 December 1974 in Karaganda, where he was buried.

Common of Pastors.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

From a homily by Blessed Ladislaus Bukowiński, Presbyter
(Homily at Easter 1970: Positio Super Vita Virtutibus er Fama Sanctitatis 2012, 519-520)
We should be full of joy

Well, my beloved, remember that the more the world has fun, the more it dances, makes noise, the sadder it is. My dear, those who have a little fun can still find joy in worldly pleasures, but the rich, who never stop having fun and dancing, will be troubled and very sad. It is not fair to think, as the poor do, that the richer one is, the happier. Wealth does not give happiness. Wealth very often gives total boredom.

What gives happiness? What gives joy? Faith gives joy. My dear, take into account that year after year the Church reminds of this joy, this Easter joy that the Resurrected Jesus brings us. We should be full of joy and we should bring this joy to the entire society. Let the faithless know that we are happier, even though they dance more, they have fun and conjure other ways of entertainment. We do have the joy of faith, the joy of love. My beloved, let us not forget it—we should bring the fruit of joy and the capacity for Christian suffering to the society. We should bring our tears, our contrition.

My beloved, we should remember how the Church rebukes in one of Easter songs, “The Lord, Creator of heaven, is hanging on the cross, we need cry for man’s sins.” We pray in yet another Easter song, “At the end they pierced his side and flow blood and water in abundance. We shall burst into tears today, oh Jesus, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.” Both the former and the latter are needed.

We should bring our contrition, our pain, our penance, our tears for sins, not only ours, but also for the ones in our families, to the world of today, which does not want to remember about sins. Do not weep for me, weep instead for your sins and those of your children. These are the words that Jesus said to the daughters of Jerusalem, who cried for him.

The tears of penance, the tears of contrition should be brought to the world of today. Yet not only the tears and contrition, we should also bring the joy that Jesus brought us after his victory over sins, death and Satan. It is with him that we should overcome sin. Owing to this victory we should be extremely happy, living with a pure soul, living with the same Jesus who comes to us every day in the Holy Communion. Even if we suffer, we should not lose sight of the victorious joy of the Christ Resurrected.

We might have had enough of suffering at home, of tears flowing, of illness, of concerns—these things happen, but above them all there is the resurrection, the expectation of heavenly happiness, there is the seed of the resurrected life here on earth. Thus, my beloved, whether there is peace or there are sufferings, let us know how to rejoice the joyous Hallelujah, “Whether the sea is calm or the waves resound, you take care of your children. We give our prayers for your glory, for you are our shield, oh God, our Father.” For you are our salvation, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

RESPONSORY Mt 5:11, 12a, 10

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
– Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
– Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty and eternal God,
you entrusted Blessed Ladislaus, Presbyter, with a pastoral mission in the difficult times of the Church and endowed him with unshakable faith and merciful love,
grant us, through his intercession, that we may remain faithful to Christ till death.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Probatum seu confirmatum, die 2 maii 2016, Prot. N. 39/16.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

June 7, Bl. Zbigniew Strzałkowski and Michael (Michał) Tomaszek, Presbyters and Martyrs

June 7
In the Archdiocese of Kraków
BLESSED ZBIGNIEW STRZAŁKOWSKI and MICHAEL TOMASZEK, PRESBYTERS and MARTYRS
In the Diocese of Bielsko-Żywiec
BLESSED MICHAEL TOMASZEK, PRESBYTER and MARTYR
In the Diocese of Tarnów
BLESSED ZBIGNIEW STRZAŁKOWSKI, PRESBYTER and MARTYR
Optional memorial

Zbigniew Strzałkowski was born on 3 July 1958 in Tarnów. He professed simple vows in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual on 2 September 1980 and on 7 June 1986 he was ordained a priest. Having worked as a teacher in a minor seminary in Legnica, he left for Peru as a missionary.
Michael (Michał) Tomaszek was born on 23 September 1960 in Łękawica. He professed simple vows in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual on 1 September 1981 and on 23 May 1987 he was ordained a priest. Having worked as a pastor in Pieńsko, he left for Peru as a missionary.
Both of them worked in the large Pariacoto parish (the Diocese of Chimbote), edifying a Franciscan community and serving the people. Visiting the settlements of the Andes, they were selflessly dedicated to pastoral and charitable service. On the evening of 9 August 1991 they were murdered by communist guerrillas.

Common of Several Martyrs or of One Martyr.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

From a homily by Blessed Zbigniew Strzałkowski, Presbyter and Martyr
(Legnica, 6/5/1988 from the Kraków Provincial Archive of OFMConv)
Christ is present in a priest and among people

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, we are all united in the single community of God, in the single priesthood of Christ, by single faith, by the same religious vows.

Joy is an emotion and a state that one cannot contain, that needs to be expressed, that demands to be shared with others. Christ’s priesthood brings freedom to man and to the world, the freedom from sin. It brings hope, the hope of eternal happiness. These values spring from Christ’s cross to man, to Christians, because Christ is the only high Priest. Priests, who through generations have marked the history of mankind on earth, are those on whom rests the power of Christ’s priesthood. It is through them that Christ is present in the lives of men and in the history of the world. Each priest has a share in what Christ lived; each priest, together with his Master, experiences what he went through for our salvation. Turning the pages of the Gospel, listening to the inspired word read out in church, we can see Christ the Priest who is lonely, because bringing love to man, he remained lonely. While bringing the blessing to the chosen nation and to entire mankind, he encountered lack of understanding. The only one to understand him was his heavenly Father. Christ the Priest came to make a sacrifice because of the love of the Father and the love of man. This is the highest selfless sacrifice of oneself. Christ the Priest, preaching the Good News, experienced toil and fatigue. And this what every priest, who embraces Christ’s priesthood, will experience, when he decides to follow in his Master footsteps.

What is most important in the religious life under the guidance of Saint Francis is his look on priesthood, his attitude toward priesthood and priests. In his instructions for brothers he said explicitly that who we in fact venerate in the person of a priest is Christ present among people. Christ stands among us in the person of a priest, he stands among us to preach the Good News through the mouth of a priest, to tell us, the fainthearted, “Courage!;” to tell us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest;” to tell each of us, doubting and broken, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

RESPONSORY Jn 12:24-25; 18:8, 9

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
– Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

If you are looking for me, let these men go. I have not lost any of those you gave me.
– Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

God,
you called Blessed Michael and Zbigniew, Presbyters, to imitate Christ after the example of Saint Francis of Assisi and for the sake of the people entrusted to them strengthened them with your Spirit to became martyrs,
grant us that we, through their intercession, may grow in the love of you and in the humble service to the little ones.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Probatum seu confirmatum, die 12 maii 2017, Prot. N. 115/17.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

June 4, Bl. Michael (Michał) Giedroyć, Religious

June 4
In the Archdiocese of Kraków
BLESSED MICHAEL GIEDROYĆ, RELIGIOUS
Optional memorial

Michael (Michał) Giedroyć was born in ca. 1420 in Lithuania in a Lithuanian knyaz family, near Vilnius. Since childhood he stood out as being profoundly spiritual, but afflicted by a disability he restrained from entering a monastery, fearing he would be a burden for a community. Remaining in the world, he dedicated himself to prayer and work. Asked for advice, he humbly imparted his wisdom, already thought of by many as divine inspirations. Being a mature man, he was admitted to the Order of Canons Regular of Penance in Bystrzyca, Lithuania, and soon, upon his plea, he was transferred to the main monastery of the order at Saint Mark Church in Kraków. Despite the disability, he was a zealous sacristan until his death on 4 May 1485. He was famous for his efficient prayer, goodness and wisdom and numerous people were given extraordinary graces through his intercession. His relics are found in Saint Mark Church in Kraków.

Common of Religious.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

From the Letter by Saint John Paul II on the 500th anniversary of Michael Giedroyć’s death
(“L’Osservatore Romano,” Polish edition, 6:1985, no. 4-5, p. 27-28)
“God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16)

In spirit I wish to visit the tomb of Michael Giedroyć’s, known as blessed, with these words of the First Letter of Saint John that he left to his brethren on his deathbed. I wish to glorify God, who in his love sanctifies man (Lv 20:8) and, at the same time, pay tribute to a humble servant that was open to the holiness of God and became its telling sign among people.

He has a lot to teach us, contemporary people, as he has taught the people of previous generations through centuries. He was brought up with Christ Crucified and his Mother, with the Gospel understood according to the spirit of “the heart with the cross,” with which the religious of “the Mystical Body of the Order from Saint Mark Church” (words taken from the profession of the Canons Regular of Penance) used to give testimony. He teaches us what he himself learned, or rather, imparts what he himself possessed—the wisdom of patience. Michael Giedroyć drew this wisdom from the contemplation of the Crucified that was the main feature of his spirituality. The love of neighbor, which he tirelessly practiced, and the spirit of strict penance were born in him from the ardent meditation on the Passion of Christ, where God’s love for man revealed itself in the fullest measure. The tradition has it that Christ granted him an unusual privilege, which only some hagiographers mention—he spoke to him, confirming the correctness of this path, on which Blessed Michael trod all his life, hidden in his humility, shining with the love of mature prayer. “Be patient until death—said Christ—and I shall give you the crown of life.”

Michael Giedroyć did persevere until the end, faithful to Christ and his Mother, faithful to his religious vocation, faithful to the rule, whose assumptions he undertook by religious vows, faithful to the service of a sacristan, performing humble duties with grandeur.

Mortified by a special affinity with the cross, in the cross he found the simplest way to heaven.

We mention this man who, “faithful in small matters” (Mt 25:21), grows before our eyes to the status of one of the greatest. The Church honors him and prays in front of his relics, asking merciful God that the people of our generation may not fail to discover in his example the light of faith, the power for hope and a model for ardent love.

I encourage to pray here, at his tomb, above all, those who are privileged to serve the various tiers of liturgy—both those who serve during the celebration of the Mystery of our Savior, and those who have given themselves to the service of the knowledge of this Mystery and its constant deepening; the people who serve music and chant “for the greater glory of God”, who erect temples, and make sure that the altar of Christ’s sacrifice speaks an understandable language of beauty. May sacristans in particular model their work after Michael Giedroyć and serve the Lord who is present in the church, as our Blessed did with patience and love.

RESPONSORY Phil 2:6, 8-9

Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
– He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
– He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Merciful God,
you allowed Blessed Michael, your humble servant, to testify to Christ with his life,
grant us, we ask you, that we, aided by his prayers, may imitate your Son’s mercy in the spirit of humility, prayer and penance.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Probatum seu confirmatum, die 18 martii 2019, Prot. N. 494/18.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

May 15, Bl. Sophie (Zofia) Maciejowska Czeska, Religious

May 15
In the Archdiocese of Kraków
BLESSED SOPHIE MACIEJOWSKA CZESKA, RELIGIOUS
Optional memorial

She was born in 1584. At 16 she was married off and at 22 she became a childless widow. Her later life was dedicated to God and to poor and orphaned children. It was for them that in 1627 she founded the school and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose charism was the idea of educating and teaching children and teenagers. For their sake she donated all of her possessions. She was characterized by heroic love of God and of neighbor, as well as deep faith, mercy toward the helpless, courage and humility. Her spiritual life was based on the cult of the Eucharist and special devotion to the Mother of God. She chose Mary in the mystery of the Presentation as the patron of both the school and the Congregation she founded. She died in the odor of sanctity on 1 April 1650 and was buried in the Marian Church in Kraków. She was beatified on 9 June 2013.

Common of Holy Women.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

From the Jubilee Letter by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the school of the Sisters of the Presentation in Kraków, 11/21/1977.
(P. Turwoń [ed.], Karol Wojtyła—John Paul II w historii Zgromadzenia Sióstr Prezentek, Kraków 2005, 39-40)
The mystery of the Presentation of Mary

On 21 November the liturgy of the Church commemorates the mystery of the Presentation of the One who was predestined to become the Mother of the Son of God. The mystery in question expresses the knowledge of the vocation, the answer to eternal love, and the will to totally and unreservedly commit oneself to this Love. This mystery is the foundation of the entire conscious internal path of the Mother of God, on which all the richness of grace, in which she participated from the moment of the Immaculate Conception, was gradually revealed. God’s messenger expressed it succinctly during the Annunciation, when he called her “full of grace.”

This very mystery of the Presentation was chosen by your foundress Sophie Czeska, née Maciejowska, and then by your entire Congregation at the beginning in 1627 to center around it all of your spirituality and the apostolic work that flowed from it. The spirituality of the Sisters of the Presentation and the constant experience of the mystery of the Presentation of Mary is visible in the awareness of answering to the eternal Love with which the Father loved each one of us in his Son. The answering itself, however, requires both the contemplation of God’s love—the very Divine Reality—because God is love (1 Jn 4:16), and the search for its expression in the human reality, human life since the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

Your Congregation has found this human dimension, or—as it were—human equivalent of the mystery of the Presentation of Mary in the work of education, and rightly so. For if we immerse ourselves deep in this mystery, looking at it as Mary’s answer to eternal Love, the need for giving the same answer is born, and not only in ourselves, in our personal lives, but also in others. What seems especially important is to go out to meet adolescents, just as you Congregation has been doing for 350 years. To help each young soul live out their own mystery of the Presentation, help them stand in front of the living God, who is Love, and out of this awareness form a life that would serve as an answer to this Love—this is a calling worth sacrificing ourselves for, the abilities of our mind, will and heart, spirit and body, our entire self. This is how I perceive the vocation of each and every one of the Sisters of the Presentation.

RESPONSORY Cf. Sir 24:10, 40; Col 1:10

In the holy tent,
– I ministered before him.

Let us live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God.
– I ministered before him.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Merciful God,
you made Blessed Sophie live constantly in your presence,
taking care of the young and the helpless,
through her intercession grant us the same grace of living faith,
so that we may constantly serve you in our neighbors.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Probatum seu confirmatum, die 5 iunii 2013, Prot. N. 266/13/L.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

March 26, St. Good Thief

March 26
In the Archdioceses of Przemyśl
SAINT GOOD THIEF
Optional memorial

Crucified together with the Savior, he believed in him, converted and was granted forgiveness and the promise of Paradise (Lk 23:39-43). The cross, which was foolishness to pagans, brought him salvation.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

Homily of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop
(Homily 1 On the Cross and the Thief)
Today you will be with me in Paradise

“Today—says the Lord to a criminal—you will be with me in Paradise.” Stupendous words. The crucified Savior, nailed to a tree, promises Paradise. That is right—says the Lord—get to know my power on the cross.

For indeed vicious spectacle it was. And so as to deflect our attention from it and let us know the power of the Crucified, Jesus performs a miracle that testifies more than anything to his power. For he converted a criminal not with a sight of a man brought back to life, not with a sight of sea and wind calmed upon the Lord’s command, and not with a sight of Satan being cast out, but he did it nailed to the cross, with insults and derision hurled at him, offended and humiliated. This is how his manifold power was manifest. He moved the earth and crushed rocks, and drew to himself the soul of a criminal that used to be harder than rock, he cleared his name and told him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

No sovereign would allow a criminal or any of his subjects to sit at his side when he takes possession of one of his towns. Yet Christ did so. He enters his holy homeland and takes with him a criminal. Doing so, he does not disgrace Paradise or tarnish it by the presence of a criminal. Just the opposite, he honors Paradise with it, as the glory of Paradise is the ruler able to turn a criminal into someone worthy of such a place. In a similar way, when he leads sinners and prostitutes into the kingdom of heavens, he does not belittle its dignity, but enlarges it, showing that he—the sovereign of the kingdom—wields the power that can change sinners and prostitutes, making them worthy of this gift and election.

We admire a doctor even more when he restores the health of whomever seemed incurable. Hence, Christ is indeed worthy of admiration when he heals the wounds for which there is no cure, and restores the health of a sinner or a prostitute so as to make them worthy of heaven.

RESPONSORY Lk 23:41-43

We have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.
– Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.
– Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

MORNING PRAYER

CANTICLE of ZECHARIAH

Ant. We have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty and merciful God,
you restore justice to sinners,
we humbly ask you to lead us to true penance as your only Son’s gracious look made Saint Good Thief to repent, and grant us eternal glory that he promised him.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

EVENING PRAYER

CANTICLE of MARY

Ant. Crucified Jesus said to the thief, Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

April 28, Bl. Hanna Chrzanowska

April 28
In the Archdioceses of Kraków and Warszawa
BLESSED HANNA CHRZANOWSKA
Optional memorial

Hanna Chrzanowska was born on 7 October 1902 in Warszawa, but spent most of her life in Kraków. She was brought up in a religiously neutral environment that, however, was engaged in helping others. She became a nurse and lived this service out as a vocation. Taking care of the sick, she gradually discovered the religious dimension of life. She found a close relationship with God, which she never stopped deepening. In other people, especially the suffering, she could see Christ. She knew how to be demanding of herself and of others. She drafted an “examination of conscience of a nurse”, being an educator of nurses and a forerunner of domestic and parochial nursing. She died in the odor of sanctity in Kraków on 29 April 1973. She was beatified on 28 April 2018. Her relics are housed in Saint Nicholas Church in Kraków.

Common of Holy Women Who Practiced Works of Mercy.

OFFICE OF READINGS

SECOND READING

From “The Diary” of Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska
(Hanna Chrzanowska, Pamiętniki, listy, notatki, Kraków 2018, 28. 72-3. 99-101. 128. 137. 156-7)
Serving Christ alone

I grew up in a climate of helping others. And nowadays it is an important—the most important and fundamental matter. I had never heard—despite the fact that I was brought up in a climate of charity and goodness—that it could be done for the love of God and from the love of God. I had never been told that I was supposed to be good because of God and for God. My parents were atheists. My mother (according to her passport—Lutheran) was in the hands of atheistic pessimism for years. My father (by passport—Roman Catholic) was then a positivist liberal.

During summer holidays I was informed that in the fall the Warsaw School of Nursing would launch. I made up my mind at once, “I am going to the school of nursing.” I once took care of an elderly man. He would grill me about school and other students. In the end, he asked, “And why did you take up nursing?” I replied, “Why, because I like it.” “And what exactly do you like? The hospital or the sick?” Then I knew no answer to that. Yet that question has stayed with me ever since.

Domestic nursing brings us really close to a sick person as he is. This simple—yet at times really difficult—work is what gives me a sense of happiness, I guess. I must say that though in my school of old I was taught how to deny myself, how to make unreserved sacrifices, although one of the words written on the emblem of my school was service, I could not be further from the spirit of evangelical service, being so close to a person I served. It never occurred to me that I could be serving God. I had not the foggiest idea about the notion of living for God’s glory, for years and years.

Years passed. I walked along Krowoderska Street when suddenly it dawned on me, “We help Christ bear his cross.” I did not think of “Christ in the sick”—of Christ himself.

Our profession has so much dignity because we stand in front of a sick person till the end, till death and during death. I must confess that I am specifically grateful to God for this sheer fact. There are so acute sufferings that, luckily for the given person, one no longer feels their acuteness, just as one does not hear ultrasound. Who can see them, hear them and judge them is God alone on the path of his own justice that we are ignorant of—God, the Son who was the only one to drink all of the cup. It is certain that the suffering offered to him is not wasted, otherwise he would be contradicting himself. Purified suffering is nailed to the Cross, together with sins.

There are so many miserable people who can shout, “I have no one,” as did the sick man from Bethesda. But in fact there are plenty good people. And this misfortune that an illness triggers often gives rise to goodness. We do not only mean here a battle with evil. Perhaps evil is more disconcerting. We need to speak about it, or even shout. But should we not shout about goodness? The goodness born of misfortune, drawn from love, day after day?

What I have written is not garish, I guess. I can see it having the color of fire.

RESPONSORY Mt 25:35, 36, 40; 1 Jn 3:18

I was hungry and you gave me food, ill and you cared for me.
– Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.

Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.
– Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

God,
you called Blessed Hanna to the service of the sick, poor and deserted,
grant that the one who answered wholeheartedly to your call may encourage us by her example to come to our neighbors’ assistance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Probatum seu confirmatum, die 17 aprilis 2018, Prot. N. 104/18.

[1] Translated by HosSPr (2022).

February 7, Bl. Clare (Klara) Szczęsna, Virgin

February 7
In the Archdiocese of Kraków and Diocese of Płock
BLESSED CLARE SZCZĘSNA, VIRGIN
Optional memorial

Clare Louise Szczęsna was born on 18 July 1863 in Cieszki in the Diocese of Płock. In 1885 she entered the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus. In 1894 she became the co-foundress and first general superior of the Congregation of the Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by St Joseph Sebastian Pelczar in Kraków. She was of strong faith, sensible to God’s voice and always ready to accept his will. Mindful and open to the needs of the helpless, she assisted girls and sick people. She cultivated a deep life of prayer, being especially devoted to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her life was an example of being guided by the humble love of God and service to neighbors. She died in Kraków on 7 February 1916.

Common of Virgins.