A fire has been lit in Poland

How are we to proclaim the Gospel about Jesus today, to speak of the Lord God to people living in the deserts of the cities? Do we need prophets like fire? – Many priests do not believe in what they have. Not long ago I gave a retreat for priests in Poland. Priests came who want something more, who want to learn new things, to be taught. There were young priests and older ones alike. At the end one priest wept when he saw what power the prayer of a priest has. I said to those priests: „Fr Bashobora and Fr Manjackal are invited to Poland. And that is good, the Lord God makes use of them, but after all there are 35,000 of you in Poland, and among you there are surely thousands of Manjackals. Every one of us has these gifts, but you have to wake up”. And to step outside the pattern of thinking that nothing can be done. – Priests need to believe in the gift of the priesthood, in their own charisms. Every one of us has charisms, because we were baptised and confirmed. The Holy Spirit will help, once we begin to act. There is enormous potential in Poland. If only every tenth priest woke up, saw the fullness of the priesthood, went out to people and stopped being afraid of what people think – can you imagine what would happen? I once led a charismatic forum in Chicago, held under the motto: „I came to cast fire upon the earth”, and wonders happened there, because people finally wanted to hear someone who believes in what he says, someone who has himself once experienced being set ablaze with fire. Is such a touch of the Holy Spirit a reality available to everyone? – The point is not that everyone has to go into a stadium and preach the Gospel. But one can have a charismatic faith while working in a hospital, in a hospice, as a catechist or as a journalist. It is through this mediocrity that what we see today comes about – greyness and slapdash living. How many people at Holy Mass really pray, and how many have a routine attitude to the Liturgy? How many have a real faith in what happens in the Church? This touches priests as well. How are graces to come down upon us if we do not believe in all this? The Lord God is always at work, but our commitment is needed. Charismatic faith is needed especially by those who, through the gift of the priesthood, are to kindle that faith in those who live in families, bring up children and really have it harder than we, the clergy, do.

Fr Piotr Glas

Article published on the Nasz Dziennik website.