On the Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace [V]

[Rich]

On the Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace [V]

O most blessed grace, that makes the poor in spirit rich in virtues,
and the richly blessed humble in heart! Come, descend on me! Fill me
with your comfort, (Ps 40:14) lest my soul faint from weariness and
dryness of mind I pray, Lord, that I may find favour in Thy sight, for
Thy grace is sufficient for me,(2 Cor. 12:9) even if I obtain none of
those things that nature desires. However often I am tempted and
troubled, I will fear no evil (Ps.23:4) so long as Thy grace remains
with me.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 55

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20 December – Blessed Michal Piaszczynski

(1885-1940)

Priest and Martyr, Poet, Writer, Lecturer, Apostle of the poor – born
on 1 November 1885 at Lomza, Podlaskie, Poland and died on 18 December
1940 in the prison camp in Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, Oberhavel,
Germany of starvation and illness related to the concentration camp
conditions. He was Beatified as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II
and thus has a secondary feast on 12 June as part of this group.

Michal Piaszczynski was born in Lomza, Poland, the son of Ferdinand
and Anna Zientara. In 1903 after graduating from high school, he
entered the seminary in Sejny. After being ordained a Deacon, he was
sent for further specialised studies to the Catholic Clergy Academy in
St Petersburg. The Spiritual Academies – theological colleges – were
created as a result of Russian repression after the fall of the
November Uprising of 1830-1831 and the liquidation of Polish
universities. Their task was to be to attempt to re-educate the Polish
Catholic clergy of the Russian partition.

And there, on 13 June 1911 in the academic chapel, he was Ordained a
Priest at the hands the Servant of God, Bishop Jan Feliks Cieplak, a
defiant priest, many times punished by the Russian authorities for
preaching patriotic sermons and participation in national
demonstrations and later – during Soviet Russia – arrested twice and
in 1923 sentenced at a demonstration trial to the death penalty for ”
inciting a rebellion through superstition .”

In 1912 he graduated with a master’s degree in Holy Theology …
He was briefly the first Parish Priest of St Mary Magdalene in
Mikaszówka. For a short time – but long enough to be remembered by the
village as a church and community builder … Michał left Mikaszówka and
in 1914, after two years in Freiburg, he obtained doctorates in
philosophy and literature.

At the beginning of the First World War, Fr Michal was visiting Italy.
From there, at the request of Polish emigrants he went to France,
where for four years he was a chaplain of miners, a priest of the
Polish-French parish and a prefect of schools. At that time, he
visited Polish colonies and prisoner-of-war camps of Poles in France
(in the mining regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais with the capital in
Lille, Lorraine and Picardy) – they were Poles mainly from the German
partition, conscripted into the German army, participating in the
trench warfare and taken prisoner by Franco-British troops …

“He was known here in the colony in France and was highly respected by
all Poles who today, (in 1946) remember and honour him for his
holiness and goodness. He assisted the poor and visited the sick. In a
word, a holy priest…” (the letter by Jerez-Chojnacka, representatives
of the Polish mission in France).

After the end of hostilities, he returned in 1919 to the reborn
Commonwealth, to his hometown of Łomża. He threw himself into the
teaching work … He became a lecturer and then a vice-director (from
1935), newly opened in 1919 at the Major Seminary in Lomza. He invited
Jewish rabbis to him, thus becoming a promoter of religious dialogue
with Jews. He addressed them with the term “elder brothers in the
faith,” which made him a kind of precursor (though not the only one)
of the significant movement of St John Paul II. Blessed Michal was
also a teacher in various schools and Chaplain of a Hospital and
Confessor of the Benedictine Sisters in the Abbey of Of the Holy
Trinity.

When the Second World War broke out and the Germans took possession of
Blessed Michal’s area, they immediately proceeded to round up the
Catholic Priests. As part of the planned policy of extermination of
the Polish clergy and intelligentsia, about 80% of the clergy from
areas directly connected to the German Reich – found themselves in
German concentration camps. Most of them lost their lives, as did 15%
of Polish teachers, 30% of technicians, 40% of university professors,
45% of doctors and dentists, and 57% of lawyers …

Fr Michal was arrested on 7 April 1940 and was moved to Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp on 3 May 1940. During his detention, he comforted
everyone. In the evenings, he prayed with them and gave short homilies
and lectures. His deep love for God was also reflected in his attitude
towards his fellow man – he helped the weak in camp work and assisted
them on their way to the assembly ground.

One day, when the head of the camp, took their daily ration of bread,
from the Jews, Fr Michal, who once said at the table, that he would
like to eat his fill at least once more in his life, offered his
portion of bread to a Jewish lawyer from Warsaw named Kott. At that
time, the Jew would say: “You Catholics believe that there is a living
Christ in your churches. I believe that there is a living Christ in
this bread, He who told you to share it with me,” recalled Fr
Kazimierz Aleksander Hamerszmit.

Blessed Michal went to the Lord, emaciated, starved, sick, suffering
from numerous complaints related to the conditions under which he
lived – deprived of medical care – on 18 December 1940.

He was beatified by St John Paul II in Warsaw, 13 June 1999, in the
group of 108 Polish martyrs of World War II.

https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/20/


“The blessed martyrs cry to our hearts.
Believe in God who is love!
Believe in Him in good times and bad!
Awaken hope!
May it produce in you,
the fruit of fidelity to God,
in every trial!”
St Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
At the Beatification of the 108 Martyrs of World War Two in Poland, 13 June 1999

Bible Quote:
"Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun; let us be
glad and joyful and give glory to God, because this is the time for
the marriage of the Lamb, His bride is ready, and she has been able to
dress herself in dazzling white linen, because her linen is made of
the good deeds of the saints." Revelation 19:7-8


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God’s Sign
“God’s sign is His humility.
God’s sign is that He makes himself small.
He becomes a child.
He lets us touch him and He asks for our love.
How we would prefer a different sign,
an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness!
But His sign summons us to faith and love
and thus it gives us hope – this is what God is like.
He has power, He is Goodness itself.
He invites us to become like Him.
Yes indeed, we become like God,
if we allow ourselves
to be shaped by this sign,
if we ourselves learn humility
and hence true greatness;
if we renounce violence
and use only the weapons
of truth and love.”