Under the slogan "Give peace to our days" at the Marian Sanctuary in Licheń Stary, the Pilgrimage of the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement of Region I - Greater Poland and Kujawy was held. During the pilgrimage, Barbara and Krzysztof Stasiak took over the reins over the Region
We are a community dedicated to Mary, so we usually meet in May, the month of Our Lady. This year, for various reasons, we had to organize our meeting at the beginning of June. Our region, apart from married couples from Wielkopolska and Kujawy, also includes individual teams from abroad. They are Polish married couples who live in Germany, Sweden and Norway. As for the subject of today's pilgrimage, we focus on the figure of St. Joseph because of the year dedicated to him in the Church
The conference opening the pilgrimage was delivered by Fr. Michał Nowacki from the parish of Of Divine Providence in Poznań, who is the spiritual guardian of the Wielkopolska A and B sector. The priest focused on the topic of "The work and poverty of St. Józef - unpopular values in our times ”. After the lecture, the couples participating in the meeting worked in groups and dealt with the influence of the figure of St. Józef on their everyday life, that is people living in the 21st century.
The Szczepaniak family added that during the Lichen pilgrimage, teams from the Wielkopolska Region and Kujawy Region tried to catch up with pandemic restrictions (last year's pilgrimage was canceled). - “For this year's pilgrimage, for various reasons, not all interested people could come. However, today's turnout is satisfactory as it allows us to meet after a long time and catch up on the accumulated backlog of formation, ”the couple added. About 100 people took part in this year's pilgrimage.
Something that limits us, which is a cross for us, and we often do not want a cross. We want to reject him, but the story of Tobias wants to teach us that faithfulness, suffering and experience make sense, so that the glory of God can be revealed anew. That God would reveal his Love and care anew - He would like to save man, so that while walking through earthly life he would discover what is most important in earthly pilgrimage - love for God and neighbor
The central moment of the pilgrimage was the Holy Mass in front of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Lichen, presided over by Fr. Roman Żerkowski from the parish of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Włocławek. Together with Fr. Żerkowski, the Holy Eucharist was concelebrated also by priests who are spiritual advisers of the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement: Fr. Rafał Czerniejewski and Fr. Michał Nowacki (both from Poznań), and also Fr. Robert Awerjanow from Bedlin.
During the homily, Fr. Żerkowski referred to the Book of Tobias, which was read from the beginning of June in the liturgy, saying that our lives often come up with various experiences. - “Something that limits us, which for us is a cross, and we often do not want a cross. We want to reject him, but the story of Tobias wants to teach us that faithfulness, suffering and experience make sense, so that the glory of God can be revealed anew. That God would reveal his love and care anew - He would like to save man, so that while walking through earthly life, he would discover what is most important in earthly pilgrimage - love for God and neighbor ”.
In the word of Fr. Żerkowski emphasized that "God is not indifferent - He wants us all with Him, He wants us all to meet in the Father's House, in the community of the saved".
Concluding his considerations, the priest encouraged married couples belonging to the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement, here in Licheń, at the throne of Our Lady of Licheń, to ask for the opportunity to read the path indicated by God. - "Let us always be close to you as we walk through life."
During the Mass, the service of the responsible couple from the Kuyavian sector was handed over. For the next three years, such a service will be performed by Barbara and Krzysztof Stasiak. During the Eucharist, teams from the Wielkopolska and Kujawy Region also entrusted to the Mother of God present in the Lichen image.
The element crowning the Pilgrimage of the I Equipes Notre-Dame Region was the so-called an hour of testimony, during which selected marriages and priests who were advisers to individual teams shared their experience of carrying out their mission in the END Movement.
By joining the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement, spouses try to fulfill certain specific tasks in their daily lives, i.e. personal and marital or family prayer, regular reading and meditation of the Bible, annual participation in the retreat, once a month dialogue of the spouses with an invitation for this conversation also with God, monthly internal work on weaknesses by establishing a rule and obeying it, and the last point that spouses try to fulfill is a formation meeting. Meetings are held once a month, they last about 3 hours, consist of a meal, prayer and thematic talks, they are attended by a group of 4 to 7 marriages together with a priest who is the spiritual guide of the team.
There are 3 regions of the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement in Poland. In the parish of st. Dorota, there are 2 teams in Licheń associating 12 married couples.
