My name is Przemyslaw Wilczynski and I am a fresh Lay Claretian from Poland. I was asked to write a short testimony on the Bible quote that is important to me.
It was year 1999 when I first met the people from the youth evang community led by the Claretians in Wroclaw, Poland. The name of the group was “Send me”. Next year, I attended their 2 week retreat, where I experienced a very profound meeting with God’s love. Being there with those people who were literally filled with love and openness, I could finally feel myself at ease and was able to open my heart to what God wanted to tell me. That time of my life was very crucial, as I was entering my adulthood; and my life had been hectic back then, especially when it comes to my family. Sometimes I felt hopeless and abandoned when struggling with the problems I had.
The retreat was divided into the two separate parts. First, we were introduced to the kerygma – during the lectures, but more importantly during the evening prayer meetings. The second part was the practical preparation to evangelization, since the Send me community specialized in concerts, prayer meetings, and the street and door-to-door evang.
During one of such the prayer meetings, one of the people responsible for us received a Word of God especially for me. She read me a passage from the book of Judges and explained that it was what she believed Jesus wanted me to know. And He was saying: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (Judges 6,12).
Believe me when I say that I did not feel like a mighty warrior at all! On the contrary, but the Words were so strong that they destroyed every obstacle and doubt in my heart. With those few words Jesus gave me strength to live and to carry on with my life. I wanted to run, to proclaim the Good News to the people on the streets, which I have been doing for many years now and on many different ways. I joined the community and thanks to God’s grace and those Words, I have evangelized on many occasions in various European countries (England, Germany, Italy).
This is how He acts: first, He let me experienced the fraternal love through my friends there, and next He spoke to me personally. “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” has been accompanying me ever since, and there have been two or three more times when He again spoke the exact words to me. And always in difficult and important situations .
His love is always coming through other people and through His living Word. We just need to have our eyes and our ears wide open.
Przemyslaw Wilczynski, sc (Poland)
Our spiritual life is nourished, expressed and developed by the Word of God, liturgical praise, prayer and the sacraments, above all by the Eucharist and the sacrament of our brothers and sisters. The Word of God is the primary source of our spirituality. It discloses God's saving plan to us, and fortifies and encourages us in building up the Kingdom. Accepted with docility, it demands that we constantly change our lives in order to fulfill the Father's will and Jesus Christ (LayClaretian Sourcebook 36,37)
