ora, labora, et despera

February 20th, 2006
Barbakan Residence

I never would have thought that so much can happen during the weekend! Yet, in a city that is both as small as Krakow, and also as filled with so many activities, I guess that it is perfectly plausible that the weekend would seemingly disappear! Saturday began with a much-needed post-jetlag sleeping in, although not too long, since I am still having some trouble sleeping in the mornings. After all, when I get up at 7:15, it is only about 1:15 in Notre Dame, or the time that I would normally be going to be on a school night!

After having Mass and breakfast with my friends here at the residence, I set out to see something. Since there are so many things to see and things to do here, I wan’t sure where to start, but I knew that the Prince Czartoryski Museum would be a good palce to start. The museum is famous for its collection of art, as well as historical Polish artifacts and treasures. As I walked in, one of the first things that greeted me (besides the quite unpleasant lady who promptly reminded me that if I wanted to take pictures, I would have to pay an extra fee of 20 zlotys) was the sword of King Stefan Batory, who was elected as king of Poland in 1576. As I walked further inside, I came upon tents and Persian rugs captured by King Jan III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. I felt very weird. Here, in front of me, was something that had survived so many years, so many centuries, probably hidden in storage somewhere during the world wars—and it had been captured from the Turks, when Europe was on the verge of invasion until a coalition of forces led by the Polish king expelled the Turkish threat from Europe for the last time. The rest of this floor of the museum also housed such treasures as priests’ chasubles and vestments from the 16th century, along with liturgical vessels. Of note were also the many suits of armor of Polish hussar fighters, whose armor is easily distinguished because of its gigantic feather wings, and who were known for their ferocity in battle. As Sienkiewicz described in The Deluge, “God, what power! They ran through the smoke and the sound was like that of a thousand blacksmiths beating with a thousand hammers. We saw it…. Jezus Maria! The elite's lances bent forward like stalks of rye, driven by a great storm, bent on glory! The fire of the guns before them glitters! They rush on to the Swedes! They crash into the Swedish…Overwhelm them! They crash into the second regiment - Overwhelmed! Resistance collapses, dissolves, they move forward as easily as if they were parading on a grand boulevard. They sliced without effort through the whole army already!” (see http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/HowHussarFought.htm for more information on the Hussars).

Upstairs, the museum houses the Czartoryski collection of art, known mostly for the single da Vinci piece found in Poland, one of Leonardo’s female portraits, Lady with an Ermine (http://www.krakow-info.com/dama.htm). In addition to this piece, and a fram of a Raphael which was stolen by the Germans during the Second World War and is missing to this day, there were numerous works of Gothic and realist art, by both Polish and western artists. The armory of the museum houses the Ancient Greco-Roman and Egyptian collection, including two real Egyptian mummies. It was amazing to look at the sarcophagi, to see the x-rays of the human skeletons inside, and to think about who the person inside must have been. I had never seen a mummy in my life, and when I actually did, I have to admit, it was quite discomforting. It was hard to cope with the fact, that here, ten inches in front of my face, was a dead human being, that had been like that for about 2,500 years! In the same exhibit, I was also especially amazed by the early Christian tombstones from Rome, depicting various eschatological scenes of Christ from the Gospels.

After meandering around the ancient art exhibit for quite a while, and returning to the mummy several times (quasi-awaiting for it to rise up and start walking, like they all do in the horror movies), I met with Professor Aneta Gawkowska, a professor of sociology from the University of Warsaw, whom I met at Notre Dame in the fall semester. She had come to Notre Dame through the Nanovic Institue fro one semester, and taught a course on New Feminism, with a deep regard and interest in the teachings of John Paul II in the area of the dignity and vocation of women. It was wonderful to meet with her, and to be able to talk about our common experiences at Notre Dame from the previous semester, as well as to update her about the status of the campus debate on academic freedom and the future of performances such as the V-Monologues.

I was struck by one realization while talking to her, and to one of her friends, also a professor, but a physicist (who happened to just have a cute baby, Ania, four months ago, and is an amazing father)! The serious intellectuals here in Poland are quite familiar with things such as the Vagina Monologues, since performances of them are not lacking even in Poland, where the 1960’s feminism of the United States, combined with post-modern philosophy is beginning to take hold in small but very vocal factions of society. However, honest academics here have the audacity and the integrity to realize that this “play” is simply a ideologically-driven tool that corrupts the Polish culture and morality of the young people of this very, at least traditionally, Catholic country. There is no debate among those who call themselves Catholic, because every serious and intelligent Catholic knows that the performance of this “play,” and the mentality that drives it, is simply, in the words of the physicist, “dishonest and ideological intellectualism, and such ‘knowledge’ can never be understood as such, but rather, it is something false and unreal.” Unlike the modern American intellectual establishment, and most likely western European as well, a true and honest Polish academic seems to known right from wrong, because the principles of the unity and confidence in the Truth that John Paul II discusses in Fides et Ratio are firmly grounded in the academic intellect. Not only is the Truth grounded in his intellect, but it is also lived in his heart—hence the participation of many professors and students in the multitude of movements in the Church, such as the Neo-Catechumenate Way, the Focolare Movement, Opus Dei, Light and Life, Nazarean Families, and the many other movements that are often found at the local parishes.

Professor Gawkowska was in Krakow to meet with a group of young women who are seeking to establish a new group to promote and study New Feminism. The meeting was held at the Capuchin Friary in Krakow. She also informed me that recently, the president of Poland, President Kaczynski, established a new John Paul II Institute in Warsaw. Clearly, there is a rising interest in the Holy Father’s thought and writings. Surprisingly, teachings of his such as Theology of the Body are not yet as widespread as they are in the United States. In groups of the “John Paul II Genereration” of Catholics in the United States, most people are at least familiar with his Theology of the Body, whereas here, it is only now being studied and spread.
I attended Sunday Mass yesterday at the Dominican Abbey, because a few ofmy new friends at our residence asked me to come with them. The Mass was a Mass that is sponsored once a month by the Tertio Millennio Institute, an institute dedicated to studying John Paul’s social thought. They organize a three week long seminar every summer, at which famous Catholic figures, such as George Weigel, Fr. Richard Nieuhaus, and Michael Novak, are lecturers. The once a month Mass is the “papal Mass,” and a guest presider is invited, who then gives a homily on some aspect of John Paul II’s thought. Yesterday, Fr. Jan Malinski (not sure about last name) presided. After Mass, a group of us went with my new friend, Luke, who works for the Institute, for coffee to their headquarters. Since I was expecting a large social, I was surprised when I enetered and found myself seated at a nice dining table with six other students, and Fr. Jan. After short introductions and small talk, our discussion turned to topics such as the Polish society and the difficulties of raising a family due to the economic situation, the beatification process of Pope John Paul, as well as me sharing about the Catholic Church in the United States, as well as the state of our culture. Fr. Jan works for the Metropolitan Curia, and is in charge of the John Paul II Archives, so we all listened with fascination as he told us about his work with the personal notes of the Holy Father, as well as many handwritten manuscripts (he has also read and often looked over the personal notes that the Pope’s secretary, Bishop Dziwisz (now the Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow) was to burn, but never did).

At the meeting, I met with a young student who also studies at the Pontifical Academy of Theology, and is working on her Licentiate in Theology, with an interet in the theological anthropology of John Paul II. When I heard this, I immediately thought to myself, “wow, this is not a coincidence, since that’s exactly what I’m interested in.” It turned out that she is working on her thesis on the Theology of the Body! She gave me the name of a young Dominican friar who teaches at the Academy, after earning a degree at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Life in our very own Washington, D.C. I am excited to meet him on Wednesday, as well as to be able to talk to him about the possibilities of starting some sort of study of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, as well as being able to talk to him about the great things that are happening with regards to pro-life and pro-chastity initiatives at Notre Dame.

I end this already lengthy journal entry with the constant amazement of God’s presence in this city. I knew that Krakow was referred to as the “little Rome” (and the Archdiocese of Krakow does have more parishes than Rome), but I am learning constantly about how present and vibrant the faith is, here in this medieval city. Everyday, I run into a new roadside chapel, a little shrine, or am able to discover the tomb of a new saint or blessed. Today, I had the pleasant surprise of walking into a Mass at the Church of Saint Bernardine, the first Bernardine Friary in Poland. The Bernardines are an order of Reformed Franciscans, present only under this name in Poland, and were founded in Krakow by St. John Capistrano. The “flying friar” came to Krakow in 1454 to preach on the market square (in Latin, I assume, since he did not speak Polish), and thus attracted a following large enough to begin a new friary here. One of the first to follow St. John was Simon of Lipnica, a student at the Jagiellonian University. He was beatified on February 24th, 1685, and declared one of the patrons of Krakow, as well as of university students. Since he was known for his powerful preaching, one of his brother friars asked him what one must do in order to reach his level of perfection. Simon answered, “ora, labora, et despera.” Prayer, work and despair? Why one must despair in order to be a good preacher? What Simon meant was that one must lose hope in himself, and trust completely in God, to realize that without Him, nothing is possible.

In today’s Gospel (Mk. 9:14-29), the father of the possessed son comes to Christ in faith, having lost all hope in himself, and despairing of any other means of healing, says:

“But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Jesus said to him,
“‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.”
Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”

And so it is here in Krakow. I am slowly learning what it means to completely rely on God, to “despair” of myself, to lose hope in anything I can do, and to abandon myself in faith to what He can do through me. Perhaps we can all learn a lesson from Blessed Simon, who remained strong and faithful to God, and merited the graces of beatification. Until next time, ora, labora, et despera.