Our Lady of Czestochowa, pray for us!

 

When the Communists took over Poland they put Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski in house arrest for three years. The Cardinal who had united the Church of Poland and inspired her faith in the face of ugly atheist was cut from his people. But God had a bigger plan. He knew that in 10 years his country would celebrate the 1000 anniversary of the Faith coming to Poland and he spent his time in prison arranging much for his people. He wrote the following prayer entrusting Poland to Our Lady of Czestochowa (whose Feast we celebrate today!) and sent it to Jasna Gora where the icon was on display to be read and prayed by the Catholic hierarchy in his name (as the Primate of Poland). After this prayer, the people began shouting 'Mother, come to us!' and another idea was inspired. He arranged for 10 years for the icon to travel around Poland to every parish for prayers and processions. As Communists were trying to kill Catholicism, his action of sending Our Lady's icon totally renewed the faith of Poland. In fact, the government was so threatened by the icon's travel, that they ended up ARRESTING THE ICON!! and sending to it 'prison' at the Cathedral, eventually ordering it back to Czestochowa and forbidding it to leave. Cardinal continued to spread the faith by sending the ICON'S FRAME around the country as a symbol that Communists could take an icon, but they could not kill what it stood for... the Polish people's childlike faith in Our Lady's Protection.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa. I encourage you to read this prayer -for us Poles, it is natural to join spiritually with our homeland in such a consecration. But even those without Polish descent can simply pray the prayer inserting their own heritage and ethnicity into it. What if the whole world loved and consecrated themselves to Mary like this?

Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski, pray for us!

St. Pope John Paul II, pray for us!

All you Polish saints, pray for us!

Our Lady of Czestochowa, pray for us!

I will be doing a podcast next week about all of this -and the history of our holy Polish saints!

S

The Pledge of Jasna Góra

O Great Mother of God and Man! The Virgin who gave birth to God, Mary who was praised by God! The

Queen of the world and the Queen of Poland!

Since three centuries have passed since that joyous day when you became Queen of Poland, we, the

Children of the Polish nation and your children, of the same bloodline as our Ancestors, stand once again

before You, full of those same feelings of love, faithfulness, and hope that once enlivened our Fathers.

We, the Polish Bishops and the Royal clergy, a People saved by the saving Blood of Your Son, come,

Mary, again to Your Throne, O great Mediator of Grace, Mother of Mercy and of all consolation. We

bring to Your immaculate feet all the centuries of our faithfulness to God and the Church of Christ, the

centuries of faithfulness to the lofty mission of the Nation, washed in the water of holy Baptism. We

place at Your feet ourselves and everything that we have: our families, houses of worship, homes, fields

and workplaces, plows, hammers and pens, all of our efforts, our beating hearts and our bursts of will. We

stand before You full of gratitude that You have been our Virgin of Assistance at times of glory and at the

many times of disaster. We stand before You full of repentance, with a sense of guilt for not yet fulfilling

the pledges and promises of our Fathers. Look upon us, O Kind Lady, with the eye of Your Mercy, and

hear the mighty voices which go out to You in a harmonious chorus from the depths of the hearts of many

millions of those from the People of God who have been given over to You.

O Queen of Poland! We renew today the pledge of our Ancestors to You as our Patron and we recognize

You as the Queen of the Polish Nation. Both ourselves and all the Polish lands and all the People we

commend to Your special protection and defense. We humbly call for Your help and mercy in the struggle

to remain faithful to God, the Cross and the Gospels, the holy Church and its Shepherds, our holy

Fatherland which is the advanced guard of Christianity dedicated to Your Immaculate Heart and the Heart

of Your Son. Remember, Virgin Mother, when in the presence of God, the nation that was given to You,

which wants to remain Your Kingdom, under the protection of the Greatest Father of all the nations of

earth. We promise to do everything in our power so that Poland will be truly Your Kingdom and Your

Son's Kingdom, given over entirely to Your rule in our personal, family, national, and social lives.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Mother of Divine Grace! We pledge to you to protect the gift of grace, which is the source of Divine

Life, in every Polish heart. We hope that every one of us will live in sanctifying grace and be a temple of

God, that the entire Nation will live without mortal sin, and that it will become a House of God and a

Gate of Heaven for the generations passing across the Polish lands, under the leadership of the Catholic

Church, to the eternal Fatherland.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Holy Mother of God and Mother of Good Advice! We pledge to You, with eyes focused on the manger

of Bethlehem, that henceforth we will all defend unborn life. We will fight to defend every child and

every cradle as courageously as our Fathers fought for the existence and freedom of the Nation, paying

with their own blood. We are ready to die rather than kill a single defenseless one. We consider the gift of

life to be the greatest Grace of the Father of all Life, and as the most valuable treasure of the Nation.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Mother of Christ and House of Gold! We pledge to You to defend the permanence of marriage, to

protect the dignity of women, to guard the domestic hearth so that within it the lives of Poles will be safe.

We pledge to you to strengthen the reign of Your Son Jesus Christ in the family, to protect the honor of

the Name of God, to implant in the hearts and minds of children the spirit of the Gospels and love

towards You, to guard the laws of God and Christian and national traditions. We pledge to You to raise the

young generations in faithfulness to Christ, to defend them against godlessness and depravity and

surround them with watchful parental protection.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Mirror of Justice! Listening closely to the eternal longings of the Nation, we pledge to You to walk in

the Light of Justice, in Christ our Lord. We promise to work hard so that in our Fatherland all children of

the Nation will live in love and justice, in harmony and peace, so that among us there will be no hatred,

violence, or exploitation. We promise to share among ourselves willingly the harvests of the earth and the

fruits of labor, so under the common roof of our house there will be no hunger, no homelessness, no

weeping.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Victorious Lady of Jasna Góra! We promise to fight under Your banner a most holy and most difficult

struggle with our national defects. We promise to declare war on laziness and recklessness, wastefulness,

drunkenness, and promiscuity. We promise to attain the virtues of faithfulness and conscientiousness,

hard work and frugality, self denial and mutual respect, love and social justice.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

O Queen of Poland! We renew of the Pledge of our Fathers and promise that we will diligently strengthen

and spread in our hearts and in the Polish Lands your honor and the worship of You, Mother of God, who

is praised in so many of our houses of worship, particularly in Your capital of Jasna Góra. We give over to

you in a particular act of love every Polish home and every Polish heart, so that we will never cease to

speak of Your glory on any day, particularly on Your holydays. We pledge to walk in the path of Your

virtue, Virgin Mother and Faithful Lady, and with Your help fulfill our pledges.

Response: Queen of Poland, we so pledge!

In fulfilling these pledges we see a living vote of the Nation, more precious to You than granite and

bronze. Let them commit us to a worthy preparation of our hearts for the 1000 year anniversary of Polish

Christianity. On the eve of the 1000 year anniversary of the Baptism of our Nation we want to remember

that You first sang to the nation the hymn of liberation from slavery and sin; that You first stood in

defense of the little children and those who hungered, and showed the world the Light of Justice, of

Christ, and of our God. We want to remember that You are the Mother of our Way, Truth, and Life, that in

Your Maternal Face we will most surely recognize Your Son, to whom you unfailingly point the way.

Accept our pledge, strengthen it our hearts and place it before God in the One Holy Trinity. In Your hands

we place our past and future, all our national and social life, the Church of Your Son and everything that

is precious to us in God. Lead us through the land of Poland, which is given over to you, to the Gates of

the Heavenly Fatherland. And at the threshold of the new life show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of Your

womb. Amen.

Source: Stefan Wyszyński, "The Pledge of Jasna Góra."