We are all experiencing a very difficult experience of a coronavirus pandemic. We live in a troublesome and uncertain time. Deprived of peace, concerned about health, worried about work, uncertain of tomorrow, we try somehow to live in all of this. When the idea to create a new Chapter of the John Paul II Foundation among the French Polonia arose, we wondered if this was a good time for such an undertaking. After many thoughts, we already know! This is the best time, because we need Saint John Paul II more than ever.
On Sunday, May 9, 2021, with the solemn holy Mass we inaugurated the activities of the John Paul II Foundation Chapter at the Polish parish of St. Paul in Aulnay sous Bois, France. St. John Paul II has been in a certain way “present” in our parish for several years now. We have his sacred relics of blood. Every first Thursday of the month during the Mass, we pray in a special way through the intercession of St. John Paul II for new vocations from our community. In the city where our church is located there is John Paul II Square. Both, the square and the relics, are due to the long-term efforts of one of the families in our parish. Today, we are all the more pleased that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Holy Father, on the tenth anniversary of his beatification and the seventh anniversary of canonization, a new Chapter of the John Paul II Foundation was created.
The holy Mass celebrated by Father Zbigniew Wcisło, Provincial of the Society of Christ for Polonia Abroad in France, Spain and Portugal, was very solemn. With great joy in their hearts, the representatives of the newly formed Chapter brought the relics of St. John Paul II into the procession and laid them on the altar. In his homily, Father Zbigniew delivered his personal testimony of meeting the Holy Father when he was a senior in a high school and how this meeting resulted in a priestly vocation. During the Mass, we were expressing our gratitude for the gift of the Pontificate of the Holy Father and for the Foundation which he created. At the same time, we asked for the good fruits of the activities of the newly formed Chapter of the John Paul II Foundation in Aulnay sous Bois. The parish choir “Soli Deo” provided beautiful musical and vocal setting for the liturgy. At the end of the Mass there was a blessing with the relics of the Holy Pope. Then, Provincial Zbigniew Wcisło, the parish priest Jarosław Koch, the president of the newly formed FJPII Chapter, Mr. Czesław Noster along with his wife, members of the FJPII Chapter, gentlemen from the Honorary Guard of the Lord’s Tomb, and two representatives of Polish veterans in France, went to the John Paul II Square to lay a bouquet of flowers under a commemorative plaque.
Text: Elisabeth Noster
Photo: Zbigniew Adamek
