Poland. All of my great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts and great uncles, my mother, and her two brothers, were born there. I have friends, some of the most beautiful polish friends, who still live there. I was honored to visit 20 years ago, desiring to pay my respects to my Polish heritage. I wanted to celebrate my roots. And as I heard Gods voice speak directly to my heart the moment he said, "Kiss The Ground, All Your Ancestors Are With You"! And I just stood numb in my tracks on a tour bus with tears rolling down my face, I could not move. It was as if God was confirming in me, in that moment, he was pleased with my decision to visit the native land of my beloved ancestors. I just had to touch the soil and feel the connection empower me. And they did. And I remember the stories of my grandmothers wedding in the harsh cold winter, on a horse drawn sled, as she went to church to marry my grandfather. And the story of her parents arranged wedding by their parents. The blood line of my loved ones runs deeply through my veins, and I so thank God because I can still enter into their presence through profound silence and prayer. I can recall when my grandmother died, and she spoke to me and said, stop crying, you have to let me go! That is how much love God placed in my heart for my family. And that same love still exits in me and in them because I include them in prayer at mass, and invite them to be where I am. God allowed me to be born, a faithful catholic, I am a woman of faith, and my faith is my priceless treasure. The faithful are empowered by God I believe to do more than most, and we live much more meaningful lives with God at the helm. I have a rich lineage because of God, because of my ancestors, because my faith has the deepest roots locked into Polish History, it is a beloved nation full of Polish Royalty and the rich fulness s of God. Those holy Polish people. Family, friends, priests, sisters, saints, (Kolbe, Faustina, John Paul) and martyrs of concentration camps, I so love them all! I connect myself to them because I am Polish. And my faith includes me in their story, and I build upon that beautiful tapestry and prosper as a Polish American woman who writes in truth. I have to believe they see me. They see the growth, they see the effort I make, and I desire to surpass what was then and add to what is now. Partaking in the fruit of God's vineyard. I am only a grape on the cluster of fruit connected to the vine, and Jesus is the vine grower, the life source that feeds me the truth in everything I need to know and everything I need to become in God. Today I met a new woman at church, she was so excited to be there she said, she could feel the presence of God, he feeds us she said food for our bodies to heal them. It is as if God gathers his own and brings them together. And I am so thankful to hear that God is moving hearts and bringing believers back to himself. I also met another woman at church, who was crying in the ladies room, she said, she could feel Gods presence very strongly. I gave her a big hug and welcomed her to our church family. When we welcome a stranger, we are welcoming God. Because God is living in each and every one of us. He is counting on us all to reap a harvest in his name, a harvest that will go on to last forever. A harvest rich in his love, in his service, and through prayer and the sacraments and the power of the holy spirit living in us we can prosper to our fullest potential in Christ. We can, and we will, because we desire to be like Christ and when we go out into the world and share what we know about him, we empower the faithful, and we enrich each other and the journey becomes much more sweeter than we ever imagined.
