Post by Bonobo on Apr 24, 2008 20:54:03 GMT 1
In April 1957, the Primate of Poland Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, after having been released from prison, proposed the peregrination of a faithful copy of the Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Jasna Gora in all Polish parishes. The Primate said: ''Since the whole nation cannot visit her Queen at Jasna Gora the Mother of God will visit all her children, where they live, i.e. in their parishes.'
The peregrination started and at first communist rulers didn`t bother the picture. Serious brawls started in 1966 during 1000 anniversary of the christening of Poland. Communists tried to interpret it as the beginning of the Polish state, while the nation led by the Church prefered to see religious aspects.
The picture was stopped several times by communist secret police.
However, the communists could not bear the spiritual sign of the presence of Mary in the Polish nation. After the celebrations in Lublin, on 6 June (other sources give 7 June), the Picture was transported to Jasna Gora. After the driver covered about 20 km the police, including a high rank officer and a prosecutor, halted the car. All flowers were thrown out of the car; the car was covered by a dirty tarpaulin, and piloted to Jasna Gora.After a week some priests from the Diocese of Warmia drove to Jasna Gora to take the Picture of the Visitation to the millennium celebration in Frombork, which was to be held on 19 June. On the morning of 20 June, after the celebration had ended in Frombork, Cardinal Wyszynski took the picture to carry it to Warsaw. On the way from Warsaw, between Pasleka and Ostroda, in the place called Liksajny, the Primate's car was surrounded by a police motor escort that used force to take over the car-chapel with the Picture and transported it to the Warsaw cathedral. Consequently, the millennium celebrations in Nowy Dwor and Warszawa-Zoliborz, in Stanislaus Kostka's Church, did not take place.
The priests put the Picture behind the barred window of the sacristy. The faithful gathered before the Picture in the street, they put flowers, lit candles and prayed. The millennium celebration in Sandomierz was held without the Picture. The authorities seemed to be triumphant.
Eventually, it was "arrested." by heroic communist services.
The Visitation was to begin in the Diocese of Katowice on 4 September. When the priests were driving the picture from Warsaw on Friday, 2 September, they were brutally stopped in the forest near Bedzin by the police and commanded to go to Jasna Gora. In the monastery of Jasna Gora a police officer called the Prior and said, 'The order of the highest state authorities is that the picture is to remain at Jasna Gora. Otherwise, all seminarians will be conscripted and your Warsaw monastery will be closed!' Soon police cars controlled all cars leaving Jasna Gora. The pilgrims called the police who guarded the Picture 'Swedes of the 20th century.'
From that time the programme of the Visitation in dioceses and parishes was performed till 1972 and it was an empty frame, decorated with flowers and a symbolic candle and an evangeliary that were taken from one parish to another.
After the Picture had been arrested the communist party thought that the Visitation would finish. But the spiritual fruits of the Visitation with 'the empty frame' were not fewer than the one with the Picture. And perhaps they were even more fruits since they were covered by tears. On 4 April 1967, during the celebration that began the Visitation in the Diocese of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla said in Nowy Targ, 'We are facing the empty frame but this frame expresses pain - it is a part of our cross... Mary expresses universal love that unites. No one is excluded from this love, no one is rejected although he rejects. We all experience the visitation, all are invited to the visitation.'
The picture before its arrest
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104
Communists declare no passage for the picture,
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104&idz=8
cover the car with dirty tarpaulin and escort it back to the monastery.
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104&idz=6
The empty frame is hanging in visited churches
If you ever wondered why communism had to relinquish power, here is an explanation. They had to lose if they were so stupid as to arrest the picture of God`s Mother in a country so Catholic as Poland.
The peregrination started and at first communist rulers didn`t bother the picture. Serious brawls started in 1966 during 1000 anniversary of the christening of Poland. Communists tried to interpret it as the beginning of the Polish state, while the nation led by the Church prefered to see religious aspects.
The picture was stopped several times by communist secret police.
However, the communists could not bear the spiritual sign of the presence of Mary in the Polish nation. After the celebrations in Lublin, on 6 June (other sources give 7 June), the Picture was transported to Jasna Gora. After the driver covered about 20 km the police, including a high rank officer and a prosecutor, halted the car. All flowers were thrown out of the car; the car was covered by a dirty tarpaulin, and piloted to Jasna Gora.After a week some priests from the Diocese of Warmia drove to Jasna Gora to take the Picture of the Visitation to the millennium celebration in Frombork, which was to be held on 19 June. On the morning of 20 June, after the celebration had ended in Frombork, Cardinal Wyszynski took the picture to carry it to Warsaw. On the way from Warsaw, between Pasleka and Ostroda, in the place called Liksajny, the Primate's car was surrounded by a police motor escort that used force to take over the car-chapel with the Picture and transported it to the Warsaw cathedral. Consequently, the millennium celebrations in Nowy Dwor and Warszawa-Zoliborz, in Stanislaus Kostka's Church, did not take place.
The priests put the Picture behind the barred window of the sacristy. The faithful gathered before the Picture in the street, they put flowers, lit candles and prayed. The millennium celebration in Sandomierz was held without the Picture. The authorities seemed to be triumphant.
Eventually, it was "arrested." by heroic communist services.
The Visitation was to begin in the Diocese of Katowice on 4 September. When the priests were driving the picture from Warsaw on Friday, 2 September, they were brutally stopped in the forest near Bedzin by the police and commanded to go to Jasna Gora. In the monastery of Jasna Gora a police officer called the Prior and said, 'The order of the highest state authorities is that the picture is to remain at Jasna Gora. Otherwise, all seminarians will be conscripted and your Warsaw monastery will be closed!' Soon police cars controlled all cars leaving Jasna Gora. The pilgrims called the police who guarded the Picture 'Swedes of the 20th century.'
From that time the programme of the Visitation in dioceses and parishes was performed till 1972 and it was an empty frame, decorated with flowers and a symbolic candle and an evangeliary that were taken from one parish to another.
After the Picture had been arrested the communist party thought that the Visitation would finish. But the spiritual fruits of the Visitation with 'the empty frame' were not fewer than the one with the Picture. And perhaps they were even more fruits since they were covered by tears. On 4 April 1967, during the celebration that began the Visitation in the Diocese of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla said in Nowy Targ, 'We are facing the empty frame but this frame expresses pain - it is a part of our cross... Mary expresses universal love that unites. No one is excluded from this love, no one is rejected although he rejects. We all experience the visitation, all are invited to the visitation.'
The picture before its arrest
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104
Communists declare no passage for the picture,
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104&idz=8
cover the car with dirty tarpaulin and escort it back to the monastery.
www.jasnagora.com/galZdjecMiniNews.php?ID=3104&idz=6
The empty frame is hanging in visited churches
If you ever wondered why communism had to relinquish power, here is an explanation. They had to lose if they were so stupid as to arrest the picture of God`s Mother in a country so Catholic as Poland.
