As part of an initiative of the Secretaries for the missions of the Franciscan Family, Franciscan missionaries are offered an opportunity every year to meet and spend some time together. This year, a group of eleven friars participated, comprised of Friars Minor and Conventual Franciscan missionaries from various African and Latin American countries.
On June 20-23, 2023, this event took place at the Brama Mazur Spiritual and Recreational Center, (and friary) in the town of Ostróda, Poland. The friary is a presence of the Conventual Franciscan Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk). Usually, this event gives friars who work on other continents a chance to experience the culture and traditions of different nations―and of the universal Church in those places, observing their particular characteristics and different ways of operating. Thus, this common fraternal time together was an opportunity for the friars to get to know each other better, share experiences, pray together, end enjoy some recreation time.
The friars went on an outing to Poland’s Warmian-Masurian region, namely, to the Marian shrine in the village of Gietrzwałd; to the town of Warmiński, also known as the “Pearl of Warmia; to the Marian Shrine in the village of Stoczek Klasztorny where Blessed Cardinal Stefan WYSZYŃSKI, Primate of Poland, is interred; and to Frombork, the city of Nicolaus Copernicus. In addition, the participants had time for recreation at a lake near Ostróda and met for dinner at the home of the Teresian Sisters.
Each day, the friars joined the friar community in Ostróda for Mass, Liturgy of the Hours and meditation guided by the motto of the Pastoral Year “I Believe in the Church.” These activities fostered full communion with God and with the friars.
Friar Robert KOZIELSKI, Provincial Secretary for the Missions
