In the second half of October 2024, the Piarist Charism Day took place in the Mission Animation Centre in Konstancin-Jeziorna, in the house run by the Pallottine Fathers. It is a meeting organised in two shifts, from the 20th to the 23rd and from the 23rd to the 26th of October, in order to allow the participation of all the religious of the Province. This day (abbreviated DChP in Polish) took place for the first time in the past four years, and now it was its second edition. This year, a total of 76 Piarists from our province took part in the two events.
The participants listened to two lectures. Joanna Nowińska from the Cor Patris Association, a biblical scholar, spoke about the fundamental importance of a personal encounters with Jesus using the example of the post-Easter communities of the early Church. Fr Carles Gil, General Assistant for Europe, presented the topic: ‘How the charism revitalises our lives’, based on the sources of the Gospel and the Calasanctian sources.
His experiences were shared by the guests present: Joanna Jurga, Piarist from Rzeszów; Mateusz Łyczko, layman, responsible for the very large group of altar servers in the Piarist parish of Kraków-Wieczysta; Damian Ruszel, layman, founder and then coordinator of the theatre group ‘Atmosfera’ and artistic projects in the parish of St. Joseph of Calasanz in Rzeszów. They shared their testimony through recordings: Paulina Duszyńska, educator in the kindergarten in Poznań, Gabriela and Piotr Wąsacz, who were involved in many non-formal education projects, including the choir and doposcuola of the parish in Rzeszów; Sebastian and Olga Romaniak, alumni and members of the Calasanz Movement’s formation group in the Provincial House in Kraków-Pijarska.
An important element of the dynamics of the event were the meetings in small groups, an opportunity to share the fruits of the preparation days in the communities that preceded the meetings of the actual day. The programme of the two shifts was concluded in Góra Kalwaria, where the Piarist house with the school and church was located between 1675 and 1810, where St. Stanislaus Papczyński, former Piarist and founder of the Marians, lived. The symbolic and very significant moment was the celebration of the Eucharist presided over by Father Provincial Mateusz Pindelski at his shrine and the subsequent blessing of the saint’s relics by Father Paweł Naumowicz, the former Provincial Superior of the Congregation of the Marian Clerics of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
