Lednica paves the way to Krakow

At the end of the general audience of June 3, Pope Francis “encouraged” Polish youths ahead of their meeting in Lednica, to “convey your bond with Christ and with his Church”. “With all my heart I share in your joy, your enthusiasm, and your desire for the Holy Spirit. He prompts your zeal and bestows love. He is creative, gives life, the strength and the thrust that you need. We all have a great need of Him”, said the Pontiff, wishing young people: “Be strong with His Force. With Him go and transform the world”. As many as 100 thousand young Poles are expected to convene in the vast area of Lednica, not far from Pozna, near the ancient capital of Poland Gniezno, Saturday June 6, “In the name of the Holy Spirit” – title of the 19th event -, in preparation for the WYD in Krakow 2016. Two million youths in the past twenty years have prayed on the Lednica esplanade. Symbolical emphasis. Year after year, the meeting of young people in Lednica, launched in 1997 by the Dominican monk Jan Gora, brings together increasing numbers of participants also thanks to the involving initiative that begins the morning of Saturday with the sacrament of penance and penitential liturgy, followed by the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the passage through the symbolic Door of the third millennium. The meetings in Lednica are traditionally rich with symbolic features. This year the symbols of the meeting will be incense, candles and crosses of the Holy Spirit. Young people will bring bags with a handful of earth from home which they will scatter on the esplanade so it may become” their homeland”, the organizers said. This will happen during one of the four phases of the meeting dedicated respectively to earth, water, fire and wind. The message of the primate. The meeting will be attended by the primate of Poland, archbishop of Gniezno, Monsignor Wojciech Polak, who will deliver the evening homily during the major Eucharistic celebration presided over by the president of Polish bishops and archbishop of Poznan, Monsignor Stanislaw Gadecki. “The meeting in Lednica is above all an important profession of faith; but it’s a mood that should last more than one day”, underlined Msgr. Wojciech Polak, For many years Msgr. Polak has crossed the millenary Door also called the “Arch of the Fish” with the youths. He said that “the choice of Christ” symbolized by that passage “should not be a gesture made only once in a lifetime” since “it should be done every day, in different – and difficult – situations, with colleagues and sometimes also with family members”. For the prelate, the youths who attend Lednica give a testimony of faith “and even though they confront difficulties, they can be helped by the gifts of the Holy Spirit”, which “are not gifts to be put on a shelf but rather authentic support”. The primate, recalling the Pope’s words on the world “that needs love, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness and sweetness”, underlined that young people “who are the future of the world”, necessitate “the gifts of the Holy Spirit received in the sacrament of confirmation” and especially “wisdom and courage, rectitude and judiciousness”. Testimony of faith. This year’s meeting in Lednica will be attended also by the participants in the WYD 2016, while a Polish musical group, along with young Italians, will perform the “song of the pilgrim”, whose lyrics quote from the Message of the Divine Mercy of Lagiewniki and from John Paul II who encouraged young people to “bearing courageous faith witness”. “I tell the faithful that they should implement the WYD as of today, and not wait for 2016”, said cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, president of the Organizing Committee of WYD2016, who approved the new project of the pastoral care of young people drawn up for next year’s meeting in Krakow titled, “Young Missionaries of Mercy”. The idea of the project, as explained by Monsignor Damian Muskus, auxiliary bishop of Krakow, responsible for the WYD organizing committee, is “to show how many good things happen around us already today in the hope that they will transform those who carry out these gestures as well as those who are not actively committed but observe from a distance”. Msgr. Muskus announced that during the WYD 2016 young Poles will hand to Pope Francis and to the Church the “Great book of Witness” of the young missionaries of mercy.