Boże, który każdemu narodowi dajesz ludzi świętych i szlachetnych, aby mu byli wzorem do naśladowania, wzmacniaj nas łaską swoją, abyśmy idąc za ich przykładem prowadzili życie cnotliwe i ofiarne dla swych współziomków. Amen
O Boże, nadgrodo dusz wiernych, daj nam za wstawieniem się wyznawcy i biskupa św. Bazylego, którego dzień narodzin dla nieba dzisiaj obchodzimy, wytrwałość w znoszeniu dolegliwości życia, i stałość w wyznawaniu katolickiej wiary. Amen.
I have a rather old book in my possession that belonged to my grandparents. It is the Lives of the Saints in the Polish language with a special emphasis on the blesseds and venerables of Polish heritage.
The book is entirely in Polish and was published in 1904 in Warsaw, Winterberg, and New York by the firm of J. Steinbrenner, Catholic Book Publishers. Its author is Father J.A. Łukaszkiewicz under the authority of Bishop Martin Joseph Riha, Bishop of Budwies in the Czech Republic (Bohemia at the time).
I plan to republish the daily prayers contained in this book throughout the year.
As a start the book contains an inside plate of Mary and the child Jesus surrounded by the saints. Below them is a Romanesque church with Polish nobility and peasants kneeling in adoration.
The picture is inscribed “Królowo nasza, módl się za nami!” “Our Queen, pray for us!”
While I am on the subject of the Tatras and Goralskie culture I wanted to make mention of one of the pre-eminent Polish priest-philosophers of Goralskie heritage, Fr. Józef Tischner (1931-2000)
Father Józef Tischner was born on March 12, 1931 in Stary Sacz in the Tatra Mountains in Southern Poland.
One of Poland’s foremost priest-philosophers, Father Tischner maintained his close connection with the Goralskie (Highlander’s) culture and its dialect. The mountain culture had a tremendous impact on his philosophy and style.
Górale (Highlanders) are considered as a romantic, rural, freedom loving people by Poles and in Polonia and Father Tischner made a point of stressing his heritage and cultural affinity as a Góral.
In 1997 he published a short book with a tape-recorded transcript in which he relates the history of philosophy in the Highlanders’ dialect, Historia filozofii po góralsku. He especially stressed his love and connection to the land, and in particular, the Tatra mountains. Jan Andrzej Kloczowski OP commented: —… because he felt the land, he believed his responsibility was to be vigilant towards the thinking of those who walked and lived on that land.—
In 1981 Father Tischner was elected chaplain of the Solidarity movement. As a resident of Krakow, Father Tichner held a particular duty of care toward the steelworkers in the suburb of Nowa Huta, site of the ‘Lenin’ Steelworks and the home of the Ark church built by Krakow’s Roman Catholic Bishop, Karol Wojtla, in definance of the communist authorities.
Of solidarity Father Tischner wrote:
“This old but also very new word, solidarity, what does it mean? To what does it call us? What memories does it bring back? To explicate it more precisely, perhaps it is necessary to reach back into the Gospel and seek the origin of the word there. Christ explains its meaning: —Carry one another’s burden and in this way fulfill God’s law— (cf. Gal. 6:2).
What does it mean to be in solidarity? It means to carry the burden of another person… Solidarity has still another facet; solidarity does not need to be imposed from the outside by force… And one more thing – solidarity, the one that is borne from the pages and spirit of the Gospel, does not need an enemy or opponent to strengthen itself and grow. It turns towards all and not against anyone.” (Józef Tischner, The Spirit of Solidarity, trans. Marek B. Zaleski and Benjamin Fiore, S.J. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984) 2-3.)
Father Tischner echos the thoughts of the PNCC’s first Bishop, Francis Hodur in regard to the need to be regenerated, to make a free choice for God in our lives. He wrote:
“The freedom of God in relation to creation and the freedom of the human being towards God is the basic principle for understanding the history of salvation. In this history nothing ‘must be.’ It is rather the case that ‘everything can be.’ (Józef Tischner, Ksiadz na manowcach (Kraków: Znak, 1999) 74 -75.)
A tip of the biretta to Father Ben Fiore, S.J., a long time friend from my Buffalo days. We taught together in Poland as part of the Pomost International program. I first came across mention of Father Tischner while teaching in Rzeszow, Poland. One of Fr. Fiore’s  student’s noted that her husband was a translator for Fr. Tischner.
The photo I’ve included as a header banner is of Morskie Oko, an alpine mountain lake in the Tatra Mountains in Poland.
Morskie Oko is near Zakopane, Poland and is surrounded by spectacular mountain peaks rising over 1,000 meters above the lake’s surface.   The lake covers nearly 35 hectares (860 m by 560 m wide) and reaches a deapth of 50.8 m. The lake is in pristine condition and the water is very clear to a great depth. There are trout in the lake.
Morskie Oko literally means “Eye of the Sea” and legend says that it is connected via a subterranean passage with the Adriatic Sea.
The most captivating peak is Mnich, which means ‘the Monk’. The sharply pointed peak of Mnich resembles a monk’s hood. At the left corner of the lake is Rysy, which at 2,499 m is the highest peak in the Polish Tatras.
Part of my family originated in the foothills of the Polish Tatras, and this area has always captivated me. The people of this region are called Gorale.
About the Gorale (thank you mytarg.net)
The Gorals settled all around the Tatras, but were mainly concentrated in far northern Orava, Slovakia, the Podhale area of Poland (north side of the Tatras), in the Pieniny mountains to the east, and northern Spis county, Slovakia. They have always been a very independent people and loved their “Szlebodu” or freedom as they say it in their Goral dialect. In 1651 they rose up and ousted a particularly feared tyrant named Mikolaj Komorowski who ruled Zywiec, Nowy Targ and Zakopane.
Their ornate costumes of wool and flax are very regional in design, but the men’s trousers bare the kind of military stripes once common to Hungarian troops in Orava and Liptov counties in Slovakia.
During World War II the Goral were very much persecuted and killed by German troops. They responded by fighting the Nazis as partisan freedom fighters and kept the courier routes across the Tatras open.
The Goral are revered throughout the Slavic world — especially in Poland — for their wisdom, self-sufficient nature, work ethic, bravery, rich cultural dress, music, tales of the mountains, and hearty cuisine.   The majestic Tatra mountains are still where they feel most at home.