Fr Piotr A few days ago I read an article about a priest. Today was his funeral. Fr Piotr was a priest for six months. He died at the age of 25. His dream was to be a priest that’s why he entered the seminary of his diocese. However last year he was diagnosed of bowl and stomach cancer. It didn’t look good at all. The nun who broke the news to him also said: “God loves you so much. He has got great plans for you.” Fr Piotr was thinking what kind of plans God could have for a dying person. He shared his thoughts with his bishop and also revealed his desire to be ordained a priest ASAP. The bishop dispensed Piotr from the unfinished studies and on Christmas Day 2013 Piotr was ordained as no one knew how much time he had left. That Christmas day in the little chapel, like in Bethlehem where Christ was born a new and very ill priest was born. The Bishop said to him that day: “Christmas happened in fragility, uncertainties and fear… Piotr, you are being born to the priesthood in fragility of your body…. You have passed all exams required for the priesthood by the way you live your suffering. I want you Piotr, if it is the holy will of God, to serve the People of God by your priesthood at the altar, in the confessional, wherever you will be able to minister. I want you to minister your suffering in priestly manner.”
Christmas 2013
That short lived priesthood is a reminder that a priest is not a job but it is an identification with Christ the Lord who sacrificed himself. According to employment standards there was no much point to ordain a dying man who could do very little due to his rapidly deteriorating health but as his health was going down very quickly, his love for Jesus was skyrocketing. Fr Piotr served the Church very briefly but he has left people fascinated with God. Some months ago he wrote: “I don’t want the day of my death to be the day of despair and pain… It is the moment when I begin true life by the side of my Father in heaven.”
On the day of Canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II he gave a talk to the people in the church. Then he said: “The day of my death will be the most beautiful day of my life. After pain and suffering there will be joy and happiness. Through the death my life will be completed. Now I am looking forward to my death. It will be my great happiness. The desire to be with God will be given to me soon, I think. But I don’t ask for that, I just keep repeating: “Your holy will be done.”
On the day of Canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II he gave a talk to the people in the church. Then he said: “The day of my death will be the most beautiful day of my life. After pain and suffering there will be joy and happiness. Through the death my life will be completed. Now I am looking forward to my death. It will be my great happiness. The desire to be with God will be given to me soon, I think. But I don’t ask for that, I just keep repeating: “Your holy will be done.”
At last a priest, how good it is stand at the altar and celebrate Mass
Fr Piotr was offered a treatment in a good clinic. He refused. He didn't want to spend months away fro his church. He wanted to live his final weeks as a priest. People remember the young and exhausted priest climbing the steps to the Cathedral to celebrate his daily Mass and hear confessions. When pain was unbearable he kept repeating: "I will remember you when I am with my Lord." He offered his suffering so that the seminary, where he was prepared for the priesthood, could always give the Church holy priests.
Think about heaven
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