Find Your Fifteen!
“Place Christ at the centre of your life and see what happens.”
by Mark Caffrey (Seminarian)
Diocese of Meath Vocations Reflection
“It is not difficult to be a saint!” In 1935, those words, preached from the pulpit to a regular Sunday congregation in Kraków, Poland, changed the life of someone quite ordinary. Jan Tyranowski grew up thinking that sanctity was only for priests and religious; he was an unassuming, middle-class tailor who left a stressful career in accountancy to return to a family business. He was not a man of fame or influence. He didn’t desire attention or even financial success. An introvert, he felt more at home in nature than socialising in a crowd. But during the Nazi occupation, starting in 1939, when the Church in Poland was decimated and faced incredible persecution, Jan, a layman, was called upon to make a difference.
By May 1941, things weren't looking great in his home parish of St. Stanislaus. The Gestapo had taken away their priests; eleven of them were eventually martyred by the Nazis, along with a large percentage of Polish clergy. One of the remaining Salesian pastors asked Jan to take responsibility for what we would call “youth ministry” with the parish’s young men. Since Catholic youth work activities and organisations were illegal, the request was more than just a plea to help keep things going at the parish and it was more than a great new idea to reach out to people; it was an invitation to risk torture and execution. Jan said “yes,” and began to organise the young men of the parish into what he called Living Rosary groups.
After Mass, Jan would wait by the church door hoping to invite men into his rosary group. It wasn’t easy for him. He had a high voice and an intense manner. Despite these challenges, fifteen young men committed to meeting weekly to pray the rosary. They had faith-filled conversations and developed deep friendships. As a result of Jan’s efforts to teach them to pray and share their faith, eleven of those fifteen became priests at a time when Poland desperately needed them. Christ called, and Jan said yes to investing in these men. One of these fifteen was an aspiring actor: a young man named Karol, he was ordained a priest and bishop before becoming a cardinal and eventually Pope John Paul II. It was from Jan’s friendship that Karol found the courage to lay down his theatrical aspirations for the sacrificial life of the priesthood. The Church and the world were changed because of Jan Tyranowski’s “yes.”
John Paul II, one of the most influential men in the Church and in the modern world, lived as an underground seminarian in communist Poland. He was a poet, playwright, and philosopher. But it was his priesthood, where he also worked especially with young people, that mattered most to him. One year into his papacy he spent nine days in Poland, the effects of his visit sparked the end of communism not only there but throughout eastern Europe. This Polish man was empowered to boldly proclaim his faith, instilling hope in younger generations growing up in the tumultuous twentieth century.
John Paul has inspired many of us to become saints but let us also find inspiration in the man that inspired him to become a priest and saint, to become the man who would change the course of history, the man that God wanted him to be.
Throughout his time as pope, John Paul II kept a picture of Jan in his room. It is this humble man whom the pope credited for his vocation. The world would have seen Jan as forgettable, but his obedience to God nurtured in him the grace to change history. This is the power of Christian discipleship. This is the power of a simple “yes.” In reflecting on the influence that Jan Tyranowski had on his life, John Paul said:
“He was one of those unknown saints... In his words, in his spirituality and in the example of a life given to God alone, he represented a new world that I did not yet know. I saw the beauty of a soul opened up by grace."
So, I ask you, what if you said yes? Open yourselves up to God's will; open your head, your heart, and your hands. Place Christ at the centre of your life and see what happens. Share Him with others. Live like you have heard good news. If you want priests, go, make disciples. Jan found fifteen people to share his life with in Christian fellowship. He was a disciple-maker. So, find fifteen minutes to pray for people who are away from the Church; find fifteen minutes to invest in conversation and conversion; find fifteen minutes to study sacred scripture and learn about our beautiful Catholic faith. Above all, find fifteen people, find five, find one person around you to pray for that they will come to know Jesus in a personal way; and share your faith, your life, and your joy with them.
Saint John Paul, pray for us.
Venerable Jan Tyranowski, pray for us; help us to find fifteen.
For Further Reading:
● Pope John Paul II, Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination.
● https://focusequip.org/the-man-who-didnt-know-he-changed-the-world/
● https://catholic-link.org/meet-venerable-jan-tyranowski-an-ordinary-man-with-an-extr aordinary-impact/;
● www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/02/a-papal-tutor-of-heroic-virtue; ● https://www.ncregister.com/features/this-holy-man-aided-john-paul-ii-s-vocation
● https://aleteia.org/2017/01/07/how-a-tailor-in-nazi-occupied-territory-brought-the-world-a-pope/
Mr. Mark Caffrey
Seminarian for the Diocese of Meath, from the Parish of Ratoath, Co. Meath.