Gorzów Wlkp: Over 5 thousand people attend a program with an Indian missionary

Catholic Information Agency
27.07.2009, last updated 30.07.2009  http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,81048,6862207,Gorzow_Wlkp___ponad_5_tys__osob_na_spotkaniu_z_hinduskim.html

Over 5000 people prayed on 26 July at the holy Mass celebrated by the Indian missionary, Fr.James Manjackal, at the stadium named after Edward Jancarz in Gorzów Wielkopolski.

In the afternoon the faithful launched a march from the Cathedral of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, across the old town bridge over the Warta River, on to the stadium where the holy Eucharist was celebrated.

The charismatic preacher talked about his miraculous healing and numerous signs and wonders he had witnessed during 34 years of his missionary work. “Open your hearts to the Saviour”, exhorted the Indian priest. We must open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, He will lead us to Jesus Christ who forgives all our sins. “If one is in sin, then his heart is in darkness, so in his blindness he cannot see God”, the missionary reminded the faithful. The prayer meeting at the stadium lasted until late evening hours.

For the preceding four days a charismatic retreat had been held at the primary school no.20 in Gorzów. Over one thousand participants from all over Poland took part in it. The retreat included prayers for physical and spiritual healing.

Fr.James Manjackal was born on 18 April 1946 in Cheruvally, India. He is a priest in the Congregation of the Missionaries of St.Francis de Sales (M.S.F.S.) which was founded in Annecy, France in 1838. He was ordained priest in 1973. He founded a charismatic retreat centre in the state of Kerala, India.

Fr.Manjackal has already preached in over 90 countries all over the world.  In all his retreats prayers for healing are included. In Gorzów Wielkopolski he proclaimed that he saw all Poles and prayed for everybody in this country, desiring that his words would reach all Polish people and he hoped that even after his death the vibrations of his voice would be heard by the next generations in that town. “That is why I always pray and sing very loud”, stressed the charismatic preacher.

March for Jesus launched in Gorzów
http://www.gazetalubuska.pl/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090726/POWIAT04/754002620
(roch)

The participants of the charismatic renewal retreat take part in the first ever such march ending at the town stadium.

The March and Mass at the stadium end a four day retreat preached by Fr.James Manjackal. The Indian charismatic is renowned for his healing ministry. Around 1000 participants from virtually all over Europe took part in the retreat, whereas many more Gorzów inhabitants and others joined the March and Mass at the stadium.
The March and Mass at the stadium end a four day retreat with Fr.James Manjackal. 
   (fot. Henryka Bednarska)

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Several thousand people marched through Gorzów, praying for the town and its inhabitants

“Jesus is really present in the Eucharist” – stressed Fr. James Manjackal.

A packed sports hall at the Primary School no.20 in Gorzów seems to be a strong argument in favour of the truth that today people are still looking for the experience of the living God. A thousand retreat participants…Not even pilgrimages draw such crowds nowadays. What attracted all those people who came from Gdansk, Szczecin, Warsaw and many places in our diocese?

That magnet must surely have been the charismatic priest from India, Fr.James Manjackal, who preached a retreat in Gorzów entitled: “Jesus heals”.

The Catholic power
I think people are attracted by the rediscovered charism of healing and Father James ministers with this very charism…That is why those who are spiritually and physically sick come to his retreats – explains Fr.Waldemar Grzyb, the organizer of the Gorzów retreat. People, convinced that the healing was taking place in them, gave testimonies from the first day of the retreat. They talked of receding aches and pains, all kinds of conditions healed and improvement in their spiritual health. Still, it was not just looking at Fr.James Manjackal that brought on those effects.

The friar preaches that Jesus Christ heals also today, that everything is possible with Him and he advises the listeners to take what the Church has to offer. “Father James comes from India. He emphasizes that we are Catholics and so we should draw our power from that source. He talks about general confession, about Jesus who heals in the Eucharist and he advocates prayer of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament as well as fasting”. – says Fr.Grzyb.

It is not me
Prayer of adoration and praise flows from the stage. – “Jesus, be present among us” – is the crowd’s plea.

Men and women, young and old, even children raise up their hands to heaven, singing songs of praise. People keep coming onto the stage to share their stories.
- “I have regained the will for living”, says Ania when she talks about her fight against depression, claustrophobia and loneliness.
- “I suffered from joints degeneration. I could hardly move around but now I feel like a butterfly. I can simply run!” – cried out Wies?awa from Barlinek.
- “The Lord healed me of uterus tumour” – says Jolanta from Rzepin.

More testimonies are given like healing of back pains, Achilles tendon, rheumatism, depression as well as son’s reunion with wife, forgiving an alcoholic father, healing of memories. Many people thank Fr.James for his prayers. “Never say that Fr.James Manjackal healed you. It is Jesus! Give Him the glory!” – exhorts Fr.Manjackal ending the testimony time. “Whenever you give a testimony, you give glory to God. Because of your testimony more people will believe in Christ” - he adds.

At the end of the three days’ retreat Fr. James emphasises that every human being who wants to grow and develop must be fed. “I have such spiritual vitamins for you” – he says. In the ‘vitamin’ set he lists: personal prayer, the Eucharist, God’s Word, family prayer and weekly prayer fellowship. At weekends, when you have more time, go to church and pray before the Blessed Sacrament – encourages the priest. Fr.James stressed that a Catholic should know the teachings of the Church, he should read the Cathechism of the Catholic Church, the Encyclicas and all the other Pope’s documents. “Let the desire to get to know the Church awaken in you” – he exhorted.

Upon leaving the school we hear conversations. – “I have begun a three days’ fast in your intention” – an elderly lady says to someone on the phone. – “I am praying for you” – says somebody else.

A town of prayer
The retreat is not all there is. On a July Sunday afternoon a float carrying the evangelizing group, the musicians and Fr.Manjackal starts the march from the cathedral. “March for Jesus” is commenced with prayers. The passage through the town streets is to end with the Holy Mass along with prayer for healing at the speedway stadium. – “The march and the Mass is the time when we want to preach Jesus Christ and tell everybody not to be afraid for Jesus is alive! We can transform the image of Gorzów if we say “yes” to Lord Jesus and change our lives.” – says one of the organizers, Monika Hoszek, of St.Titus Association active at the Gorzów cathedral.

Crowds of people join the march. There are flags, people dance and raise their hands praying for all the inhabitants of Gorzów - for their conversion, work, families, young people. For a moment well known squares, lawns and pedestrian crossings are turned into places of prayer and worship.

Healing at the stadium
About 6 thousand people are gathered at the Gorzów stadium which today is a witness to a different kind of meeting from a sport game. In the middle of the lawn there is a stage. Songs of praise and more testimonies can be heard, people telling of how God transforms human life and heals spiritual and physical sickness. Fr.James along with over a dozen or so priests begins the lithurgy. These priests heard confessions at the stadium earlier in the day. Next to the altar there are the handicapped and the sick. A mum with a little boy who is unable to walk, parents with a handicapped daughter on a wheelchair…Many people with photos of their loved ones for whom they will especially intercede with the Lord today.

“Remember that Jesus lives in the Church and in the sacraments. He says: “This is my Body and my Blood”. Here, in the Eucharist, He is physically present” – Fr.James preaches with power and he recalls many stories of when he experienced the presence of God. “Remember, all the graces and blessings are in the Church” – he emphasizes and calls again: “We have seven sacraments that help us open the heaven!”

After the holy Mass, Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. The crowd of several thousand prays and experiences God’s presence with their eyes fixed on the Host… 

This time the town speedway stadium was filled with God’s fans.

Confession at the stadium. At the retreat and during the Masses numerous incentives were given for people to reconcile with God.

Click here for the video
 

Fr. James Manjackal will be hosting a retreat at the ANIL Pavillion on May 1st through the 3rd. Fr. Manjackal was born in India in 1946, and according to his web site, he was "miraculously healed after a charismatic 20 year old young man, who had been recently converted, prayed for him and asked God for Fr. Manjackal's cure".  Since then he left his responsibilities as a Seminar Professor and dedicated himself to evangelizing. 

He preached his first charismatic retreat on February 17, 1976, in India and in 1989 Fr. Manjackal established a Charismatic Retreat Center in the city of Kerala, India named "Charis Bhavan". 

You can read on his site that he has preached more than one thousand and four-hundred retreats in all five continents.  Fr. Manjackal has held thirteen retreats in Portugal; six in Fatima, three in Estoril, one in Setubal, one in Anadia, one in Lamego and one in Braga.

James Manjackal who has been arrested due to his preaching, claims on his web site that he has had to deal with "opposition as well as persecutions" during his retreats.  "Together with S. Paul, I will also say that I have the energy for all through Him Who gives me strength", he stated. 
After Covilha, where the retreat started on Friday at 2:30 pm and on Saturday and Sunday at 9:30 am, Fr. Manjackal will travel to Austria, Switzerland, Germany and return to Portugal on May 29th to host and preach a retreat in Braga at the Crypt of Our Lady of Sameiro (Nossa Senhora do Sameiro).  He will be at the Fatima Santuary in October, at the "Good Shepart Hall" (Salao do Bom Pastor) " which is part of the "Pastoral Paul VI Center", and in November Fr. Manjackal will be at the Pastoral Paul VI Center Auditorium (Auditorio do Centro Pastoral Paulo VI).