Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Opened the New Academic Year at the Catholic University in Lublin

The festive opening of the new academic year at the Catholic University in Lublin was traditionally celebrated on the third Sunday of October (16.10.2022). It started with the Eucharist preceded by His Beatitude and concelebrated by the Primate of Poland, the Archbishop of Lublin, and about fifty priests and bishops. In his homily the Latin Patriarch, commented on the Gospel of the 29th Sunday with the parable of the persistent widow, and said that the goal of a prayer is not to receive, but rather to stay in a relationship with God. "The attitude of prayer opens us to new perspectives in life" - continued the Patriarch. "Prayer prepares us to be witnesses of Christ and to give testimony like the one of the Christians in the Holy Land that are a small minority among other religious communities."

In his prolusion of the new academic year, H. B. Pierbattista Pizzaballa spoke about the biblical tradition of pilgrimages to the places chosen by God Himself. This feeling accompanies also today's pilgrims, coming to the Holy Land, and especially to Jerusalem. It is a return to the sources of faith as well as a meeting with the human nature of Christ and the historicity of God's Revelation. It may also be a meeting with the small part of the Church that sustains the Christian testimony in those places. Though being small and sparse the local Church tries to follow Jesus' call to be the salt of the earth. In order to fulfill this call, one needs to come back to the radicalism of Christian life, do the heart of the Gospel that is the Sermon at the Mount, to the love towards the enemies.