Apostolates
PARISH MINISTRY
The apostolate involving most of the Polish Salvatorians is the parish ministry. As we know from experience it consists of providing spiritual care to the faithful through animating the community and liturgical life. Many Priests and Brothers work as catechists in schools on the territories of their parishes.
Young Salvatorians formation program aims at preparing them to fulfill this ordinary and at the same time unique ministry with joy and generosity.
MISSIONS ABROAD
The missions ad gentes have been the priority for the Salvatorians from their very beginnings. Shortly after founding the Society Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan sent the first missionaries to Assam in north-eastern part of India. During the consecutive years the Society was dynamically growing.
Today members of the international Salvatorian Family work on all inhabited continents and continue their ministry as missionaries. Polish Salvatorians’ contribution to the missionary work of the Society and the Church in general is vast. Today they work for example in Tanzania, Mexico and Philippines. Moreover they support local Churches in Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and North America.
The Salvatorian Mission Procura assists the Salvatorian missionaries and missions. It coordinates the community of the missionary cooperators, who support missions spiritually and with material offerings.
MISSIONARY VOLUNTEERS
The Missionary Volunteering SALVATOR group are people associated with the Salvatorian Society, who want to live authentically their faith in Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. Willing to help others by offering their time, talents, skills and creativity they want to share their with faith and involve in the great work of proclaiming the Good News in the world.
Every year during their summer vacations the volunteers visit Salvatorian missions to aid missionaries and local communities.
EDUCATION & THERAPY SALVATORIAN CENTER
It provides assistance to those in crisis that is persons who find themselves in situations caused by factors (external situations), which one finds impossible to handle, because his or her coping mechanisms have failed. The Center offers help in developing interpersonal skills and solving problems relating to social interaction. It offers therapy mostly to the Priests and the consecrated and short-term psychological assistance.
SALVATORIAN INTERNET APOSTOLATE (SAI)
This apostolate responds to the need of preaching the Good News in the so-called virtual space. From 2000 the Salvatorian Internet Apostolate runs its own website www.katolik.pl. People involved in SAI also prepare and publish audio and video materials. They closely collaborate with the Spiritual Formation Center (recording materials from sessions and spiritual retreats) and with the SALWATOR Publishing House (audiobooks). In 2010 was founded the Studio Katolik: www.katolik.tv
SALVATORIAN VOCATION CENTER
The Salvatorian Vocation Center started more than 50 years ago and since then it has been serving men discerning their vocation. Thanks to this apostolate hundreds of young people have successfully chosen their path of life. Many of them joined the Salvatorian Family and other religious congregations and diocesan seminaries.
The Priests serving in the Center organize various initiatives (reflection days, spiritual retreats during winter break and summer vacations, hiking tours, trips, open days, prayer vigils etc.) that help people to discover their own mission.
SALVATORIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT
It is a very dynamic community guided by the Salvatorians. Joy, creativity, openness of the young people and their Priests as well as the solid formation program make it a friendly environment for growing in faith and human maturity. The apostolate provides many events combining prayer, development of talents and skills with good fun. The most important initiatives include: the Salvatorian Youth Forum and the Salvatorian Festival of Religious Song.
www.rms.sds.pl
www.forummlodych.sds.pl
www.festiwal.sds.pl
YOUNG SALVATORIANS
It is the newest youth apostolate of the Polish Province. It welcomes people who discover their vocation to live the Salvatorian charism in their daily life. They come mainly from the Salvatorian Youth Movement and play an important role in supporting Priests of that Movement.
ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH WORK
All Priests of the Salvatorian Society prepare themselves to fulfill their mission during the six year studies of Philosophy and Theology, concluded with the Master Thesis Defense. Province’s superiors support them in developing their gifts and talents through further studies in a specific professional area. It is motivated by the variety of apostolates run by the Salvatorians and by current needs.
The Priests specialized in a specific field (not only in area of Theology) work mostly as lecturers in our Seminary and other higher educational Catholic institutions in Poland and abroad. Some of them use their skills in apostolates (social communications, psychological counseling, spiritual direction).
PILGRIMAGES
Since many years the Salvatorians guide pilgrim groups in four Polish pilgrimages on foot to Częstochowa: from Warsaw (WAPM), Wrocław, Elbląg and Bielsko-Biała. The Polish Salvatorians also guide pilgrimages on foot abroad: from Chicago to Merrillville, USA; from Great Meadows to Doylestown, USA; from Braslaw to Buduslaw, Belarus; from Hungary through Slovakia to the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki.
There is also a pilgrimage on horseback from Trzebnica to Licheń. The horsemen from Lower Silesia are invited to participate in the Diocesan Horsemen Pilgrimage from Siedlec to Łozina. It has already become a tradition to organize on a regular basis formation meetings for the pilgrims and all those interested and willing to take part in next pilgrimage on horseback.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION CENTER (CFD)
It is one of the best known apostolates of the Salvatorians in Poland. Its purpose is to offer an integral formation to lay people, to Priests and the consecrated and its program is based on staying in the closest possible touch with the Word of God.
The CFD provides sessions in two religious community houses: in Kraków and in Trzebinia. Lectio Divina spiritual retreats, Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and weekend thematic sessions are the main formation initiatives of this apostolate.
Moreover both of the Centers offer special formation programs (called “schools”) for formators working in religious and diocesan Seminaries (Kraków) as well as for consecrated women formators (Trzebinia).
www.cfd.sds.pl
www.cfdtrzebinia.sds.pl
SALVATORIAN APOSTOLATE FOR SPIRITUAL RETREATS AND PARISH MISSIONS
The Polish Salvatorians since many decades have been valued as spiritual retreat givers. It would be difficult to count all the retreats and parish missions provided by the Salvatorian preachers in Polish parishes. We daresay there exists something like the “Salvatorian spiritual retreat school”. The apostolate involves Salvatorians who received special Decree from their Superior appointing them for this kind of ministry. The task of its Director is to coordinate retreats and to act as a liaison between Parish Priests and retreat givers.
SALWATOR Publishing House
The SALWATOR Publishing House was founded toward the end of 1998. Its mission consists of publishing books, magazines that help to grow in faith and spread Christian values. Main categories of the literature we publish involve such areas as spirituality, psychology, homiletics as well as biblical studies and formation.
Among the authors are: Alessandro Pronzato, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Amedeo Cencini FdCC, Krzysztof Wons SDS, Marek Dziewiecki, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedykt XVI, Jean Vanier, Anselm Grün OSB, Gianfranco Ravasi, Carlo Maria Martini and many more. The Publishing House issues also a quarterly “Zeszyty formacji duchowej” [“Spiritual formation quarterly”] and the Catholic magazine "SALWATOR."
HOSPICE
St. Camil Hospice in Bielsko-Biała was initiated in 1992 as an informal group in the Salvatorian parish in Bielsko-Biała at NMP Królowej Polski Street and since then it was active for 17 years. In 2009 the Association “St. Camil Hospice in Bielsko-Biała” was founded. The Salvatorian Priests assist the terminally ill, their relatives and volunteers.
SANCTUARIES
Numerous Salvatorian apostolates also include the ministry in special cult places. The following Sanctuaries in Poland and abroad are entrusted to our care:
International Sanctuary of St. Jadwiga in Trzebnica www.trzebnica.sds.pl
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Trzebinia www.trzebinia.sds.pl
Sanctuary of Our Lady the Queen of the Lakes in Bralaw (Belarus), www.waladarka.by
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Merrillville, IN (USA), www.salwatorianie.us
Sanctuary of Bl. Gratian in Muo (Montenegro), www.salvatorians-montenegro.pl
Sanctuary of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Brzozdowce (Ukraine)
Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Verona, NJ (USA), www.veronasds.com