God does not allow himself to be won over in goodness and love. It was when I was a teenager, after attending the WYD in Rome 2000 and shortly thereafter learning of the Opus DeiThe vocation to the priesthood took shape for this young Polish man who is now a very happy priest living in Poznan.
Does praying for vocations to the priesthood count for anything? Ask Stanislaw Urmanski who, when he was just a boy, was told by a priest that he would pray that one day he would be ordained. Two decades later, that little boy would become a priest.
"I remember my grandfather asking me to help him with an errand with a good priest friend of his. I was about 10 years old and I had to bring him some books. When I was saying goodbye, he asked me if he could pray for my priestly vocation. I didn't think much of it at the time, but today it seems clear that the priest prayed for me, and that in the end it became a reality", Stanislaw Urmanski told the CARF Foundation.
This Polish priest, born in 1984, also stresses a fundamental aspect that, in the end, would mark his future vocation as a priest: the transmission of the faith that was born in the bosom of his family. "My parents were my first evangelizers, although it was always in a very natural way, without forcing anything," he recalls. His parents," he adds, "went to Mass every day and their lives then reflected what they were nourished by every day: the Eucharist.
Stanislaw also points out another family element that helped him in this whole process. "My parents' house has always been very open; we received many visits, whether from friends, acquaintances or monitors from the parish youth group. Thanks to this I understood very easily that faith is lived 24 hours a day, and that faith also means mission. It doesn't mean staying with your arms folded," he says.
His call to become a priest came about in this Christian environment in which faith was lived as something natural and thanks to which he even has another brother who is also a priest. "It was a gradual process, and it is still going on, because in every Christian vocation you have to say yes to the Lord every day, many times a day. That is the beauty of it and what makes life an adventure," Fr. Stanislaw says with conviction.
However, in the midst of this gradual process there were some milestones that marked his life. He especially highlights what he experienced at the World Youth Day 2000 in Rome, the great Jubilee: "I was 16 years old. Everything I saw had a great impact on me, and I realized that the Lord was asking something special of me".
And God manifested himself to him in a very concrete way. Father Urmanski says that after returning from WYD, he began to pray that the Lord would show him the way. Just a short time later, "a classmate of mine began to frequent the center of the Work in Warsaw. The following week I showed up at that place and I liked it very much. That's when it all began to take shape.
His vocation as a priest is closely linked to the Work, an institution he came to know in a providential moment of his adolescence. Today he is a priest of the Prelature and chaplain of Solek, the center in the Polish city of Poznan, from where he also spiritually attends several schools.
Stanislaw Urmanski has a unique memory of the formation he received both in Rome and in Pamplona, in the process of becoming a priest. "It marked me deeply," he admits. His time in Rome allowed him to meet the then prelate of the Work, Mr. Javier Echevarría, He says that he felt that he was "very much his son, as well as that of St. Josemaría.
For his part, of his time in Pamplona, he highlights the great experience he had there "from the academic point of view". And he cites a very specific element: "The fifth floor of the library, the library of Theology, is a marvel. The bibliographic resources are very rich. Without it, he says he could not have finished his doctoral thesis in Dogmatic Theology.
From his years of study at Navarra and in RomeStanislaw received more than an excellent academic and spiritual formation. He says he discovered the universality of the Church. "You feel it, you see it in the faces, in the stories of your companions, who are more than that, they are brothers. Then you return to your country, but you have already experienced that the Church is everywhere, and you know that you are supported by the communion of the saints with all those you have met and many more.
There are many important moments that he has experienced as a priest since Father Stanislaw was ordained in 2015, but he says that he would highlight as important the everyday, the everyday. As a priest of the Work, he normally works with small groups, something that, as he explains, "is nothing spectacular at first glance, but is spectacular in the eyes of God.
And he recounts a recent example of an experience he had with a group of high school students: "I had meetings with them throughout the course on the history of art. The highlight was a trip to Vienna. We visited the Kunst Historische Museum and each child prepared a short exhibition of a painting. There was also a spiritual component. It gives a lot of hope to see young people enthusiastic about beauty, praying, helping each other among friends."
Finally, in view of the challenges facing priests today, Fr. Stanislaw Urmanski insists that each priest must to know that he is only a collaborator, an instrument of God, an instrument of God.. And he is especially clear about one fact: "God is so good, so great, that there is no challenge that has no solution. The important thing is to trust Him, to let Him guide us.
Finally, this Polish priest would like to leave a message for the benefactors of the CARF Foundation. "You are doing something very good that will bring much fruit. It is something that seems hidden to the naked eye, but in Heaven it will be known," he concludes.
