My name is Marek and I come from Poland. I live there in the city of Gdańsk. Since 2004 I am a member of a Neocatechumenal Way in my city. Since a long time the Lord has been showing me how much He cares of me, how He fights for me and that He wants for me all the best. I see this in a plenty of facts. After all, He wants a full life for each of us now and here, in this time. He loves each of us separately and individually. He would give His life on a cross for me, even if I was the only man on the earth. I realized that everything He allows to happen, even undesired and unpleasant events (from our point of view), He uses to bring us back to Him, so that we can experience Him (and without His knowledge even a single hair of our head cannot fall to the ground). The problem is related rather to our perception. We often think we know better than Him what is better for us.

I would like to share with you in this testimony several extraordinary facts, related mainly to birthday of my son – Antoni, and to my marriage with my wife – Agnieszka:

1.) Antoni was born on the 1^st Friday, on the 7^th of October 2011. It was around 5:15 pm, exactly 300 days (counted as 24 hours), with an accuracy of one hour, after entering by us a sacramental marriage. One can ask what strange is here. It is in the fact that, the most recently before his birthday, I have executed a counter counting a time elapsed since our wedding ceremony on the 291^st day and 5 hours after it took place. And I thought then that Antoni would be born when the counter shown exactly 300 days! And this is what happened () (and my wife was expected to bear Antoni two weeks later).

2.) My mother-in-law noticed that day that her alarm clock has stopped on 5 am. She told that after having noticed that she somehow knew that her daughter will be bearing a son at 5 pm.

3.) Certainly, we worried before the childbirth that I could be at work on this unknown day. Fortunately, I was that at home. I have planned my holidays one year ago and their ending felt just on that Friday! How should I know this before?

4.) We call Holy Mary in our common prayers „Queen of the Holy Rosary, pray for us”. We decided to travel to Mexico on our honey moon. We wanted to ask Virgin Mary of Guadalupe to take care of us (we married on the 11^th of December, so on the Feast of Her holiday). By the way, Pope John Paul the Second begun his pontificate with coming to Her too. His first pilgrimage (in 1979) was to Mexico. Her Miraculous Image, not painted by a human hand, is located in Basilica of Guadalupe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe). It is amazing that the Friday, our son was born, was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It could not be just a coincidence! I am also a very happy man because of a similar fact – I had a grace to be born on the 15^th of August (1980), so on the Feast of Her Assumption. According to the name of our son, some time ago I have found an information that, the most probably, the birthday of St. Anthony of Padua (so of the patron of our son) is also on the 15^th of August ()

5.) My father has noticed that the 7^th of October 2011 was yet another holiday. According to our polish calendar it was the Name Day of Marek () (in general, I do not celebrate my Name Days, but if I in future will do, I know now on what date). Antoni is a gift, but undoubtedly every child is a gift from God. However, I have associated this recently with some fact. When Agnieszka has been pregnant, we had a grace that two members of charismatic movement prayed over us. I have heard then from one of them those words: „this child is a gift from God to you”. It is amazing that God has chosen a date of our mundane holiday to offer us His gift – and it was His Name Day gift )

6.)    A doctor examining my wife in a hospital was so amazed that she examined her twice. She just could not believe that with such a gape Agnieszka has not born our son yet. We arrived at the hospital at 4:4o pm. Childbirth was natural and extremely fast. It lasted about 10 to 15 minutes, after Agnieszka was transported to a proper room. And this is what we prayed for – for efficient and painless childbirth. I am glad that my wife does not have to strain a lot. She had a laser eyesight correction (from a rather big defect), and so I simply wondered about her sight.

7.)    We were driving to the hospital in rush hours (the streets were full of traffic jams). While we were praying for arriving without problems or getting stuck in jams, an extraordinary thing has happened. Suddenly, we saw that cars in front of us started to part (forming a temporary tunnel) because ...a police car with the siren blaring has been driving out from behind of us !!! Amazing !!! I only regret I was not courageous enough to follow the police and drive in this tunnel. Nevertheless, thanks God, we managed to arrive on time (we left home at 4: oo pm and the doctor informed us, that if we had been late about 10 minutes, Agnieszka would born our son in our car).

I also wanted to summarize some amazing facts related to our engagement and marriage:

1.)    The age difference between me and my wife is exactly three years and six months. While we were engaged, the Lord has given us the following prophecy: „heaven remained shut for three years and six months ” (The Gospel of Luke 4, 25). I have read this that way: after such a period of time (according to our mundane time calculation), God has answered my prayers for a wife for me – for this was the period of time I have been living in the world existing without her. And again, someone can ask what extraordinary is there. It is here: exactly one day after we informed about this prophecy our friends (Missionary Sisters of Blood of Christ) – it was on some Monday – He repeated it. I meant that God repeated the same Word but in other configuration of readings in liturgical calendar! Indeed, the Word of God is ALIVE!!!

2.)    I have met my wife by ...telephone!!! I have been calling different persons for about half an hour, redirected from friends and their friends „from Annas to Caiaphas”, because I tried to resell a ticket for a pilgrimage to Prague (meeting with Pope), until I finally called my future wife.

3.)  It looks that Agnieszka came to Prague purposefully. Pope Benedict the XVI was speaking Italian there. She has studied Italian philology. So it happened that the group of pilgrims, she was the member of, did not have a translator, so the task of translating the Pope’s speech from Italian to Polish was performed by her )

4.)    This is the way God has chosen to make an appointment for us – I have asked Agnieszka to translate me a movie about St. Paul Apostle from Italian to Polish. I was unable to find its Polish subtitles for over a year. Finally, I have forgotten about it (until the time has come)).

5.)    All those facts about our unusual meeting and marriage also cannot be a coincidence. I was asking God for a proper wife for me in a prayer called the Secret of Happiness (or Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget), through the intercession of St. Joseph, as well as many people were praying for me for the same purpose. God’s response to those prayers surpassed my wildest dreams!