Sister M. Agnes Roszkowska
Sr Agnes herself tells the story of the beginning of our presence in a new country – the Czech Republic!
Let me introduce myself. My name is Sr. M. Agnes. I was born in Poland and at the age of 18 I entered the Congregation of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master. The story I want to tell began a few years after I made my perpetual vows. It was 1995 and I was serving as a postulant in Czestochowa. During a holiday, I felt the desire to go to Rome. I had already lived in the Eternal City for three years, during which I had studied theology. However, this time, it would be a short trip and I desired to take advantage of the opportunity to transport some articles for the liturgical apostolate. When I expressed to the Regional superior my desire to join the sisters who were going to Italy, she agreed. This began one of the greatest adventures of my life. At that time, I didn’t yet know that the Lord Jesus was preparing His divine plan for me.
I left with the sisters for Rome by car. The journey took about 20 hours. In Austria stopped for the night and when we arrived in Italy we took the opportunity to stop at the various shrines, especially in Venice and Padua. I had a strong desire to pray there. I recall that we stopped and I said to myself: “I need to pray”, and then I said again: “I must pray!“. I prayed so intensely that the sisters began to tell me: “you have become very pious.” I felt that something extraordinary was about to happen in my life. It’s not that I had never prayed before, but this time it was really a special longing that I didn’t understand at the time.
When we arrived at our Generalate in Rome, the Superior General Sr. M. Paola Mancini called me and told me that a request had come from the Bishop of Brno, Bishop Vojtěch Cikrle. He desired to begin an international community of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master in Brno, in the Czech Republic. The General Council was looking for three sisters from different nations to respond to the bishop’s request. Two sisters had already been found ready to go to this new mission: one was from Italy (Sr. M. Michelina Genesio) and one was from Venezuela (Sr. M. Letizia Villarreal Rivas). And now they were also thinking of a sister from Poland.
As I heard this proposal, I understood that this was the will of God. I also understood that I had felt a strong desire to pray during the journey, also for this reason, even though it was unknown to me, but it was very clear in the plan of the Lord.
I had no doubt that the Lord was sending me to Brno and I was able to say my “yes” immediately. However, I was given time to pray and reflect on the proposal. After this time of reflection I said my “yes” with great enthusiasm and with the certainty that this was the will of the Lord, who had not only called me, but had also prepared my heart in advance to accept his call.
At the time of our arrival in the Czech Republic (it was 1996), the country had just emerged from the communist regime. After the Second World War, in fact, communism had subjected the Slavic countries and placed them under the influence of the USSR led by Russia.
Communism, under the guise of equality and fraternity, extinguished freedom of thought and speech, subjecting everyone to a single political party who was in power. Experiencing brutal persecutions, the Catholic Church acted as a defender of true freedom of conscience, thought and speech. The communist regime restricted the possibity of travelling abroad and, since the 1989 revolution in Central and Eastern Europe, the Slavic countries had freed themselves from the influence of the communist regime and Soviet Russia.
This peaceful revolution, which began in Poland in 1990, also reached Czechoslovakia, which three years later was divided into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. We were therefore starting a presence in a country whose structures were just forming. This was the background to the foundation of the international community of Student Sisters in Brno.
In this context, we can better understand the desire of the Bishop of Brno to internationalize the religious community that would be established in his diocese.
In the 1990s the foundation of a community of sisters in Brno came from three different nations (Italy, Venezuela, Poland). We were also from different continents (Europe and Latin America) and this gave us the opportunity to witness to the primacy of fraternal love and the Gospel values that unites everyone in the name of Jesus.
27 years have passed since this event and I can say that we were guided and led by the hand in those first days in Brno, Czech Republic.
A particular witness was given through our Liturgical Apostolic Centre. People did not only buy liturgical articles, but they also met and talked with sisters from countries so far away. I remember a little girl asking me if I was really a nun and if she could touch me and when I said yes, she was so happy. To this day, our small liturgical center has maintained that special characteristic of being a meeting place between the human and the spiritual, a space of mediation between the profane and the sacred.
Often people confide in us and ask us for spiritual advice, admitting that they would not have had the courage or the opportunity to talk about it with a priest. In this simple way of opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we carry out our mission to give Jesus Master to those who seek the meaning of life, truth and love.
Our Liturgical Center is in premises belonging to the Capuchin order and our collaboration with them dates back to 1997. It was then that we asked the provincial, Father Pavel Uhřík if we could rent this space. When he heard that we women and, moreover, nuns wanted to run a shop of liturgical items, he repeated for a whole hour: “já nechápu … “, that is, “I do not understand… “.
He could not understand how we had the courage to start a business that he considered beyond our strength. We did not give up and eventually he saw that it was possible that a woman and, moreover, a nun, could do it! Following this meeting that helped us so much, neither of us had any more problems in pronouncing that difficult word: “nechápu… “!
Over time we divided the responsibilities: the other two sisters took care of the Liturgical Center and I had time given for pastoral work. I worked with young people, then did catechesis at school, and the preparation of adults for the sacraments. This continued until 2005, when the official of the Brno Bishops’ Conference proposed that I should take up the post of notary at the episcopal Conference. This request was accepted by the Superior General Sr. M. Regina Cesarato and her council as a sign of the times and a new form of priestly apostolate.
After two years of notarial ministry, and at the request of the judicial vicar Mons. Karl Orlita, I undertook the study of canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The proposal itself and my spiritual preparation in accepting it required a more intense formation.
I will limit myself to saying that, after obtaining a licentiate in Canon Law and after a year of study in jurisprudence, I took up the position of defender of the Marriage Bond at the Episcopal Court of Brno. I carried out this task until 2022 when an illness prevented me from continuing my mission.
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Currently the Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master of Brno manage a Liturgical Center and are active in pastoral care, in particular in guiding the lectio divina for young people and in the spiritual guidance of the Mothers’ Prayer movement.
Sister M. Agnieszka Roszkowska is at present being treated for her illness in Warsaw, Poland. We join in prayer for her healing and comfort.
For everything we are grateful to the Lord for having led us into this reality that undoubtedly enriches us in our mission as the presence of Disciples of the Master in the World…”