Venerable Matt Talbot: lipca 2019

How Matt saved Gregory

Unhappy love and then a serious illness. But Talbot watches over him.

Gregory Jakielski is an IT specialist, marketer and graphic designer. As he says, he is orchestra man. So he made a page about Talbot, he created profiles on a social network. He publishes praying cards, a newspaper, and he even glues medallions with the image of a Servant of God. And he tries to make the figure of an Irish worker finally more widely known in Poland (and all over the World).

I met him in 2012. He saved my life - says Gregory, showing medical documentation. And indeed, it was bad. Very bad.

- The wedding will not be

It is a long story with a romantic-tragic thread in the background.

I met a girl, I fell in love. We were planning a wedding. My fiancée was an ACA - adult child of an alcoholic. At first it did not say anything to me, just a mysterious shortcut, because in my family no one was drinking. I myself was basically abstinent. However, it turned out that these three letters - ACA - is a serious problem. Her, mine and ours. Everyday disputes, terrible arguments began to be the norm. We finally put the wedding away. This postponement turned out to be a resignation. I was 26 years old, my life has collapsed.

Gregory fell into a strong depression. - It broke me. The company collapsed, life seemed pointless. It was getting worse ...

I have only faith. On August 26, together with my parents, we went to Niepokalanów. - I have prayed sincerely for the first time. I asked, "Jesus, help me." A newsletter about alcohol problems was distributed in the bookstore.

Already at home he read one of the articles - about Matt Talbot, about which he had no idea before. - It was the first breakthrough: I had a strange feeling that I just need to learn more about Talbot.

And he began to search. He turned out that in Płock-Trzepowo (Poland) in front of the church there is a monument to Talbot. The only one in Poland. And the priest there, Father Zbigniew Kaniecki promotes the cult of the Servant of God. - I had a strange feeling of such a move, God's thrust to go there. I went one time and another. I began to read the available information about Venerable Matt. And every day this character fascinated me more and more. Not only because he was an alcoholic and he stopped drinking. He is a man of great heart, of immense modesty, a mystic. The Płock parish priest also helped me in getting to know him.

Gregory received praying card with the image of a Venerable Matt and prayer. - This praying card ... I did not like it. Such not very aesthetic. I knew that I should do better. I prepared the project and ordered in my friend printing house. Then I took praying cards to Płock, I left a hundred pieces. Just like that, from the need of the heart.

From those hundred praying cards it began. Then Gregory printed even more praying cards with the images of Venerable Matt, who had only one photo taken during his lifetime. And then came the time on the Talbot website, profiles on social networks.

The Płock parish-priest once a year organizes the so-called Meetings with Talbot. This is the time for families and people affected by the alcohol problem. There is Holy Mass, testimonies of the fight against addiction and a big grill at the end.

- I have never had contact with the AA. I went there, however. It turned out that they are great people, open and warm. They even laughed because I was the only person who was inexperienced with alcohol. I gave out material about Talbot. Many thanked me, as they said, the figure of God's Servant is especially close to them, and his support gives strength to fight.

Talbot fell into alcoholism at the age of 13. He was a poor Irish child, a worker. He drank for a dozen or so years. He tumbled down and, humanly, there was no help for him. And then, in the sense of the absolute bottom, he decided to stop drinking. He clung to the Eucharist as the best medicine, he clung to Mary. His mother also prayed for Talbot. The first three months in full abstinence were a nightmare. And regular fight. His Holy Communion saved him. And constant staying in the church. He persevered with a miracle. The following months and years are a slow getting on the feet, but also deepening the faith.

True, a great fortitude? - Gregory asks rhetorically. Someone even told him, "A call to Talbot you have." And it's probably right, because from where suddenly such a life necessity, that he non-drinker would help drinkers?

You have to do something in life to leave it to others. I would not like to pass this way without a mission and without a goal. I produced alone over 10,000 praying cards (the number of cards has already exceeded over 100,000). Mainly for your own money. I also sometimes received donations for subsequent prints. At that time I was still working ...

- Illness

- Now it's harder because after the disease I can`t work. I`m trying to find some funds for other materials about Venerable Matt, and I am supported by friends and priests, who also value Talbot. I am fed parenterally and it will take some time. Although I also take food in the usual way, which makes me very happy. I got a second life!

Before his illness, Gregory was an assistant at the deputy Artur Górski. - He was my friend and mentor. When we traveled in delegations, I took praying cards with prayer for the beatification of Talbot and distributed them to people - he says.

After the deputy's death, in April last year, Grzegorz was unemployed. For the second time, my world collapsed. - I was deteriorating fairly quickly. I suffered enormously: I had pains, persistent vomit, I couldn`t eat. The weight was falling. Doctors changed drugs helplessly, tried to help, but to no avail. They even invented ... anorexia! As if I did not want to eat ...

At the beginning of January 2017, Grzegorz felt terrible pain. Ambulance, hospital. Diagnosis: a major ulcer on the duodenum. It weighed 32 kg at 182 cm tall. The body was so drained that first had to give a drip and blood to strengthen it. Then surgery. After more than a week, the condition deteriorated sharply and Grzegorz was again taken to the operating table. A fistula and peritonitis have developed. Then sepsis.

Doctors called on parents and informed "about the possibility of death." I have written in the papers: "very heavy condition". And so many days. A week of coma, many days in the ICU. My mother began to pray to Talbot for my recovery. She arranged a prayer she repeated with faith every day, as Talbot had been a friend of ours for a long time.

"Letter to Matt, address Heaven. I, mother Elizabeth, humbly ask for help. My only son, Gregory, has seriously ulcer disease... Earth doctors can not help. I am asking you humbly, Matt, for the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ for the grace of healing, "she prayed, weeping.

And ... Gregory regained consciousness, and then slowly began to recover. And life began 2.0 and more involvement in the Talbot work. - It's my debt repayment to him for saving his life. Even in the hospital, a familiar nun began to distribute praying cards. So my dad brought fresh pajamas to the hospital, some trinkets and ... praying cards. Many cards. And nun picked them up and spread them. Who did cards reach? I am sure to the needy.

- Second Life

Gregory is currently at home. His parents take care of him. Maybe by May he can turn off the parenteral nutrition. Maybe in a while he will fully recover and return to work.

People from all over Poland write to me (now all over the World). They ask about praying cards, about books about Talbot. With Polish materials it is difficult, even in the sobriety associations. Now the situation has started to improve slightly. Interestingly, there was much left in Talbot written before the war. I get to these studies, I am looking for, I am collecting. I have original texts even from 1936.

Beatification process has been completed and remains to wait for a miracle through his intercession. - I know that there are many cases of spiritual miracles, healings from addictions due to Talbot. However, to recognize Matt as the blessed, a miracle of physical healing is necessary.

Sometimes Gregory himself wonders: why him? After all, he was never even drunk. And a glass of vodka is for him like a liquid from a car cooler. - God sometimes leads you in a strange way. He thought perhaps someone had to do it, and I see I am a clay tool...

Gregory`s mother, Elisabeth: - I asked him once: why are you doing this? He replied that no one would suffer alcohol as much as he did after parting ... Because if it was not for the alcohol in his ex-fiancee's house, his life would have been different. And there are so many families who suffer from addiction.

An article that appeared in Sunday Guest the largest Catholic weekly in Poland in August 2017.

https://www.gosc.pl/doc/4093321.Jak-Matt-uratowal-Grzegorza

76 years ago on July 29, 1941 in Auschwitz, Father Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to give his life for the fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek.

When a camp prisoner appeared to have escaped, deputy commandant Karl Fritzsch ordered that ten other prisoners die by starvation in reprisal. Gajowniczek (prisoner number 5659) was one of those selected. When the Franciscan priest, Kolbe, heard Gajowniczek cry out in agony over the fate of his family, he offered himself instead (for which he was later canonized). Kolbe's exact words have been forgotten, but one eye-witness account records his words as: "I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children."[4] The switch was permitted, and the punishment meted out. After all his cellmates died, Kolbe (prisoner number 16670) was put to death with an injection of carbolic acid.

Photo of grave of Franciszek Gajowniczek at the cemetery in Niepokalanów (Poland).