The celebration of a jubilee is something like a turning back to the beginning. It is like an encounter with the Lord at the time, when he called for the first time. One can say: “The Lord found me and called me by my name!” It was this that Fr. Edmund Jan Michalski MSF said during an interview at the generalate of the Missionaries of the Holy Family in Rome, Italy, on 3 July 2010.

Fr. Edmund, General Superior of the MSF, celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary of his priesthood on 12 June. He said about this jubilee that it contains a mystery of the love of God for every one of us and also for himself. This mystery is always searching for an explanation. It was God who took the initiative. It was he who found us and finally called us. It was God who chose us to become priests. “Not because I was better or wiser than others, but only because he wanted it. The Lord called me because he had his plans with me. I thank you, Lord for having given me your confidence …  Also if the tasks  have not yet been fulfilled well, the Lord will continue to love us and to think of us... I found you and I called you and I have sent you … Go!”

Fr. Edmund chose the community of his confreres as the place, in which to celebrate the confidence, which the Lord had given him. He said that the fulfilment of the task, which the Lord had entrusted to him, was easier to carry out together with confreres. At the monthly encounter of the community MSF in Rome on 19 June 2010, the holy Eucharist was celebrated on the occasion of the jubilee. The following days Fr. Edmund celebrated his jubilee in Poland, in places that were important during training and where he worked as a priest in  Gorka  Klastorna and kazimierz Biskupi.

When he was asked, how he felt at his twenty-fifth anniversary as a priest in moments of pleasure, he answered: “I feel carried and supported by confreres, who pray for me. Therefore it is a joy to thank for my 25 years as a priest together with confreres. Not only I do give thanks, but they also thank in my name. My vocation has been carried out for 32 years, ever since I entered the religious community. An answer is being given:  ‘Yes Lord, here I am, I come!’ During this period of time I became a priest. My adventure began 32 years ago, when I entered the religious congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family.”

Fr. Edmund celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary of his priesthood together with three priests who had been ordained with him. How did you feel at the jubilee in Poland? “During my jubilee I was surrounded by confreres. It was a thanksgiving together with confreres. One could also experience the affection of people, among whom I had lived and worked in the past, in Górka Klasztorna and in Kazimierz Biskupi. It could especially be felt, when the alter-boys expressed congratulations and thanked for the time, when I was at the seminary, when I took care for their fathers, who alter-boys at that time. In this ways the sons thanked in the name of their fathers. At the seminary there was an exhibition of photos of alter-boys of 1983. There were also photos that showed Sygmunt Robaszkiewicz msf, Bishop of Morombe, Madagascar, and me, as the person responsible for the alter-boys in the past. When Sygmunt became bishop and I became General Superior, the former alter-boys told their children that especially we had taken care of them. Until today they have carefully kept a photo and have told their children about that time. This was very moving to me.”

Fr. Edmund was the first of five brothers and sisters. Two of them became priests and one sister became a nun. He also stressed that the celebration of 25 years as a priest is too a suitable opportunity for reflection. Every anniversary is an occasion to meditate on the task God has entrusted to every one of us. In addition it is an opportunity for thanksgiving and to ask for the strength needed to fulfil our tasks more easily. This can always happen with others, among others and especially together with confreres MSF.