(1) Background: The war in Ukraine has triggered a huge humanitarian crisis: millions of refugees have escaped from their homes looking for shelter beyond Ukraine’s borders. This emergency offers a unique opportunity to investigate and to document those characteristics of the human condition that emerge in exceptional circumstances provoked by war. Based on considerations derived from recent studies on resilience, the research at the base of this paper was conducted to better understand the circumstances, states of mind, and coping mechanisms of the refugees leaving their homes looking for security. (2) Methods: A qualitative approach was applied, resorting to semi-structured interviews (n = 94) to closely explore the traumatic experiences lived by refugees and to identify their coping strategies. (3) Results: The data obtained pointed to a plurality of coping and resilience strategies. Maintaining communication with separated loved ones as well as experiencing accompaniment by helpers and hosts emerged as principal elements for coping and resilience. It was found that a prior development of interior life or practice of prayer served as psychological “capital” that increased their resilience. (4) Conclusion: The results point to the need to care for social networking, attention by hosts, and cultivating interior life as keys for resilience.

The problem of recognizing the true motivations of secular pilgrims is often experienced on the Camino de Santiago. The faith of pilgrims seems to be hidden under the cover of many behaviors of contemporary pilgrims. At the same time on the Camino de Santiago, there could be observed a significant change in how the sacred is perceived by pilgrims: their experience is more related to “time” or “relation/event”, than “place”. The clue is the correct notion of religiosity, which for Thomas Aquinas was not a set of contents, but the relation to the ultimate end. In this light, the heritage can speak and manifest its message, when the relation is reestablished. With this theological background, I will try to answer the main question about the explanatory dimension of faith, its relation to the meaning of heritage and art and I will offer two proposals for the renewal of the theological approach to pilgrimage.

This paper will show the dynamics of change in the celebration of the parish patron’s day at the turn of several decades (before and after the Second Vatican Council) at a Marian shrine in Poland and the cult of Cross from Monjardin in Spain. It will refer to various forms of ritual which are manifestations of popular piety: cultural expressions, services, prayers and songs which form part of the veneration of Our Lady of Sorrows, Chełmno and the Cross in Villamayor de Monjardin. The article will also examine the different ways in which these feasts were celebrated during the period and the impact they had on the religious life of pilgrims. The study will be based on written sources: memories, diaries, newspaper clippings, and historical studies which are instrumental in demonstrating the transformation of how the parish patron’s day was celebrated over time.

The article presents the question of understanding divine causality and its analogical character in the context of Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on Divine Providence. Analyzing Aquinas’s texts concerning the relation of God’s action towards nature and its activities it is necessary to emphasize the proper understanding of mutual relations between secondary causes and the primary cause which are not on the same level. Influenced by the reflection of M. Dodds and I Silva, the author of the article refers to Aquinas’s biblical commentaries which have not been discussed so far from the perspective of the character of God’s action. In the final part of the article, metaphors used by Thomas in reference to the relation of God towards the world will be presented.

For Thomas Aquinas, the imagination, being one of the “inner senses”, is a doorway to attain true knowledge. In this paper, we first analyze his lexicon in this regard (imaginatio and phantasia). Second, we discuss imagination as the subject matter of the intellectual virtues, which facilitate cognition and judgment. The development of imagination is the foundation of his vision of education not only on the natural but also on the supernatural level. Third, we explore Aquinas’ moral assessment of imaginative art and finally its influence on shaping the character. This influence occurs on two levels: it is assessed from the perspective of charity, justice, prudence and purity, namely to what extent the art serves these values, whereas the second criterion is beauty.

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The aim of this article is to analyze the empirical evidence collected in the form of in-depth interviews, observations, statistics and accounts concerning the assistance provided by female and male religious congregations in the fight against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland during the first year after the outbreak (March 2020 to February 2021). The paper describes the nature of the assistance rendered by religious congregations to the sick, to those affected by the pandemic and to healthcare facilities during the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Poland. Our findings reveal that the activities undertaken and the support provided by religious congregations in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland have spanned many areas: medical assistance and nursing within the healthcare system, charitable work (including material, financial and welfare/housing aid), and pastoral, religious, educational, psychological, ecumenical, evangelization and missionary activities. The support provided by religious congregations as part of the coronavirus response efforts proved crucial and invaluable during the first weeks of the pandemic, that is in March and April 2020, when the healthcare system was faced with severe staff shortages.

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