The book “The human heart is made for heaven”: from the dream of playing at a wedding to the archbishop of Kaunas | Culture

The author of the book, Vytautas Raškauskas, invites you to engage in lively and engaging conversations with Archbishop K. Kėval. The clergyman openly shares his childhood and youth memories, talks about his vocation path, reflects on the meaning of work and the Christian hope that defines life.

The book consists of 15 conversations, the topics of which are dictated by the milestones of the year – important dates to mention, starting with January 13, February 16, ending with All Saints’ Day and Christmas. Resisting them talks about the past and the future – past days, present challenges, eternal truths and future dreams.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with and read an excerpt from the book “The Heart of Man Made for Heaven” about choices.

– Have you always been an active person – both as a child and as a teenager – or was the spirit of Sąjūdis ignited at that time?

– I was also active as a teenager, and the only problem that plagued me was how to choose which club to attend, because I wanted to participate everywhere. For example, I really wanted to play sports and play music, it was extremely difficult to decide, but in the end I chose very pragmatically, because I dreamed of playing at a wedding. It was my childhood dream, because my cousin Valdas played at the wedding, and it seemed like a very high achievement to me – to lead the ball, entertain people, give joy to others.

– Did you end up playing at a wedding?

– Yes, I even played at weddings for several years. And later, after entering the seminary, people came to ask me to play at their weddings. And seminary and playing at weddings seemed completely incompatible things in those days. Once I went to the management to ask to be released from the seminary for the weekend, because the young people were in trouble – their musicians got sick, and the wedding was already planned, so I thought to myself that out of love for my neighbor I would at least try to help – they wouldn’t allow it, after all, it’s not forbidden to ask. And what is most interesting – he allowed, although in those days leaving the seminary was generally only allowed in exceptional cases.

Later, I played several times as a priest, and once at a friend’s wedding I had to play three roles: a priest, a musician and a driver.

– But it didn’t happen to you like the main character of “Shadow of the Altars”, who after entering the seminary gradually lost his creative inspiration and drive, and decided that creative joy is hardly compatible with the priesthood?

– Actually, this idea is partly correct in the sense that you just can’t devote so much time to that thing anymore. I would think that circumstances cannot take away a person’s creative urge, as long as he himself does not extinguish that urge, but the lack of time has its price. After all, in order to play well, it is important to constantly improve. I have asked the famous Lithuanian accordionist Martyn Levickis how he maintains such a high level of mastery – he replied that he plays for four hours every day.

So how much time you spend, you get such a result. Of course, abilities and talent are important, but this is a small part compared to the work put in, which is necessary for a person to achieve a result. Therefore, a good musician always demonstrates not only musical talent, but also very powerful self-control, the ability to concentrate attention on one work for a long time.

The highest achievements of my musical career so far are two. The first one – we played with the priests of the group “Sacerdos” in the “Zalgiris” arena. As long as I can remember, since childhood, I always dreamed of playing in a band. And the Lord gave me such a beautiful way to taste it – it was a great gift and a fun experience for me. Martynas Levickis also accepted me to perform a piece together at one concert.

But when the Lord finally rewarded me with the vocation of a priest, the question remained unanswered, and why did I need to put so much work into learning to play music, attending a music school? But now, looking back on my life, I can clearly see those moments when musical education helped a lot. For example, when I had to visit parishes in Žemaitia, word of mouth quickly spread that I play the accordion, and especially in smaller areas, where visits usually took place in a small group of people – there was also accordion music at the meetings.

Now I understand that by inspiring the desire to make music, the Lord was preparing me for this fellowship and for the people I would go to. Of course, a bishop does not have to play the accordion, on the other hand, it can bring people very close. For example, together with the bishop who replaced me in Telšiai, Algirdas Jurevičius, we played on stage at the Vydmantai church construction site, where a large crowd had gathered. We entered the capsule for the construction of the church and played some folk songs and some of the Sacerdos band’s repertoire.

Playing the accordion is the spice of life for me. Now I don’t have much time for it, but sometimes on my free day I pick up the accordion and play. I enter the cloud of music and leave it rested.

– Let’s go back to the beginning. You said that you were active both as a child and as a teenager. And what about the spirit of the Movement – was it an important factor that inspired social activism?

– The movement gave me a feeling that I can’t forget to this day, and generally gave me the understanding that a community of people can live like this. It was a rather short flash, a year or two of life, when the streets were full of people, and they were full of enthusiasm, of the most fervent prayers. Day and night we talked and discussed – it was a special upliftment, an exceptional grace of God. Those years have remained as a time of inspiration and strengthening, even today their memory does not leave any doubts – the Lord loves us and our country, we care for Him very much.

From a current perspective, we probably wouldn’t be able to keep going like this for long because the fuses would blow – it’s impossible to sustain this intensity for a long time. I was as busy as if I was working a twelve-hour day. At that time, there was not enough time even to sleep, but the mood was wonderful. It was a shared enthusiasm that we infected each other with and I was certainly not alone wherever you went – communities gathered everywhere.

In those days, there were very favorable conditions for creating a business, because everything was in short supply. For example, we went to Minsk, bought cups, and when we returned we sold them all. Those who started seriously at that time now have large companies.

It is true that I have also worked at night. First of all, I had to knit the fabric at night, which was then used to sew sweaters and take it to Moscow for sale. I also worked as an ambulance paramedic – I drove around the city, I saw up close that almost all of us at that time lived very modestly, few had something more, better. Compared to that time, what we have managed to achieve today is more than impressive.

So, I tried many things: the bread of a musician, the path of an entrepreneur, a beekeeper, a student. And everything happened in 1990-1993.

As for the future camps, it is very fun to remember them. For example, in Varniai, we were lying on the beds in the school corridors, so many of us were there. Lectures, Mass, hymns, songs, talent evenings, dances, then just a few hours of sleep and all over again. In one word, a whole celebration, a festival. And we lived in that spirit all those years.

I remember walking home with my friends at night from the Šilainiai district to Šančius, and in order not to be afraid – we sing songs, because at that time there is a blockade – the buses do not run, there are no lights on the street, but still everything is fine. I would say that we lived similar to what the Gospels say about the first Christians after Pentecost – they were as if drunk with the Holy Spirit.

Of course, next to all those organizations and activities, there was also the daily household, you still had to go to the garden and dig potatoes, but the essential mood of the time was that we suddenly began to live in a new world, and the sweetness of that time was impressive. Of course, at that time we washed with cold water due to the blockade, there was a shortage of gasoline, so my father bought it in Kaliningrad and took it to the garden in canisters – that was also part of life. There was also January 13, which scared me.

But generally speaking, the mood of the people was special. It started to change around 1994, maybe 1995, when the everyday life of freedom and independence began. Then the problems appeared, because businesses started to be found, they were persecuted by organized criminals and we had to go through a really dark time when people no longer felt safe, had to work in hiding, now not from the occupation authorities, but from the “boys” who were watching who was doing what – you had to pay tribute to them so that they do not move you.

– Was your life more intense then or now, after becoming the archbishop of Kaunas?

– That time was really like a kind of preparation for the intensity that I am experiencing now. Of course, I didn’t have planners at the time, and now all days are planned by the hour. Then we used to meet in the afternoon, around four, and now we meet at four fifteen and we have to talk for twenty minutes. Sometimes it’s a bit depressing and tiring that the spontaneity that was at that time is gone, but on the other hand, everyone’s life is different now and you have to adapt – even children live by planning their hours.

I just often ask myself, how can we find a way today to live with similar enthusiasm as we did back then? Now it is not easy, because we have already created the prosperity that we once dreamed of. It was very clear to us then that we aspire to be like Europe, we want to live like Westerners, so that we can finally search for ourselves freely and discover and realize ourselves – all this we have today.