This study seeks to explain the differences in the perception of social and pastoral service after the first and second wave pandemic in 2020 among the inhabitants of two neighbouring states, both parts of the former unified Czechoslovakia. Our research study compares subjective perception, needs, and participation among inhabitants of eastern Slovakia and north-western Czech Republic in social and pastoral service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of a healthy population from the Czech Republic (n = 496) and Slovakia (n = 484) over 16 years of age, of which 63% (n = 617) were women and 37% (n = 363) men. The level of education ranged from primary to postgraduate. The research sample consisted of 623 (63.6%) participants with religious affiliation and 357 (36.4%) without religion. The level of perception, needs, and participation of the participants in social and pastoral service was obtained based on a non-standardised questionnaire. The results of our study confirmed several differences in the areas studied.

The aim of this research was to compare the quality of life among University of the Third Age (U3A) students in Poland, where a novel method of educating seniors is being developed, with the quality of life among students at newly established U3As in Belarus and Ukraine, which have copied the Polish model. The research was also conducted to connect a range of socio-demographic variables with two explanatory ones: satisfaction with participation in U3A activities and the overall quality of life. A total of 515 U3A (N13) students from three Eastern European countries—Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus—took part in the research. The overall quality of life of U3A students was researched and expressed in the form of three components: stress level, sense of self-efficacy, and level of satisfaction with life. The following tools were used: PPS10 (Perceived Stress Scale), GSES (General Self-Efficacy Scale), and SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale). The research showed a statistically significant difference between the country of residence and the level of satisfaction with life, sense of self-efficacy, and the overall indicator of the quality of life. Polish seniors obtained higher results in all these areas when compared to their counterparts in Ukraine and Belarus.

Aim. Pilgrimage thus belongs to the oldest non-economic forms of migration and is a phenomenon that has intertwined throughout the history of religions. The aim of the article is to emphasize the important position of religious tourism as one of its forms. Based on the deep-rooted tradition of wandering in Slovakia, characterize important places of pilgrimage of national and perhaps partly international significance. Method. Terrain reconnaissance together with analysis of archival and parish documents. Results. Numerous Marian temples and chapels testify to the Marian veneration in Slovakia. Of the 5925 known patronages of churches and chapels (even those that have disappeared) in Slovakia, 1762 are dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Of these Marian patrons, 329 are consecrated by the Seven Sorrows of Our Virgin Mary. The result of field research is an analysis of six pilgrimage sites of national importance in Slovakia. Conclusion. Slovakia is a strongly Christian country with a tradition of wandering, as evidenced by many local and regional pilgrimage sites. Pilgrimage sites are understood as contact points that God has marked, they are the intersections where the ways of God meet the ways of people. There are mostly Marian pilgrimage sites in Slovakia and six of them (Marianka, Staré Hory, Levoča, Šaštín, Nitra, Ľutina) are of national importance.

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Aim. The aim of this study is to discuss how important the so-called Hausväterliteratur genre was in the education and spirituality of (not only) aristocrats in the Early Modern Era. Concept. This article will introduce the Hausväterliteratur as a literary genre that strongly influenced the spirituality and morality of its readers –householders, administrators of property, and their wives. Methods. The method applied was text analysis. The social history method based on research of the primary sources was also employed.. Results. The study confirms that the treatises of the so-called Hausväterliteratur genre, kept in high numbers in European libraries in the Early Modern Age, carry a certain type of spirituality which calls for “true Christian life” following what was often a Protestant pattern (exhortation for frequent reading of the Bible). Conclusion. Most of these books outline an ideal of the Christian life, characterised by the establishment of an order within the “household”, or “house”, i.e., the family in the broader sense, including both the manor owner and those closest to him as well as all his subjects and servants.