A couple weekends ago was the FUS sponsored pilgrimage to Poland (February 12-15). That weekend was so jam-packed full of blessings that I am still trying to reflect on it all and draw out all of lessons and graces. Poland is truly a holy place, sanctified by the blood of martyrs, and it gave rise to three amazing saints within the last century: St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Faustina and Pope John Paul II.
Our first stop on the Pilgrimage was at the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen of Poland. All three of the Polish powerhouse saints had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Czetochowa, and had made their own pilgrimages here to pray before her miraculous image. Just as a bit of history, the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa has protected Poland by turning back invading armies multiple times. The Polish people have such a devotion to her that they built an entire fortress around the Church that houses the image, a fortress for Our Lady. We arrived early and had time to pray and look around before having Mass in front of the image. It is tradition for pilgrims at the shrine to bring their petitions and pray request to Our Lady by processing around the image on their knees, carrying their list of petitions with them and dropping them in an enclosed box at the end of the procession.
While I was processing around, I carried with me my long list of petitions for family & friends, but at the top of my list was a prayer for a specific person’s conversion, a petition I have been taking to every shrine throughout Europe. While I was processing around the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, I was deeply moved by Our Lady with concern and care for this persons soul, but I also started having doubts that maybe all of my praying was in vain: What can one person’s prayers do? Is one person praying really enough? I pray for this over and over and over, is this repetition worth anything? After we celebrated Mass before the image, I went up to the Adoration Chapel to pray, and the Lord blew me away by how he touched my heart. Even though Poland is the birthplace of the Divine Mercy image, I just wasn’t expecting to see that image at the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. That is exactly what I saw though! There was a giant painting of Jesus’ Divine Mercy on the wall behind the Blessed Sacrament in the adoration chapel. I immediately felt the Lord tell me that I need to trust in His mercy, that I need to lay this friend who I’ve been praying for at His feet. I need to keep praying, but I need to stop worrying about him. I just need to surrender Him to the Lord.
The Lord continued to build on this theme at various shrines throughout Poland. We quickly had to return to the bus to depart for our next stop on the pilgrimage, but tried to stop at the gift store before we left. Beautiful rosaries with the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa were selling for only 2 euro!! We hardly had any time at all and there was only one lady working, so we just formed a big group and pooled money, thinking one person placing the order would be easiest. While the designated student was buying the rosaries, the rest of us ran to the bus to ask them to wait and not leave without us! At the end of the ordeal, I only ended up with one rosary, but I’m just thankful to have that one. Now, I just need to decide whether to keep it for myself or to give it as a gift to someone.
The next stop on the pilgrimage was the concentration camp at Auschwitz. I was anticipating this to be very difficult emotionally, but was surprised to find out different. I have to say that the movies I’ve seen of the Holocaust effect me way more because you actually see the evil. At Auschwitz, though it was sad, the evil was no longer felt. In talking with my friends about our experiences there, we all agreed that visiting Auschwitz gave us motivation to fight for the innocent through the prolife movement. Everyone says, “Remember Auschwitz. Don’t let it happen again,” but it is happening again, and on a horrifically larger scale! I’m in no way trying to diminish was happened at Auschwitz, but we must realize that the evil that happened there didn’t just go away. It has re-manifested itself in a new form. Every day 4,000 babies are brutally killed in the United States alone. Every single day!! Our tour guide at Auschwitz kept stressing how they organized death at Auschwitz, it was a giant killing factory with every little detail sorted out. Welcome to the Aborted States of America…planned parenthood and other abortion clinics are the organized, structured, killing factories today. While at Auschwitz, people kept asking, “How did the people in town not know? How could they go about their lives normally, pretending this wasn’t happening down the street?” Well, I would pose the same question to every American citizen that drives past the planned parenthood death camps where innocent children are being brutally murdered every day. Where is the justice? When will we stand up for what is right? When will we say, “Stop killing just so you may live as you wish!”?
…After Auschwitz, we travelled to Krakow, checked into the hotel and got some rest for the evening. The next day we explored around Krakow. We went to the Cathedral where Pope John Paul II was consecrated Bishop, which also houses the remains of St. Hedwig. We saw the university where both Copernicus and John Paul II (formerly Karol Wojtyla) studied. We saw the trumpeter play from a window at the top of a church steeple. We got a lot of souvenirs really, really cheap. We went for gourmet hot chocolate…I had Rose Milk Chocolate, it smelled
and tasted like roses!
That afternoon, we went to the Shrine of Divine Mercy. I was so overjoyed to be walking the same grounds that St. Faustina walked! We prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3:00 in the convent chapel. It was led by one of the sisters from St. Faustina’s order. After the chaplet, I venerated a relic from St. Faustina in front of the tomb that has her remains, I wish I could have stayed praying there forever! We then received a beautiful talk on Divine Mercy from one of the other sisters, and had confession and Mass in the new Church there. After Mass, I bought so many religious souvenirs and gifts it is not even funny!! It was so cheap though!!!
Later that evening, which happened to be St. Valentine’s Day, three of my girl friends and I went out on the town together. We had fun being girly-girls, taking black and white pictures in a beautiful, snow-laden park full of trees, light poles and benches. Then we went and had authentic polish cuisine, where we watched a bunch of smelly, not-so-hygienic, but really cute middle aged polish couples dance to awkward polish disco music. It was a Valentines Day that will not soon be forgotten!
The next morning we had Mass at the Cathedral in Krakow and departed for Gaming. Along the way, we stopped at Wadovice, the hometown of Pope John Paul II where he lived until he was 18!! We toured his old family apartment, which in now a museum. We also enjoyed Papa Cakes, a dessert that him and his friends would devour after exams as kids…after he became Pope and told that story, they renamed the dessert in his honor! I spent an eternity praying at different chapels in the Church there, where he was baptized and received his first communion. I had the honor of kissing his baptismal font, a practice one of my professors encouraged us to do as a way to remember our own baptismal promises. After the sweet visit to JPII’s hometown, we departed for Gaming.
Our Lady of Czetochowa, pray for us.
St. Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us.
St. Faustina, pray for us.
Pope John Paul II, pray for us.
