Poland

Our last trip we traveled to Poland. We went to the Shire of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz Birkenau. The second day we went on a tour of Krakow and saw the Church in which Pope John Paul II (JPII) was bishop of before he became Pope. We also went and saw the Divine Mercy shrine and then the last day went to Wadovice which is where JPII is from.

The trip was fool of God's love and mercy. I really loved going to the Shrine the first day, the image of our lady there was beautiful and the place was just full of peace. Everywhere on the walls were hundreds of crutches of people who had been healed there and tons of jewelry and beautiful things that had been given. You can find the image online. This painting was said to have been painted by St. Luke, which he painted on a table that Jesus had made, and was in the house of the Holy Family. It has been deeply connected to the history of Poland for a long time. It was seriously just awesome. Research it! The painting gets partially covered up in clothe- like things from the precious medals and things that people have given. But the cool thing for me was that in the image there was Mary holding Jesus in one hand, and a rose in the other, like she was giving Jesus the rose. Well I am in what is called a 'household' at my school and it is called Rosa Mystica- so our symbol is a rose. And the image reminded me that Mary is bringing me to Jesus- just like she brought Jesus to the world! It was just really awesome and I was so thankful. Praise the Lord! I get excited just thinking about how I felt in that place!

Then was Auschwitz, and needless to say that was extremely hard. I don't want to go into the gruesome details because everyone knows them. But there are 2 things that were really special to me in that place of death and destruction. The first was that we were able to visit a cell of a Saint. St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest, was a prisoner there during the war. There are many beautiful stories about how witness of hope in the camp but one stands out in particular. When prisoners would escape from the camp there would be a random selection from the camp of 10 men who would be chosen to die from starvation and be left in a tiny cell until they did. Well on a certain occasion of a man escaping, 10 prisoners were randomly selected, one of which was begging for mercy because he had a family, a wife, and children. Maximilian Kolbe was in the crowd, and decided to walk up to the front (which in itself is unusual & a death treat itself) and tell the guards that he would go instead of this man. The guards were taken so off guard that they let him, plus it was just a number to them. So he went with the other men. And while in his cell he prayed and sang the whole time, and day after day he was still surviving, not dieing from starvation. And he brought hope to the other prisoners while he sang, and the one whole in his cell was at the very top of the room, and outside was where they would execute people. Father Maximilian's voice praising the Lord was the last thing many people heard right before they died. After awhile of him not dieing they took him out and killed him by lethal injection. And he became a saint under JPII. I felt blessed beyond words to visit the cell of this man, to see where he lay when he brought all those people hope, when he brought Jesus to them in that place of death. I am thankful that he is a witness of how no amount of evil, suffering, or death can ever conquer the Lord's love, mercy and goodness. This is where my second story comes in. When we went to Auschwitz Birkenau, which was the bigger camp, built during the war, when they ran out of room at Auschwitz I, we did not stay long. Most of the camp there had been destroyed by the Nazis as an effort to hide their grotesque rule. But what was there was the train track, that which thousands upon thousands of human persons were carried on, and the platform in which they would get off, and many of them be sent directly to death. This was difficult to stand on, as a free person, knowing that I could walk under the archway that so many never were able to walk out of- knowing that if I couldn't handle it, if I was too weak to look at death, then I could just walk back out. All of us felt like this. Our stomachs were churning and our hearts were crushed. But even in that place God gave us a beautiful gift. We went to the place where the platform was, and we knelt down in the snow, and we prayed. It started only as a few people saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet (where you mediate on and ask for the Mercy of the Lord). But slowly, people joined in, because they needed it, just as we did. And by the end most of the whole group of 100 and some people were knelling in the freezing cold snow, singing it. It was so beautiful. There was mercy in that place of death. And God showed me that he has conquered all. That Auschwitz, all the other concentration camps, all death, all sin, and all evil, are not even a shadow of the good, of his love. He has conquered- no matter what! God is good!

I will finish the rest of the blog later... I have mid-term so pray for me please