Poland

Posted: 27/02/2011 | Author: mrcrister | Filed under: Semester in Austria | Tags: poland | Leave a comment »

The Poland Pilgrimage was beyond a speedy description. Amazing does not do it justice. I’m going to try to keep this post free of unnecessary details but forgive the inevitable.

 

We started out our trip with a long 10 bus ride with a few elongated rest stops at a few gas stations in the Czech Republic (another country on the list of “visits”) but our journey really began when we scurried up the hill from our buses to the monastery where the historic and sacred icon has it’s home. Every morning at 6 am sharp, the icon is unveiled with trumpet fanfare. When I was told about the fanfare I thought, oh yeah, one trumpet, that will be cool. Nope. As soon as the priests walked out (the unveiling is the beginning of Mass as well) the timpani began roaring and trumpets blaring the announcement that Our Lady’s Icon was being unveiled. It was a beautiful sight and it took about five minutes to proceed through the whole thing. We left right after the opening hymn and headed down to breakfast. But don’t worry, we did go to Mass, after a brief introductory tour to the monastery by our trusty tour guides. Fr Brad (our chaplain and Priest on the pilgrimage) celebrated Mass right underneath the icon, on the high alter on which millions of Masses have been celebrated before. An amazing realization when you are physically there.

 

After some free time to roam and explore the museum and treasury, we boarded the busses for Auschwitz. Now Auschwitz was an interesting experience. I haven’t yet decided exactly what my favorite part of the trip was yet, and I’m not sure that I would say this is it, but it certainly was the most moving part, in a horrid sort of way. We had watched Karol on the bus ride up (excellent movie, watch it) and the experiences that followed those who disappeared from the streets of Poland during the Nazi occupation came alive in a disturbing way. The horrid conditions, the extreme disrespect for human life, the efficient extermination as one person described it. It sounds so disgusting but the Nazis did an extremely “good” job at exploiting human kind. Every bit of the human body was used for some other purpose than sustaining life. I won’t go into details for they are far to disturbing for one to read without experiencing it first hand, one must completely understand the horror and magnitude of what was done. The memorial plaque says it all “FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE A CRY OF DESPAIR AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY, WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MILION MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, MAINLY JEWS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF EUROME” Each of the tour guides who showed us around the camps were very real in their showing us around making sure we understood the magnitude of everything. The worst part for me was seeing the vertical cells. Deep within 11 Block, there were a number of small doors at the bottom of the floor all lined up. At first you see one and think it is a storage container, then you keep looking and see broken walls to reveal single cells, just large enough to stand up in. That is where the tiny doors lead. The people who were selected for this punishment would be forced through the tiny openings and forced to stand, without knowing when they would be allowed to sit, or leave, or see light, or eat. As soon as my brain clicked and realized what it was exactly I felt sick to my stomach. How can a human being consciously do such a thing to another human being? The whole experience made me appreciate my own life so much better, and appreciate those who fight so hard for the dignity of Human Life. This exploitation is still going on! We just see it from behind a veil. What about the unborn who do not have the power to even attempt to escape the horrors of abortion. In a way an abortion gives the person less of a chance to survive. The child cannot even fight the experience mentally. Just some thoughts to ponder.

 

Afterwards we rode the busses to Krakow, the second largest city in Poland (the former capital) where we checked into our hotel. We were able to take a quick preview of the city “night life” where we found a fake monk. At first we thought he was real but then quickly put the puzzle pieces together and realized the fake habit, and when we asked him what order he was in, he said “I am Catholic but I am a documentary maker, I work at this restaurant at nights” Aha! It was entertaining. Fr Brad walked by and started to ask if we had found out what order he was in (he was dressed as a Franciscan) but we stopped him in time.

 

The next morning we had tours of Krakow by some local tour guides who did an excellent job. We were shown around the city by an older woman who had been confirmed by Karol Wojtyla! Yup, I know, that’s what we said! Needless to say the tour became about ten times more interesting after knowing that.

 

After the tour we walked around town and eventually made it to the legendary dragon cave. Unfortunately “due to the number of bodies” the cave was closed to the public, at least that’s what some people say, really I think it was just the weekend, but we did get to see the dragon breath fire! It was pretty impressive. If you are able, see the Talking Transatlantic episode when it comes out on Facebook (I’ll try to post a link for non-facebookers). At one point we made our way to the Jewish quarter of town, hoping to check out one of the synagogues, unfortunately the whole place looked deserted, for the longest time (ooooh, for the longest time) we couldn’t figure out why, but when we were recapitulating the story later on, they pointed out to us that we visited on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Of course!

 

After strolling the town we headed over to the Shrine of Divine Mercy just outside the city. Let me start off by describing the beautiful chapel that the sisters pray in. It was a beautiful baroque style with hundreds of gifts from thankful supporters of the Divine Mercy movement (look it up, Divine Mercy). As we entered the already crowded chapel (adding about 150 people to the mix) we lined up to venerate none other than the relics of St Faustina! It’s not every day that one can add that to their list of things done. After everyone went through the line, we all found a spot in the pews, or on the floor and the sisters led everyone in the Divine Mercy Chaplet. At first we started off in Polish, understandable, but then we moved on to English and three other languages! It was a beautiful testament to the universality of the Catholic Church.

 

After the chaplet we left the chapel and attended a presentation by on of the sisters about Divine Mercy. It was a great talk, difficult to sit through in the warm room and comfortable chairs, but we made it. She shared with us a testimony of a devotee to the Divine Mercy that really set the experience in motion, it was amazing.

 

After the talk, we checked out the shops that were near the actual shrine. Now keep in mind that there were 150 of us and we had half an hour to get our purchases done before Mass, so there was definitely a scurry. I was having a hard time deciding just what to get, much less getting in a good spot to actually buy it, so I decided that when I only had five minutes left before Mass I had to leave and come back afterwards. At 5pm we had Mass celebrated by Fr Brad in the Shrine of Divine Mercy. Let me just say that many churches that have been built in recent years (the past decade or so) have been of a more modern build. Modern does not seem to have any rhyme or reason, although I’m sure there is one somewhere. From the outside, one of the first things you think of is a spaceship, which is really unfortunate. The inside is very large, high ceiling, open, and very very white. The church was extremely good at amplifying echos. Which happens in most churches anyways, it just seemed more so, perhaps because the whole place was white, which makes it look even bigger than it is. The strangest part was the tabernacle I think. It is a globe that has two doors on the front that open up to the space inside where Jesus is kept. Now, it does seem strange to have a giant globe be a tabernacle but I suppose the symbolism of Christ being within the world could be used. I am sort of inclined to read up on the artist’s thoughts about that one. The crucifix behind the tabernacle is surrounded by two bronze trees, which seem to connect in, perhaps symbolizing Christ as the tree of life. Anyways it was an  interesting experience attending Mass in the Shrine, a very strange complex to be sure. Anyways after Mass we returned to the shopping area and lo and behold that great shop was in fact closed. It was a pity too, because they had great prices. To give you an idea, the postcards were 0.20 zloty…that’s about $0.07! But there was another shop open with a few things I would have liked to get that they didn’t have but it all worked out for the best!

 

I had the privilege of eating dinner with one of Greg’s long distant relatives while we were in Poland. He is a music conductor and has traveled all over the world for concerts. But the most interesting part of his story was that he actually knew Karol Wojtyla when he was a parish priest. On top of that, once Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, he was invited about six or seven times for concerts for the Pope in the Vatican. Connections aside he was a very inspiring piece of history, and made me want to go out and learn a few more languages besides English.

 

In the morning we left the hotel and boarded the busses to go to Mass at the Cathedral (in Polish, Bazylika Archikatedralna) where we had intended (or were told anyways) that we would be attending the High Mass. Again, for the second time in our travels, we were disappointed. Well, not entirely. This time at least the Mass was in Latin, and was in ad orientem, but it was just Novus Ordo (which is just as awesome, because it’s still Mass!!!)

 

After Mass, a small group took a mini trip to Nowa Huta (pronounced Nova Hoota) where during the Soviet occupation, the city was built to be without God. After tireless efforts to have a church built, after bloodshed even, today there stand two churches, and the city embraces them wholly. It was beautiful to see the commemorative cross that stands in thanksgiving to Pope John Paul II who fought with the citizens for their cross.

 

Leaving Krakow later that day was sad. In a way I had become attached to the town, I certainly wouldn’t mind going back there someday. The strength of the church and the pleasantness of the people, everywhere we went, was astounding.

 

Wadovice, the hometown of Karol Wojtyla, was the next stop on our journey, we just stopped for a few hours to explore the town. It was the tiniest thing. The church was clearly the center of town, both geographically and spiritually. When I walked into the church, there was a good sized group of young children with a few nuns nearby. They were practicing for what sounded like music for a Mass or Liturgy of the Hours. It was great to see the next crop of growing young Catholics being fostered in their faith in Christ.

 

The town was pleasant, but unfortunately not very active (being a Sunday). I did get my Pope Cake, a creamy dessert that Pope John Paul II said he would eat with his friends after exams, it was coined Pope Cake during one of his visits to Poland during his papacy. I also practiced self-control in not buying any souvenirs in Wadovice. I’m not sure how I did it, but I did. I did however, spend money on a cheap but fairly decent kebab (not the one on a skewer).

 

The bus ride back was, to say the least, entertaining. An entire album of ridiculous songs were composed on the spot, ranging from topics of Chris (myself), to Jeff Coens, to Eric Fischer, to lentil soup, to Katie Thimons. While you may not know any of those people, be sure that the music sounded something like out of a Flight of the Conchords episode (so ridiculous, it’s funny).

 

Now that you know every detail of the trip, you may be wondering what I actually got out of it all. Well here it is, Poland is an extremely strong country. Now I clearly don’t mean that in the military sense because they have been invaded so many times (it happens, Europe is a violent continent) but in the spiritual sense. They have been through so much horror and pain, yet they continue to stay true to the faith. They have countless times placed their trust in the intercession of Our Lady and in the Lord’s Divine Mercy. While their pain does not subside overnight, the faith cannot die. No matter how many of the faithful, priests, and bishops are killed, they stay strong. In fact I would venture to say that through all of the suffering, Poland’s faith has become that much stronger. To give you a good picture statistically, Europe, over time has dwindled to about 5% practicing Catholic, those who attend at least on Sundays. In Poland, you will find 90% practicing Catholic with probably 40% attending daily Mass. The faith is just so alive in Poland, it is so inspiring. If you ever have a chance to go there, do it.

 

Well I pray that this post finds you in good health, My next adventure will be a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. I will definitely have to be more diligent on posting for that one since it is a full week. I still have to post about the Salzburg and Munich trip, which was also a fun one, but mid-terms loom closer (starting tomorrow) so that shan’t be a priority.

 

God Bless,

Chris

 

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