World Youth Day - Conclusion (CAMPUS MISERICORDIAE and return home)

Saturday morning was the last chance for a shower for the next 36 hours, and we all knew it.  After breakfast, the group met at 8am to head for Mass with Bishop Rhoades.  I however, went to see JPII's parish when he was a university student before entering seminary: St. Stanislas Kostka in the debniki neighborhood of Krakow.  It must have been a newer area, because the church has an architectural style that is more representative of the early 1900's.

 A cassock of Saint John Bosco (known as Don Bosco) was present in the church, and it was apparently ministered by his order the Salesians (perhaps since its founding).  I stumbled in during a Mass so was very reverent and inobtrusive as I made a quick view of the church.

Then I joined up with the group for the huge march to the "Campus Misericordiae," the field of mercy, where we would gather as a group of 1.6 million or more young Catholics from around the world.  It was about an 8 mile hike to get there.  I carried a portable "Mass kit" so that I could celebrate Mass for the dozen or so pilgrims from our group who decided to leave at 5:30am and get us really good spots!  Here I getting things ready.  A couple Polish girls (with blue headbands) joined us as well as three pilgrims from Michigan who wanted to attend Mass.  This was one of the neatest memories for me, because it is rare to have such a blessed opportunity to celebrate Mass outside surrounded by so many faithful who are on an international retreat pilgrimage!

A miracle was that the music and sound tests were quiet during the Mass before picking up again around 5pm.  My sister Katie and her husband Matt found us and we were able to chat for a couple hours before Pope Francis arrived for a prayer service and a long sermon, followed by Eucharistic Adoration.  They passed out candles for all of us and the beauty of praying the Divine Mercy chaplet in that environment as Catholics from all over the world brings me to tears.  God is so good!  Jesus, I Trust in You!

After Benediction, we bid farewell to the Holy Father for the evening, and had a concert until around 11pm.  I played cards with a few of our pilgrims, reminding me of how I learned to play that game at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto with my high school youth group!  Then, bedtime under the stars!

SUNDAY MORNING, I had a rough time sleeping since I packed super light, so I was up before sunrise a little cold and wet.  I walked around to get out the shivers, and a young man from Spain came to me for Confession (en espanol, of course!).  Then I said my prayers and took photos of the beautiful sunrise.  I hope this photo gives a small sense of the wonder of the experience.  It's hard to describe how "at home" you feel in circumstances that would normally terrify most people, but it's the beauty of all being there for God and God alone.  Amazing to have such a "family" in the Catholic Church.

It warmed up quickly.  The other priests of my group rushed out to get us a spot for Mass, since they were afraid of things not working out (with reason, since in Madrid 2011 it wasn't as smooth of a trip).  I eventually joined them, and we all got special chasubles for the event.  With some 2,000 bishops, you can only imagine how many priests were there.  It was a long way to the altar from our seats!

Pope Francis returned for Mass after driving through the Campus and saying hello to everyone.  Mass was at 10am and was a beautiful ceremony.  The story of Zaccheus climbing up the tree to see Jesus gave Pope Francis opportunity to remind us that Jesus wants to be with us, with you, with me, to come to your home and to dwell with you and be with you, even though we could never deserve it or earn it.  That is mercy.  Jesus shows us and the Pope reminds us.

After the Mass (mostly in Latin, our universal language), we headed back in small groups for our hotel.  It's quite an operation to see: almost 2 million people walking on foot out of the huge field.  Thankfully a storm came through to cool things off without dropping rain on us until the very end (I got inside 20 minutes prior!)

Around 5pm Pope Francis drove past the hotel, so a small group of us were out there to say hello, and I spontaneously gave him a blessing myself, as a priest.  I don't think I've ever done that!

The group had a farewell dinner that evening, then we went out for ice cream (Polish word is 'Lody' - we learned that fast!!) and last souvenirs.  I got back around 11pm and then we stayed up late as an attempt to get ahead of jet lag - which I think worked only marginally.

MONDAY we were up early to be on the bus at 6:45.  We headed back for Warsaw to catch our flight.  On the way, we stopped at a church where our bus guide Adam was baptized.  The church was about 400 years old.  It was the last Mass as a group, our swan song.  They had a relic of Blessed Jerzy Popielusko there, a reminder of our first Mass together (which I preached at).  The return trip was very smooth, very comfortable.  I played more cards because the other three were loving it.  It helped me stay awake so I could try to get back on a normal sleep schedule.  Landing in Chicago around 8pm, we got back to South Bend around 12am, so I fell asleep just before 1am.  Back at home.  What a trip.  So many blessings.  Deo gratias!!

World Youth Day - Friday

Finally updating with more stories from last week.

Friday was a wonderful day.  After getting some sleep (not too much!) we went out early to see some JPII sites: we went to the Jagellonian university where he was a student and later a professor.  Then we prayed at the huge Marian basilica that is in the downtown square.  I prayed especially for the parish whenever I saw John the Baptist, which was of course quite often!

We next made a quick visit to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati at the nearby Dominican church before heading to a morning Mass with Bishop Rhoades at the ancient church of Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Stanislaw at the Skalka monastery.
The not-very God-fearing king Boleslaw had the gall to come into the church and slay the bishop Stanislaw because he was excommunicated (probably for the right reasons!).  Anyways, he threw the body of the bishop martry into the stream nearby, and this is the origin of the fountain (the water is "drinkable" but very sulfuric - I learned the hard way!).

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis happened to be at the church and were hoping to find an English Mass that morning, so they were thrilled to join us.  Two of the pilgrims were my sister Katie and her husband Matt! (and their child in the womb!)  I was so happy to see them for the second time (I saw them Wednesday at the Tauron Arena with the 20K pilgrims there).  I had hoped I could hang out with them for the afternoon but it did not work out since we had different groups, etc.
I continued for the afternoon as a bit of a JPII tour: the Wawel Cathedral (he was Archbishop & Cardinal), as well as his first parish church, St. Florian's.  Then the four of us got a very nice (and huge) lunch at a restaurant and visited another church before making our way to the Blonia park again.

The stations of the Cross that evening were especially moving for all of us.  After Pope Francis arrived, we began immediately to enter into this tradition prayer that Saint Francis himself instituted some 800 years ago.  Each station was coupled with a work of mercy (corporal or spiritual), and each began with a  Gospel reading followed by a dramatic presentation of some sort to introduce the theme.  Then we read a meditation and a prayer, concluding with a video that showed how the Church was carrying out that work of mercy throughout the world.  The meditations were powerful.

 After this concluded, we started back for the hotel.  I however, broke off for a special treat: I went to see JPII's apartment where he lived for a couple years with his dad while he attended university.  (This was before he decided to enter seminary).

I was welcomed in after hours by a nice lady who had mercy on a nice young priest.  So I was able to see the place by myself and pray quietly there!

I also tried to see the nearby parish he attended, because he celebrated his first public Mass there as a priest.  However, I was not able to get inside, so I ended up going there early the next morning!

We saw the Pope!!

This morning was a free morning for the groups to seek out the experiences they were particularly interested in since there is so much to do and so little time to accomplish it all. I simply got some good sleep and a nice breakfast before I went for a smaller English catechesis in a church nearby. Unfortunately the first destination was all in Polish, oops! but the church was gorgeous so I snapped a photo.

We we finally found the right place nearby and had about 15 minutes to prepare for Mass. Then my friend Sean Allen found some radios (to listen to the real-time translation of the main events). We ran into Bishop Rhoades who was out on his own and about to eat lunch.

We visited a church with him and then met the big group to head back to the same huge park to see Pope Francis at his arrival.

He rolled right past us waving and smiling. We were screaming and I just yelled his name and that I love him. It was very moving, tears for some of the teens. We were very very close, like ten feet. Wow!
After some welcomes we introduced the saints of WYD and their messages of mercy. Then we read from the Gospel of Luke, the story of Martha and Mary, and Pope Francis gave a talk about the importance for youth to dream, to believe things can change, to never give up on life.
Then back to the hotel. I decided to call in pizza for the group to make things easier, so I can sleep!! :)

Tuesday & Wed.: Opening Mass & English mega-site

On Tuesday we had an easy morning where I was able to wash my laundry. Father Jonathan Norton and I went out to see if we could find the relics of blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. I found the church but was unable to enter the relics because there was a Mass going on inside:

Then we get it as a whole group after a quick lunch, and headed out to a huge public park near downtown for the opening Mass with the local archbishop Stanislas Dziwicz who was personal secretary for John Paul the second for most of his papacy and even before that.

There was a huge crowd for Mass, probably 200,000 people. (However, that is only a 10th of what is expected for Sunday!)

The rainstorm did not dampen anybody's spirits. And this small break in the and this small break in the clouds allowed the sun to shine during the consecration of the Eucharist.

On Wednesday, we went to a huge arena for a catechesis with about 18,000 English speaking pilgrims, and I ran into my sister Katie and her husband Matt!!!

The day began with amazing speakers with a wonderful mass and beautiful music. We stayed there for the whole day along with other lectures and opportunities, and it finished tonight with a huge mass concert with two of the best Catholic musicians around: Matt Maher and Audrey Assad. I was proud that I could sing almost every word of every song!
We also had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: the young man leading the procession was a boy from our diocese who is now a Dominican priest!

The new bishop Robert Barron of LA gave a sermon during Adoration about the cross, especially noting the martyrdom yesterday of Father Jacques, a priest in France killed during Mass by an ISISfighter. It was obviously very moving for everyone. We walked 4 miles to get home and I am ready for sleep! :-)

Auschwitz and Divine Mercy

Sunday we saw the heights of divine love and the lows of human sin. In the morning we woke in Katowice and headed to our destination of Oswiencim, the town where Germans drove out the people to make room for a labor camp that eventually became the extermination camp after its huge expansion in 1942.

The Poles (especially from here) did much to help the Jews, and this nation boasts the majority of those honored as "righteous" at the Shoah museum in Jerusalem.

Here Fr. Maximilian Kolbe starved to death, the last of 10 victims of Nazi retaliation for a prisoner escape (the SS, under Himmler, ran the concentration camps).

This pond was full of human ash. Evil leaves its mark, but the glory of Good cannot be conquered for it lives on into eternity.

Here Sr. Faustina's body lies. The Saint of divine mercy is beneath the image she commissioned on the left.

Above is the large chapel of Divine Mercy. A very strange modern church but it had good musical acoustics!

1/2 mile away is a shrine to JP2. Here is the cassock he wore when shot 4 times (twice through the abdomen).
The evening was on our own for dinner. A small group went out to eat and got ice cream. I ended up with one of our priests talking until 11:30 with a pair of locals! It was a nice surprise!

Real quick

Czestochowa was amazing!!

This chapel of Saint Michael is the oldest building in the region. About 600 years originally, and this one about 500. Sheesh! :)

Kalwaria is the second most popular site after Czestochowa. It's a huge hiking religious site. I loved it and I understand why JP2 did as well!  The picture below is a steep downhill, but hard to notice here.

Then we went to JPII's birthplace, Wadowice, and saw the basilica where he was baptized and went through the museum of his home. He lived right next door!!

It was Sunday so the church was full all day!!

Warsaw

We arrived in Warsaw after a 2-hr flight delay and things went well from there. It was a bit difficult being on the plane for 11hrs but I slept on-and-off the whole way.
Warsaw, despite being mostly leveled by Germans and Russians in WWII and after, has much beauty in its buildings, particularly in "old town" shown here.

The Mass for the 150 pilgrims (including Bishop Rhoades, 14 seminarians, and 5 priests) was at Saint Stanislas Kostka where Blessed Jerzy Popiulsko is buried.

His outspoken sermons against Communism cost him his life. He truly worked to overcome evil with the power of good.
after a great and much needed dinner we got our tired sleepy selves to bed before a nice breakfast and a 4hr drive to Jazna Gora to see the Black Madonna.
pray for us!!