Father's Reflection 3.26.23

Poland, Part II

Having established that this pilgrimage changed my life, Gina Sallman, and Annie Deters life and the personal invitation from Dr. Tory Baucum, we transition into the “what happened in Poland.”

Light. Darkness. Hope.  Tragedy.  Joy.  Despair.  Beauty. 
Humanity marred beyond recognition.  Tradition.  Deconstruction.  All of this and so much more made up our pilgrimage.  And please friends, understand this, it was simply the beginning.  We are going to build a bridge from Nemaha County to Poland.  We are going to have many more pilgrimages over to the land of the saints.  We are going to do this because Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother have asked it of us.  And we are going to do it because it has the potential to change lives.  Change.  Lives.
 
Auschwitz.  Wadowice.  Cracow.  Tyniec.  Warsaw.  Czestochowa.  These places mean nothing on paper.  But what happened in these places.  The lives that were destroyed in these places.  The lives that were changed in these places.  The messages that were given in these places.  The Virgin Mother of God whose presence permeates these places.  Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who spoke to the heart of a young consecrated religious, St. Faustina, in these places.  The evil of the Nazi’s and Communists which racked these places.  The saints like JP II, Maximillian Kolbe, Faustina, Stanislaus, and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who walked these places.  And the Church’s teaching on the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and the dignity of the human person which is all tied to the cosmic battle between light and darkness which took place in the last century in this land of Poland…we will be looking to invite many more souls from our parishes into in the coming years.  To be continued…