Travel
Along with me and other on our
2006 Pilgrimage to Western Europe - June 11 - 25, 2006 |
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- Instructions for viewing photos:
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See other religious places I've
visited |
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First Day: Departure from LFT to Houston, with
flight to Paris and connecting to Poland. Includes convent of Divine
Mercy, where Sr. Faustina first entered the order. |
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Wadowice, Poland, birthplace of Pope John Paul II. |
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Niepokalanow and Auschwitz
Niepokalanow is the town established by St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Auschwitz concentration camp where St. Kolbe was killed |
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The Sanctuary of The Divine Mercy - Krakow, Poland.
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Our bus broke down, and after being
stranded roadside for several hours, we arrived at the Chateau de la
Fleunie. This was a welcomed site, an awesome 12th and 15th
century castle standing in grounds of 106 acres, was a delight to
the group. |
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Scenes from Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Lourdes France.
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Although we did not have a lot
of time to experience the wonders of Paris, I can attest, it is an
awesome and very beautiful city - especially at night. Dinner was at
a quaint little restaurant across from the Notre Dame Cathedral,
followed by a short walking tour, and driving tour of famous sites.
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Day 1: June 11 -
Travel Louisiana / Houston / Paris |
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Day 2: June 12 -
Paris / Warsaw. Arrive Charles de Gaulle
Airport in Paris. Board connecting
flight to Warsaw. Local tour and drive to
St. James Church for Mass.
Lazienki Park
and sites of Warsaw. |
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Day 3: June 13 -
Warsaw /
Niepokalonow
/ Plock - Niepokalonow is the town founded by
Maximillian
Kolbe. Continue to Plock for 3:00 Divine Mercy
devotions. |
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Day 4: June 14 -
Warsaw / Czestochowa -
Convent of Sisters of
Mercy. Overnight Drive to Czestochowa. |
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Day 5: June 15 - Czetochowa Tour
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Jasna Gora Monastery.
Auschwitz/Birkeneau Holocaust memorial - Holocaust
Memorial. |
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Day 6: June 16 -
Wadowice: Birthplace of Pope John
Paul II. Lagiewniki area, visit
Shrine of Divine Mercy
and the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. |
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Day 7:
June 17 - Krakow scenic drive. Czech
Republic (Prague) tour |
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Day 8: June
18 - Prague.
Our Lady of Victorious Church, home of
Infant Jesus.
Tour Prague Castle
and St. Vitus
Cathedral. The Charles Bridge. |
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Day 9: June
June 19 - Prague/Rocamadour. Fly to
Parish, transfer to Rocamadour by
motorcoach. Enchanting French countryside
rgion of the Dordogne River Valley.
Castles, bineyards, villages and remains
of lost civilizations.
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Day 10: June
June 20 -
Rocamadour. Climb the 216 Holy
Stpes to the chapel of Our Lady of
Rocamadour. |
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Day 11-13:
June June 22, 23, 24 -
Lourdes. We will spend three
days at Lourdes, enjoying scenes of the
Village of St. Bernadette, the Grotto, the
taps, healing spring, the sanctuaries of
Our Lady of Lourdes, The Basilica of the
Immaculate Conception, and so much more! |
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Day 14: June
25 - Lourdes / Paris. Transportation
aboard TGV high-speed train to Paris. Gare
Montparnasse (train station), drive thru
Paris, site seeing to include: Eiffel
Tower, L'Arc de Triumph, ChampsElysee.
Overnight in Paris. |
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Day 15: June
25 - Board Air France flight at Charles de
Gaulle Airport for Houston!
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JUNE 12TH
Home of Pope John Paul II,
St. Faustina Divine Mercy
Shrine.... |
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JUNE 18TH
Prague, Infant Jesus, Our
Lady of Victorious
Church.... |
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JUNE 22nd
Our Lady of Lourdes, St.
Bernadette.... |
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Warsaw:
Lazienki
Park |
 
Lazienki Park is one of the most beautiful
part of Warsaw - one of the most favorite places for walks
for Varsovians and tourists. This romantic, landscaped
park includes the Palace on the Water, together with
various other palaces, pavillons, an amphitheater and two
orangeries.
The highlight of Lazienki Park is the Palace on the Water.
It is one of the finest examples of Neo-Clasical
architecture in Poland. King Stanislaw August Poniatowski
converted 17th Century Pavillon into a Palace. In World
War II the Nazis wanted to blow up the Palace but because
of lack of time - they only set fire to it. Currently the
Palace is fully restored. |
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Niepokalanow, Auschwitz:
"Kolbe, the Saint of Auschwitz" |
 
The deathcamp
Auschwitz became the killing center during WWII where the
largest numbers of European Jews were murdered by the
Nazis. One Christian man who died here became a martyr to
the truth of evils of Nazism - a true hero for our time, a
saint who lived what he preached, total love toward God
and man ...
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who died as
prisoner 16770 in
Auschwitz, When
a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected 10
others to be killed by starvation in reprisal for the
escape. One of the 10 selected to die, Franciszek
Gajowniczek, began to cry: My wife! My children! I will
never see them again! At this Maximilian Kolbe stepped
forward and asked to die in his place. His request was
granted ... |
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Plock |
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Divine Mercy Image, St. Faustina, Sr. Mercy House
The world-famous apostle of the Divine
Mercy was born on 25 August 1905 in the village of
Głogowiec, in the Świnice Warckie parish as the third of
ten children in the family of Marianna and Stanisław
Kowalski. She attended school for less than 3 years.
Subsequently, she worked as a charwoman in the households
of well-to-do families near Warsaw. On August 1 1925, at
20 years old, she joined the Congregation of the Sisters
of Our Lady of Mercy. In the course of the 13 years she
had spent in the Congregation, she stayed in a number of
its houses: in Cracow (the longest), Vilno, Płock and
Warsaw where she worked as a cook, gardener and
gatekeeper.
She suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and of the
alimentary canal. She also experienced great spiritual
tribulations, as she had offered her life in sacrifice for
poor sinners, particularly those who faced the prospect of
being deprived of the grace of salvation. Sr. Faustina's
life, which at first glance seems so grey and monotonous
was filled with an extraordinary depth of mystical life.
She was endowed with many extraordinary graces, among
others with the gift of contemplation, concealed stigmata,
bilocation, the gift of prophecy, of being able to read
human souls, and of mystical betrophal and nuptials all of
which enabled her to attain the heights of unity with God
on earth. She died October 5, 1938.
The Lord Jesus chose Sr.
Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so
that she could tell the world about this great message: In
the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to
My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the
people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching
mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My
Merciful Heart (Diary 1588) - the Lord Jesus told Sr.
Faustina. (Dz. 1588) |
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Czestochowa:
Jasna Gora Monastery. Our Lady of Czestochowa (the
Black Madonna) |
  According
to the traditional version, the painting was created by
St. Luke the Evangelist on a table top from the house of
the Holy Family. St. Luke was said to have painted two
images of Mary, one of which found its way to Italy and
was kept in Bologna where it is still venerated. The other
was said to have been removed from Jerusalem and brought
to Constantinopole by the Emperor Constantine and placed
in a church. Six centuries later, the Russian Prince Lev
obtained the painting from the emperor of the time in
acknowledgement of his military achievements. |
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Krakow / Wadowice (Birthplace of Pope John Paul II) |
   
Wadowice Bascilla, Pope John Paul II and
his home.
Wadowice, small city of about 20,000 some 30 miles
southwest of Krakow, has got international recognition as
the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. Born in 1920 as Karol
Wojtyla, the future Pontiff lived in Wadowice till 1938
when he moved to Krakow to study at its ancient
Jagiellonian Univesity. Yet to his last days the late Holy
Father remembered fondly his Wadowice youth and places
associated with it, the schoolmates, his teachers, and
other local folks he had used to know. Also, he tried to
include the town, when possible, in his visits to Poland. |
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Lagiewniki Krakow area:
Shrine of Divine Mercy
 By
esthetic standards the 20th-century icon of the Lord’s
Grace hardly matches other Krakow’s twenty-odd
wonder-making sacred images that are usually much older
and mostly valuable as objects of art. Yet devotion of
thousands of believers has made the painting sacrosanct.
It depicts Christ as He appeared before a visionary Polish
nun, St. Faustyna Kowalska, one February evening in 1931.
The Lord instructed her to commission this very likeness
of Himself, complete with the caption which reads in
Polish: Jesus, I trust Thee.
On August 17, 2002 Pope John Paul II consecrated the
sanctuary's majestic 1,600-sq-m brand-new basilica. His
Holiness, previously the Krakow archbishop Karol Wojtyla,
is said to be once a driving force behind the worldwide
Catholic movement to worship the Lord’s Mercy with its
center in the Lagiewniki sanctuary. Every year some two
million pilgrims from all over the world visit the shrine.
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Prague |
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Our Lady of Victorious Church; Infant Prague Statue;
Castle of Prague
This house of worship was built by German Lutherans
between 1611-1615. To the right of the entrance is a
commemorative site to the 16th century Spanish nun, St.
Therese of Avila, who along with friar John of the Cross,
reformed the Carmelite order into what is known as the
Discalced Carmelites. Further inside is the church's claim
to fame, a 45cm high wax statuette of Jesus known as the
Infant Jesus of Prague, which is a pilgrimage site of
sorts - for its historical and religious importance, and a
couple of unnamed miracles that have been attached to it.
The devotion to the Holy Child Jesus has long been a
tradition of the Catholic Church for a very long time.
This devotion is a veneration of our Lord's sacred
Infancy. Many saints had a very strong devotion to the
Divine Child, notably St. Therese of the Child Jesus, St.
Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Teresa of
Avila.
Prague is the capitol city of the Czech Republic, which is
at the very central of Europe with Germany, Poland, Russia
and Austria as its neighbors. The history of the Infant
Jesus of Prague started in the 17th century when a statue
of the Infant Jesus was brought into Bohemia (now Czech
Republic) and eventually was given to the Discalced
Carmelites in Prague. Since then, the statue has remained
in Prague and has drawn many devotees worldwide to go and
honor the Holy Child. Many graces, blessings, favors and
miraculous healings have been received by many who
petitioned before the Infant Jesus. |
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Rocamadour
 Historic
shrine perched on a limestone cliff,
Rocamadour tells a story of religious belief
and human endeavour.
Looking out over the gorge of the River Alzou,
this city devoted to the Virgin Mary has
remained for over nine hundred years a symbol
of faith and hope
The name of the sanctuary village originates
from a St Amadour whose identity has never
been firmly established. It seems to be an
hermit who is buried bethis the rock.
As miracles began, the pilgrimage to
Rocamadour was one of the most famous in
Christendom. Henry Plantagenet, King of
England, was miraculously cured and was among
the first to kneel before the Virgin. |
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Lourdes
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Lourdes, France " Our Lady of Lourdes "
On the 11th February 1858 Bernadette
Soubirous a young girl of 14 years left the
Cachot, the refuge of her family now reduced
to poverty, to go and collect firewood with
her Bernadette heard "the sound of the wind"
and then saw a light which soon lit up the
silhouette of a young girl "as young and
small as herself"; 1,40m at 14 years! The
girl smiled smiled at her and invited her to
pray.
On the 18th February there was an exchange
of promises:
"Would you do me the favor of coming here
for two weeks? "Bernadette said Yes. "I
don't promise to make you happy in this
world but in the other".
The other world is the world of love that
Bernadette was to experience on this earth
even in the midst of suffering. During the 2
weeks the way of that other world was
pointed out to her as being, conversion and
a change of heart.
"Penance! Pray to God for the conversion of
sinners."
"Would you crawl on hands and knees and kiss
the ground for the conversion of sinners?"
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Penance Penance Penance"
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Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself
there." "Eat some grass which grows there."
The spring bubbled up through the mud. If
each person took the time and had the
courage to scrape away the shell of egoism
and sins which force us to crawl on hands
and knees and eat the grass like the animals
each one could experience in the depths of
his or her own heart a living coming up from
the Heart of Jesus, from the very heart of
God: He loved us to the point of coming
among us even among our sins and our death.
Tuesday 2 March: the last request.
" Go and tell the priests to come here in
procession and build a chapel"
16th apparition on the 25th March the feast
of the Annunciation and the Conception of
Jesus in the womb of Mary, the young girl
said:
"I am the Immaculate Conception "
Mary allows the light and the life of God to
pass through her in order to give it to the
world. Bernadette saw Mary again after
Easter on the Wednesday 7th April and then
the 16th July on which date she stood on the
far side of the Gave and despite the
distance could say: "I saw her just as if I
was in the Grotto"
AS MARY SAID YESTERDAY TO BERNADETTE SO
TODAY SHE SAYS TO US:
"WOULD YOU DO ME THE FAVOR OF COMING HERE"
Bernadette said of Mary "She was as young
and small as myself." "It was the first time
some one spoke to me in such a respectful
manner."
We imagine God and the saints are people
very high up and far away, whereas God in
fact is so powerful that He can make Himself
very little so as to speak to us and call
us. He speaks to us while at the same time
infinitely respecting our freedom since he
loves us.
Bernadette could have disappered from
Lourdes without anyone paying any attention:
she was so insignificant exept for God, who
recognised in her a little girl who
resembled Him.
" you are precious in My eyes, and you are
honored and I love you" (Isaiah 43/4) If you
are in Lourdes it is not by accident: I was
waiting for you here, God says to us, to
show you my love.
AS MARY SAID TO BERNADETTE YESTERDAY, SO SHE
SAYS TO US TODAY:
"I DO NOT PROMISE TO MAKE YOU HAPPY IN THIS
WORLD BUT THE OTHER"
We are not asked to suffer on the earth wit
resignation to finally get happiness beyond
death. The other world begins here and now:
It is already hell for those who sink into
egoism. For those who open their hearts to
love, paradise has already begun.
In the extreme poverty of the Cachot where
she lived in 1858 Bernadette knew the true
joy of family love. Later on she said: " I
am happy on my bed of pain with my crucifix
more than a queen on her throne ". The
secret of happiness is to welcome little by
little, even through disappointments,
failures and suffering, the look and call of
the one who loved us until the end.
AS MARY SAID TO BERNADETTE YESTERDAY, SO SHE
SAYS TO US TODAY:
"PENANCE, PENANCE, PENANCE PRAY FOR THE
CONVERSION OF SINNERS"
Bernadette was invited to scrape in the mud
at the back of the Grotto until a spring
came forth. In order to do this she had to
crawl on hands and knees, like the animals,
like the pigs; which often came to take
shelter in the hole in the rock. She mimed
the condition of sinners who abandoning
their status of free men and women under the
sun of God choose to live as animals without
reason. She followed the way of Jesus who
plunged himself into our sins, our
suffering, our death in order to pass
through them and conquer them.
To do penance is to let oneself be drawn
along the way of solidarity. We let Jesus
change our hearts of stone to let him graft
on a heart of flesh, that could suffer from
the poverty of the world and so enter into
the dynamic of love.
AS MARY SAID TO BERNADETTE YESTERDAY, SO SHE
SAYS TO US TODAY:
"GO AND DRINK AT THE SPRING AND WASH
YOURSELF THERE"
The water of Lourdes is ordinary water. It
is a sign that Mary uses to remind us of the
words of Jesus.
If anyone thirsts let him come to me. Let
the one come and drink who believes in me
"He was speaking of the Spirit which those
who believed in him were to receive" (John
7/37-39)
Drink and wash yourself...regain the grace
of Baptism, plunge yourself into th elife of
God who did not fear to plunge himself into
our humanity.
Let us rediscover the grace of the Sacrament
of Penance or Reconciliation. It is like a
new birth for us.
AS MARY SAID YESTERDAY TO BERNADETTE, SO SHE
SAYS TO US TODAY:
"COME HERE IN PROCESSION AND BUILD A CHURCH"
The Church is not the group or club for
those who believe in Jesus. It is the poor
and weak who are never chosen by the world
but whom God mysteriously calls. We become
the messengers of mercy.
Stay awake! We are already on the road to
Lourdes, to take part in the processions.
Let our whole life be a pilgrimage, a
confident journey to the chapel or church,
the holy city God prepares for us and in
which He waits for us.
Our churches on this earth are only for us
the sign and memory of this meeting of love.
AS MARY SAID TO BERNADETTE YESTERDAY, SO SHE
SAYS TO US TODAY:
"I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION"
Finally the apparition gave her name to
Bernadette on the 25th March 1858, but it
was not her civil name " My name is Mary: I
was born in Nazareth". It was the secret of
her heart that she shared after 3 weeks of
meeting (11 Feb - 4 March). It was the new
name by which the Angel Gabriel greeted her
at the Annunciation: she is the one in whom
God puts all His joy.
Mary is Immaculate, without stain,
completely transparent with the light of
God, so welcoming to her Lord that He can
come and live in her and become a man. She
becomes the "conception of God" the "Mother
of God".
Mary shoes us our vocation: Do not be afraid
to become saints, open yourselves simply to
the love that is offered to you. You will
carry love to the world, you will be "mother
of God" for the world. Mary is the most
perfect creature in the eyes of God, she is
also the figure and the Mother of the
Church. We can confide ourselves to her, God
will make us His children.
( All of the above information is from
"Lourdes, Guide For Pilgrims and Visitors" ,
Editions Oeuvre de la Grotte, kindly
provided by the Shrine of Our Lady of
Lourdes, Lourdes, France.)
Still today, some 5,500,000 million pilgrims
and visitors come to Lourdes from all over
the world. Some are true believers, some are
just curious. Many come to be healed; both
physically and spiritually. The water of
Lourdes has Our Lady's promise with it.
Miracles happen every day at Lourdes, not
always physical miraculous healings, but the
miracles that occur at Lourdes every single
day are the conversions of poor sinners |
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