Theology Teacher Carolyn Leatherman on Summer Pilgrimage for "Year of Mercy"
From July 12-25, I went with a friend on a pilgrimage in honor of the Jubilee Year of Mercy that the Church is celebrating this year. For a more in-depth background explanation of my pilgrimage, see the previous article I wrote in June.
Our first stop was London, where we spent two days traveling in the footsteps of several of the English Martyrs who were killed during the 1500s. Saint Thomas More and Saint John Fisher were among many who were held captive and then executed in the Tower of London.
We also enjoyed a live Shakespeare production in a theater in the heart of London, a few good runs through the lovely Hyde Park, and a visit to an historical English pub where authors such as G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien frequently met to discuss their writings.
We also enjoyed a live Shakespeare production in a theater in the heart of London, a few good runs through the lovely Hyde Park, and a visit to an historical English pub where authors such as G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien frequently met to discuss their writings.
Next, we flew to Krakow, Poland for the next four days. We lodged in a priest’s guest house that was forty meters away from the Divine Mercy Shrine and the convent of the Sisters of Divine Mercy in a suburb of Krakow. We were able to go to Mass in the Divine Mercy Sisters’ chapel, which is also the the site of Saint Faustina Kowalska’s tomb. We visited Wadowice, the hometown of Saint Pope John Paul II and the cathedral where he was baptized, as well as the apartment where he was born and lived with his family until he was eighteen years old. We also visited Czestochowa, a town in southern Poland where a Pauline Monastery houses the icon of the Black Madonna and is a shrine for the Blessed Mother. In addition, we toured the underground salt mine just outside of Krakow, which was first opened in the 13th century. The mine is composed of numerous chambers chiseled out of rock salt, saline lakes, and there are statues and chapels sculpted in salt that were built by the miners in order to provide them with a way to practice their faith by praying and celebrating Mass while underground.
We then visited Auschwitz. Words will never adequately convey the experience. There were several Saints who were sent to Auschwitz, including Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (also known as Edith Stein), and Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan Friar who voluntarily gave up his life so that another man, who was a husband and father, could live. We were able to visit the starvation bunker cell where Fr. Kolbe was sent along with nine other prisoners. Fr. Kolbe was known to have been encouraging the other prisoners during those days in the cell, leading them in prayer and being a source of hope and light in the darkness during their last days. Now, there are three paschal candles in the cell where Fr. Kolbe was with those prisoners. Placed in the cell by Pope John Paul II, the candles stand as a reminder that even in the darkest places of human suffering and the experience of evil, hope can still shine in the darkness. Even in the depths of the concentration camps, the light of Christ’s Paschal Mystery--His life, death, and resurrection--still shines as proof that Love will always conquer evil.
Finally, we flew to Rome to spend the final five days of our pilgrimage in the heart of the Church. We stayed with a religious community, the Apostles of the Interior Life, whom my friend and I both know very well from college. In addition to visiting St. Peter’s Basilica and a number of other pilgrimage spots, we volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. We also made a day trip to Assisi, the hometown of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.
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