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PILGRIMAGE TO POLAND AND ITALY |
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I knew that this was going to be a deep spiritual journey, but never in my wildest imagination or deep prayer could I have imagined how spiritual this trip would have turned out. We went to Poland - visited Jasna Gora, Our Lady of Czestochowa; Krakow; Wadowice - birthplace of Pope John Paul II; the Divine Mercy Shrine at Lagiewniki; Auschwitz; and Teresin, where the Franciscan Friary of Niepokalanow was founded by St Maximilian Kolbe. We then travelled to Italy to San Giovanni Rotondo, Shrine of Padre Pio; Rome for the beatification of Mother Teresa and Assisi, birthplace of St Francis and St Clare. Now you tell me, after visiting all these holy places, can anyone return home feeling the same? No Way!! As I said, this was a deep spiritual journey and all 30 of us returned home changed in one way or the other. When I was asked to write this article I never realized how difficult it would be, difficult because at times it was impossible to put on paper many of the emotional experiences we had during the two weeks we spent together. Living Water Community organized this pilgrimage together with Mancunia Travel Ltd of England and I must compliment our tour leaders, Sandra Armstrong (LWC) and Maureen Clarkson (Mancunia), for a job well done. No one got lost! And amazingly, the minimum age limit of the group was 65, with a few exceptions! The accompanying Priest, Fr Stephen Harney, has been associated with the Living Water Community from the beginning, 25 years ago. He has a community in Venezuela and said he was very touched to go with us because of his personal experience he had with Mother Teresa. He is also one of the holiest Priests that I have met.
What is
amazing about Warsaw is that over 90% of the city was
The courage of the poles is amazing. The saddest place in Warsaw is the Jewish Ghetto. This is where over 60,000 Jews were murdered from 1942-1945. The memorial site is very small, but it is a very distressing place, some of the pilgrims did not even come out of the bus, they were too emotional. The few of us who came out of the bus were silent. It was very difficult to speak at the site where so many innocent lives were lost. We sang “Let there be peace on earth” - it was a moving, emotional, tearful two minutes.
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We left
Trinidad on Wednesday, October 08. There was a lot of excitement and
expectation among the group of 31 pilgrims that left Piarco Airport. We
arrived in Warsaw, Poland on Friday, October 10, after overnighting in
London. Warsaw is one of the most beautiful old European cities I’ve ever
seen. In fact, Poland is so beautiful, clean and picturesque that we’ve
already decided that we would like to go back for 2 to 3 weeks. The
history, the churches, the castles, leave you feeling as though you are in a
fairytale land. 
destroyed in the Second World War. Looking at the city today, it is
incredible to believe that the Poles used most of the original, material and
they restructured their city brick by brick. The architecture is
outstanding - the walls are hand carved. Today, the city looks so
peaceful, as though it was never destroyed to zero level in 1945. 
