Kracking on to Krakow (World Youth Day Part IV)

After arriving in Krakow on Monday evening and trying pierogi for the first time (delicious - who knew?  Well... other than all Polish people), it was time to settle in for World Youth Day proper.

Tuesday
The first big event, held on the Tuesday evening, was the Opening Mass.  We had a beautiful morning, but then a bit of a disaster getting there.  We had someone in our group who had difficulty walking, so got public transport as close as possible.  Turned out this was still a good half an hour away... To make matters worse, on the way it started pouring with rain, so out came our fetching ponchos thoughtfully provided in the pilgrim packs.

The ever so delightful ponchos... Photo WYM

When we arrived at Błonia Park we discovered we were on the complete opposite side to where we should be.   Not so helpful... So we asked around and were directed back to a different entrance where someone might be able to help, and help they did!  We ended up being taken through the park by a couple of girl scouts, and led to the right zone, where we were able to meet up with the rest of our party as we waited for Mass to begin in the pouring rain.

Then something miraculous happened.  As Mass began, the rain stopped.  It went from torrential rain to bright blue skies!  Oh, and Mass was in Latin. FYI, Latin Novus Ordo is my favourite, particularly when combined with music as beautiful as we were treated to in Błonia Park.  I think God must agree with me, because during Mass we ended up with a heaven meeting earth moment!

A trapdoor to heaven? Photo mine

Getting home afterwards was less than fun, but you don't need the details. To summarise, we had some absolutely amazing people on our pilgrimage, including a talented Polish speaker, not enough places accepted the meal vouchers, and myself and a good friend ended up getting a meal from the traditional Polish restaurant of Burger King where we were served by a lovely gentleman who was delighted to be able to use the English he'd learnt while living in the UK for a few years.  Also turns out taxis are super cheap in Poland, just like everything else.

Wednesday
Wednesday morning saw us heading to the JPII basilica and the Divine Mercy Sanctuary for the pilgrimage of mercy. The JPII basilica contained two relics of Pope Saint John Paul II (is it Pope Saint or Saint Pope? - I can never remember!).  A vial of his blood, and the cassock he was wearing during his attempted assassination in 1981.  Having passed through and asked for his intercessions, we headed outside into the glorious sunshine.  I say glorious, too hot may have been more accurate... We followed behind the trail of pilgrims making their way along the way of mercy to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary.  The walk itself wasn't particularly long, but as a few of us said the Divine Mercy Chaplet along the way, and I did it barefoot, it was very moving.  At the end of the walk was the opportunity to walk through the Holy Door. Never have I been so glad to have been to confession recently.

The Divine Mercy Sanctuary and Holy Door. Photo WYM

We spent a beautiful afternoon sitting in the main square of Krakow, confusing the waitress by asking for tap water, eating more pierogi, obvs and people watching.  The joy and love all around was absolutely incredible!

The main square in Krakow. Photo WYM

We headed back up to our accommodation in time to have a short nap before going to the church of Jesus, The Good Shepherd where we celebrated Mass with the Cardinal. It was again a lovely Mass, and particularly special as the chasuble worn by the Cardinal had been worn by Cardinal Wojtyła (who you may know better as Pope John Paul II...) for the consecration of the Mass. Coming only a day after the tragic martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, he devoted a large part of his homily to reflecting on this sad event and St Paul's words, where he encourages us to have a greater understanding of the depths of the mystery of Christ. Full transcript can be found here.  Well worth a read! I think our attempt to sing Abba Ojcze may haunt me for a while though...

The Cardinal being welcomed by locals of the Parish. Photo WYM

Thursday
Having missed it the day before due being up at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, it was nice to be able to head to our catechises session where we were treated to a talk from Tonga's first cardinal Cardinal, Soane Patita Paini Mafi.  Coming two days after the martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, the mention of the fact that the blood of the martyrs is the seeds of our faith, and this is what makes our faith bloom was very touching and what many gathered there needed to hear. This was particularly so when he followed this with a reminder that there are many types of martyrs, not just from the blood we shed.

Did I forget to mention? Catechises was held in a circus tent... Photo WYM

Far more exciting though, was the fact that Thursday was the day Papa Frankie was coming.  Hooray! As our catechises session was held fairly near Błonia Park, we decided not to venture too far away, so we found lunch nearby and then sat in a little café just outside, and then slowly meandered towards our section.  The pope was still a long way away, so there was no rush.  As the weather took a turn for the worse again, once more out came the beautiful ponchos.  While we were waiting I decided to make a quick trip to the loo (not the most pleasant experience as they were longdrop portaloos...) sure that I'd make it back before the Pope drove past.  I came back aaaaand had just missed him.  Missed him by seconds!  On the other hand, I was so far back, and not being the tallest would probably not have seen him anyway, so I don't feel like I missed too much.

This wasn't a day when the weather cleared up, but that's okay, because the pope was there!

#grumpypope? Photo mine.

His address can be found in full here, but the point that struck me enough to make a note on my phone was this: He sees our frantic running about like Martha, and waits for us to sit and listen like Mary.

I know that this is something I am often guilty of. My life can be so busy that I don't have (or make) time to just sit and be with the Lord. It's amazing how easily even seemingly free time can be taken up with netflix or facebook or blogs... So one thing I'm attempting to do (although not so successfully so far) is take more time to just be. But you know what, as I heard somewhere else (although I don't seem to have written down where, so if anyone remembers who said it/where it was said, please let me know!) the important thing is not to not fall down, but to get back up again once we have fallen down.

But now this post is plenty long enough, so if you've made it to the end well done!  Coming up next, the prayer vigil and final Mass!

Are coach engines the new horses? (World Youth Day Part III)

My previous blog stopped off just as we were about to leave Łódź, so it's time to continue our journey.

We left Łódź bright and early on the Monday morning to head to Krakow, but en route we stopped off at the monastery of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know, there is a beautiful icon here of our Lady of Częstochowa.  It's known as a Black Madonna (the phrasing of which itself has an interesting history - if you're curious, it's worth going and looking into it, but I'm not going to devote time to it here) which has long been a place of pilgrimage.

The (simplistic) version of the history of this icon is as follows.  It was supposedly painted by St. Luke, on a table made by the Jesus whilst learning the carpentry trade from Joseph, found by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, taken to Constantinople until the 8th century, after which it was taken to Poland, eventually ending up in Częstochowa. There are a few different versions of how it ended up here, but the most common one is that the horses pulling the wagon in which the icon was contained refused to move on, with the Prince who had it at that point taking this as a sign that this was where it should stay.

The marks on Our Lady's face are from Tatar invasions, where an arrow pierced her throat, and a Hussite invasion where one of the invaders slashed at the image with his sword twice (whilst attempting a third, he died in agony).  Through history there have been attempts to fix it, but it always reverts to the damaged form.

Beautiful, huh?

Shame it was so busy I didn't really get to see it... There were so many people there that it was impossible to get in.  It was closed for for a lot of the day due to Masses being said.  Were were told that it should be open for a couple of hours in the middle of day, so headed back, but Mass was being said again with lots of bishops around the icon, so you can't really complain...  I did manage to get a slight glimpse from up in the choir loft.  Turns out having a friend who can speak French and blag his way in is quite useful!  Guess this just means I will have to return at some point to see it properly.

Despite not being able to properly see the icon, it was still an amazing day.  We got there just in time for Mass which was said in a small side basilica.

Photo WYM

Yup, that's a small side basilica!  As part of the music group, we'd been hoping to get there nice and early, have plenty of time to set up and get settled and plug in the keyboard.  Did this happen...? Not exactly... We arrived within a couple of minutes of when we were due to begin Mass, found a spot to set up, got out the instruments, arranged ourselves around the microphones and looked for a plug for the keyboard.  While we were still looking the bell rang for the beginning of Mass!  No keyboard for us.  Despite all these issues, Mass still went beautifully.  Our music director did a fabulous job of staying calm and carrying on, and although I had a minor panic moment when I realised that I'd only practised the psalm with the keyboard and was now going to have to sing it with only guitars, it all went wonderfully smoothly.  (Yup, that's right, I sang the psalm during Mass in Jasna Góra - number 27 ticked off the 30 before 30 list even if it did only get added on after I got back...)

Photo WYM

After Mass we had a while to wonder around (which is when we attempted to view the icon).  What I did really enjoy was looking at all the fantastic Catholic tat.  A couple of my favourites below (I didn't even bother taking photos of the glow in the dark rosaries/Mary statues because they seem to be everywhere!):

Beautiful bling gold fridge magnet

What a cute little football player

Oh wait... it's an angel!

This was an incredibly hot day!  It was wonderful while we were walking around/sitting and eating.   Not so wonderful when one of the coaches overheated and didn't want to start again... I did half wonder whether this was the new version of the horses refusing to move and whether someone had taken the icon, but I assumed there'd be a much bigger outcry if that had been the case.  The resulting wait meant that we had to just sit and talk and sit in the sun/attempt to find some shade to sit in.  Such a hardship...

(And just to avoid leaving you in suspense, we did eventually manage to get going and headed onwards to Krakow!)