2017 Pilgrimage with Tom & Sue

Hello, Hi, Good morning, Good evening (We miss dzein dobry)

Well, we’re home and the trip to get here was just long and depressing. Did we ever tell you we love Poland? The hotel we stayed at in Paris worked out and we got out the door before 6:30 A.M. …, 12:30 AM our time. We took the 6:30 shuttle to the airport and were alone in the van. The driver took us right to our gate door entry, he was a really nice kid, and we checked in and were in the Admirals Lounge before 7:30. It was great and we relaxed, sent a trip report out and had a lovely breakfast.

Our flight left on time, but we were 13th in line and when we finally took off there were 25 other planes behind us. Charles de Gaulle Airport … UGH. They changed the plane we were supposed to fly on, and it was not as comfortable as the 777 that it was supposed to be, but it was fine. We made New York on time and transferred our luggage and had about and 1 ½ hours before our flight to Miami. Again, we left on time and we were only 11th in line this time … I love small airports.

We arrived in Miami at 8:30 PM and it took over an hour to get our rental car, but we tried to remain calm and finally we got on the road to Palm Beaches and got home round 11:30 PM, a 24 hour day anyway you look at it. No unpacking … only a glass of wine and into bed and that’s all I remember.

We woke up around 7:00 AM, had coffee and went to Mass at Miracle House Chapel. After Mass, it was home and Susan started to unpack and I went to the store for some groceries and sticker shock ($$$$$$) after being in Poland.

We couldn’t make 8:00 PM that night and we were up on Sunday at 6:00 Am and went the 8:45 Mass at the Cathedral, since we were Eucharistic Ministers this week. It was so nice to see so many of our Cathedral “Family” and we spent a lot of time after Mass with them.

We went home and Susan continued to re-organize us. I went to pick up a few more things (we are taking this easy). Bed time came again early around 7:30 PM but we did sleep until 7 AM and jet lag has finally gone away.

We hope that you all have enjoyed this Pilgrimage. It was our 9th and, by far the best. It was the least aggressive we have done, as the old bodies become less resilient.

Editor’s note:  Their idea of “less aggressive” is pretty aggressive by our standards…they are an inspiration to us.

Our family in Spain are always a must to be with and we never seem to have enough time with them. They are loving and wonderful. Poland, especially Krakow, has become another home for us and it’s because of our beloved Saint John Paul II, the Divine Mercy Shrine, Fr. Tomasz, the Cardinal and all the Sisters we have become so fond of. Everywhere we have gone over the years have been experiences we will never forget.

Although we have, unfortunately, returned to reality, we have made a decision to continue our daily lives “on Pilgrimage” as we have for the past month and we will continue to pray for all the intentions we were blessed to be entrusted with by all of you. We already look forward to our next adventure in “2018” – “Si Dios Quiere”!

God Bless

Love

Susan & Tom

Exaltation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, in this tragic hour of the world’s history, we entrust and consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart, our only refuge, our hope, our salvation. Have pity on this world, torn by the most terrible conflicts, burning with the fires of hate, victim of its own sins. May your heart be moved at the sight of so much ruin, pain and sorrow.

We consecrate to your maternal heart our persons, our families, our country and the whole of humanity. Protect and save us!

O Heart of Mary, source of true love, fill our selfish hearts with divine charity and with that true brotherly love without which there can never be peace. Grant that men and nations may understand and fulfill the precept of your Divine Son, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, in order that true peace may be firmly established in the Justice and Truth of Christ.
Amen.

Diezn Dobry:

I got up early this morning, 7, this was going to be a tough day, our last full day in Krakow and it was jammed packed. I didn’t wake Susan until 8 and we had coffee together and tried to figure out how to stay for another month or so.  Ha Ha.

We had planned to go to the JP II Center for noon mass and meet Fr Paul after to purchase our ex-voto  and we wanted to visit some Basilicas and Shrines first, plus we needed to get chocolate chip cookies for Cardinal Dziwisz, who had invited us thru Fr. Tomasz for a visit at his residence tonight at 6.  Jane from EWTN told us a story about how St. John Paul II loved chocolate chip cookies and the Cardinal would help him eat them.  The last time she was here the first thing he asked her was “where are the cookies?”. We found out from the Cardinal later that she made them.

We headed around 9 for cookies and to go to St. Francis Church and pray our Rosary in the JP II’s pew and to our surprise, when we entered the Basilica, an English Mass had started on the main altar.  We were in and it was great to attend mass again and know every word that was said although we do love the Polish Masses and can even sing along with certain songs.  We found out after that these pilgrims were from Philly and were headed for Warsaw today.

Susan and I went to the rosary pew of St. John Paul II and began our rosary until a group of children came in and we moved so they could all sit in the pew.  We continued our prayers a few pews up and it seemed we were surrounded by all these young and beautiful children and we smiled knowing that the youth we so very important to our Saint.  They noticed that we were praying and we had a Rosary in our hands and we hope we set an example for them.

Not in a rush now to go to mass, we went to St. Mary’s Basilica and to get a closer look at the depiction of the life of Mary at the main altar.  We have seen this before and it is always roped off so you can only get so close and I have photos of it but they had a notice that at 11:30 at the pilgrim entrance you could get up close. It was early, so we went on the cookie hunt to no avail, and stopped for a cappuccino.

It was time to go back to St. Mary’s and we got in this small line and then realized you had to pay to get in, ok 20 pln later we had our tickets and stood back in line. Behind us a large tour group came and then more people behind them and the door finally opened late.  We went in and the closest we could get was in the back where I had taken my pictures before. Then came some pushing and shoving and loud talking and I had a camera around my neck and a employee came up and told me 5 pln if I wanted to take pictures.  I was done, I hate tours and this one hadn’t even begun and we didn’t know what language they would talk in.  We made our way out and I snapped a couple of shots so you could see this masterpiece, since my other photos are at home.

We went cookie hunting again and found a store on our way to St. Joseph’s church and the miraculous painting of him with Jesus.  We had been there before twice, but never knew about the Painting.  Every time we had gone in the big Iron Gate was locked but Eucharistic Adoration was always available from the back.  Today was the same but the Bernadine Sisters were praying and singing from a side room near the altar and that made the visit even more special.

After we went to another favorite restaurant, Corleone’s, right up the street and shared a small meatless pizza……it’s Wednesday.  It was back to the apt. to get all the things we needed to get blessed and to head to The St. John Paul II center to meet with Fr. Paul.  We decided not to carry the large bag with us to the Cardinals’ apartment and then have to drag it to dinner, so we asked Fr. Paul to do it at our meeting.  We sat with him and gave him all the information he needed and we gave him all our intentions, since they wouldn’t fit in the box at the altar.  He look nervous and asked if had to read them all when they pray after mass and offer them up to Saint John Paul II’s intercession and I told him just the intention I put in the box that would cover everyone, He was relieved.

We finished our business ordering a plaque for the shrine and we were very happy that it would be right outside the door to his original Tomb stone from Rome which also is the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. I then asked him to bless our things and he said wait, ran out, and when he returned he had a large framed photo of Saint John Paul II and an in-scripted and signed acknowledgment of gratitude from the Cardinal for our ex-voto donation.  I am going to have to re=pack when we get back.

We said our goodbyes and headed for the St. Faustina Shrine and the chapel of Divine Mercy.  We prayed our chaplet and again reverenced the relic and we left for home.  It was after three and we had things to do before we met with Fr. Thomaz at 6 PM.

We repacked the large suitcase and tried to figure out what we needed for the next 2 days.  Before we knew it was time to get ready and at 5:45 we were out the door.  Fr. Tomasz was right on time, at the Palace and we walked thru the park to the Cardinal’s residence and the street he lives on now is the most beautiful in Krakow.

When we got there we were greeted by his private aide who was Italian and Buona Sera worked.  He spoke a little English and was very nice.  The Cardinal came out of his living room and greeted us with 3 Polish kisses each.  Susan tried to kiss his ring but he wasn’t going to allow that.  We went in and sat and he looked so good.  Retirement even though he is busy suits him well.  I told him that and he laughed.  We started to talk and he said I do speak English so we spoke in English, but Fr. Tomasz did have to interpret at times because the Cardinal shared a lot of private things about St. John Paul II and we could feel the love he has for him as he spoke.

He told a little about the Saints’ spiritual life and relationship with God and the Blessed Mother.  We talked about the day the Saint was shot and that the bullet that went thru the Pope should have hit him but just dropped on the floor of the car between him and the Pope.

Editor’s note:  Cardinal Dziwisz was formerly Pope John Paul II’s personal secretary.  Click here to read a great article he wrote titled “The Day the Pope was shot” from the National Catholic Register, June 2001.

He told us that many reports of Miracles thru the intercession of Saint John Paul II come in every day and we promised to send him ours.

Editor’s note:  Tom credits his cancer recovery to the intercession of Saint John Paul II.  If you have not read his story, click here.

We discussed America and the spirituality of the American people and we talked about so many things, before we knew it, it was 7 and we were late for our dinner reservation just down the street. Fr. Thomasz took a couple photos as the Cardinal gave some us 4 special Rosaries with Saint John Paul II’s crest as well as his crest plus re-supplying our relic cards.

It was time to go and we each got 3 Polish kisses again and a special blessing from him and said good-bye for now.

We were at the restaurant in 3 minutes and they gave us a great table in this lovely setting outside in the courtyard. We ordered a bottle of wine and dinner and the fun began, we laughed all night, I was my usual stupid self with the wait staff and some of the guests and we had a great time.

Dinner was delicious and we even had another bottle of wine and dessert.

When we left, Fr. Tomasz laughingly said this was another place he couldn’t go back to because of his very crazy American friends, but he did say he was learning from me.  I don’t know if that is good or bad.

Before we said goodnight, he invited us to mass in the morning at a private chapel with the same order of Sisters that we saw on Tuesday.  We then hugged and kissed and we went our separate ways to home.  Now it was dark, so this was unusual for us and I was afraid to look at the time.  I didn’t care it was a great night and we can sleep on the plane tomorrow on our way to Paris.

Susan and I laughed for almost another hour about the day and finally at 12:30 AM we got in to bed and that’s really all I remember.

God bless all of you

Love

Susan & Tom

Prayer

Spiritual Mother of Mercy, True Queen of Angels, Pray for me, Pray for all people on Earth that we bend our wills to your loving guidance now.  Please Pray with me now.  Show me God’s Perfect Will for me today.

I was very refreshed and ready for another day.  I let Susan sleep for another hour and when she got up we had breakfast and showered and watched a little news and as we finished downloading photos and picking out ones we will send.  At 11:00 we left for the St. John Paul II Center where we were going to mass at noon.

After our traditional cappuccino, we went into the shrine and walked thru some of the special chapels and said a few prayers until it was time for mass.  There wasn’t a First Holy Communion today but there were quite a few children in training for theirs and Father Paul quizzed them at the homily and they did pretty good.  Now, you are probably wondering how we knew the priests’ name….we didn’t, but we did meet him after, as Fr. Tomasz told us to go to the Sacristy and ask for him.

We wanted to purchase an ex-voto in gratitude for the miracles St John Paul has given us over the years, including Katrina who couldn’t speak but now does and in answering Susan’s prayers for me.  The first priest we met was him and after we explained everything to him he took us to where the ex-voto would be and we went up to his office and planned to meet him Wednesday at 1 to 2 PM, we needed money.

We left the shrine and went to the Divine Mercy Shrine, another of our favorite places in Krakow; it is very close to the JP II Center.  We went directly to the chapel where there is 24 hour adoration all the time and one of the Sisters are always present.  This is very holy place and we love to pray Our Divine Mercy Chaplet here as we have done so many times.

There was a sister behind us during our stay and she smiled at Susan and me as we left as if to say thank you, since this wasn’t a photo op our tourist stop for us, she knew what we were doing.

Before leaving we went to the altar where the remains of Saint Faustina lie and where she had encounters with Jesus many times.  We reverenced her relic and thanked her and our Lord for this wonderful devotion that St. John Paul II made into a worldwide phenomena and is practiced by so many people.

Editors’ Note:  The painting of Divine Mercy you see here is a copy, the original painting of Divine Mercy is actually in Vilnius, Lithuania (click here for that story).

From here we went to the military cemetery where the mother, father and brother of St. John Paul were buried, we had to thank them for our Saint. When we left we were only 6.8 kilometers from our hotel and it was the looooooooooongist drive we have had.  It took almost an hour with traffic, but who was in a hurry.  Today the temperature was 94, the hottest day we had, and the day we arrived it was in the 40’s one of the coldest days of our trip. That’s Krakow!

Back at the apartment we started to pack and that was a bummer, but we read some e-mails and one from our cousins Joan and Lou made us laugh so hard.  She innocently said we may need weight watchers when we get back because of the 5 meals on Sunday and all the food on the trip and little did she know she was right, since we were laughing about the weight gain in the morning.

We had tomorrow and Thursday morning, but the time has been flying by.

We were going tonight to St Francis church to pray our Rosary in the pew that is clearly marked; where Saint John Paul II did every day he was in Krakow as a priestand in the Palace as the Archbishop.

From there we had planned to try a new restaurant that had an interesting menu.

The restaurant had a courtyard dining area and it was cool and inviting.  There was only one waitress and she got swamped right after we got our wine and had ordered.  The oriental family next to us had said hello but that was all they knew.  We won the heart of their son and he became a real pest, I think he was a little spoiled but he was fun.  We met another couple from Chicago and had a nice conversation with them.  Our food arrived and we were done talking, time for eating and was it good and was it large. We took some home.

Back at the apt. we continued to pack and I started this trip report.  I got 2 lines done, Susan got the large suitcase done, and I sneaked in part of a movie on TV. Time for bed, and so we did, and that’s all I remember.

God Bless all of you

Love

Susan & Tom

From Insecurity To Confidence

Only the person who renounces Self-Importance, who no longer struggles to defend or assert himself, can be large enough for God’s Boundless action.

— St. Edith Stein

Dzien Dobry:

Slept until 8 today (Susan 8:15) and realized that our plans had changed when we opened our e-mail. Our friend Fr. Pat, whom we were supposed to meet today in Krakow, had a family funeral today so we probably wouldn’t get to see him. We didn’t realize until Sunday that he and his sister didn’t go to the funeral, but his cousin who drove him had to go and they were held hostage because the family didn’t want them to take the train to Krakow.  Maybe they aren’t old enough.

If we had known that we would have driven to them for lunch and long time coming reunion. We were supposed to go there anyway today for his nephew’s First Holy Communion, which is why he is in Poland, but when he got here they gave him the wrong day and it was on Thurs and we were 150 miles away.

We even thought we could go to the airport on Mon. morning to say hi and get a warm hug, but we have plans and don’t know if we will finish in time. We haven’t seen Fr. Pat in years and so we all decided now he has to come back to Palm Beach after such a valiant effort.

We lounged around and I took all the files out, all 3 of them…………we started with 36 and one of the 3 was just full of credit card receipts, lovely, we have to come home soon and then we have to pay for the trip.  Totally depressed we decided to go back to the St. John Paul Center for noon mass.  It was cold and rainy out and taking the car seemed like a better idea than walking.  Afterwards we planned to come back to the Apartment and do some more lounging.  Before we got out the door Susan had pulled out the holy water we had acquired.  The holy water from Ludzmierz water a beautiful rust color and the legend of the well was suspect to begin with, needless to say it won’t be going into our mixture of healing spring waters from Our Blessed Mother from 7 countries and 23 shrines. We have had some of these waters for 11 years and they are all still crystal clear.

We realized it was almost 11:15 so we had to hurry and had time to spare for a cappuccino.

There was another First Holy Communion group coming in and we had to laugh, since we always handle and love this at the Cathedral every year and this year we couldn’t, because I was radioactive after the Y-90 treatment.

We made up for the miss by attending 20+ here in Poland.

Editor’s note:  Click here to read about Tom’s battle with cancer and his successful treatment

After mass we went upstairs to pray the Rosary in front of the Our Lady of Fatima statue at the main altar.  She has been present in every church we have been into in honor of the 100^th anniversary.  I’m sure we have one at the Cathedral???

We got thru the first decade and a large group came in for a presentation and we moved to Our Lady of Czestochowa chapel to finish, where we lit candles for all the intentions we carry.  We actually lit 4 today, since we missed yesterday.  We then went to the chapel of Our Lady of Piekary Salaskie and prayed our morning prayers.

After 2 hours we were on our way back to the apartment since the weather hadn’t changed and we were cold but first we needed a car wash since we were picking up Sister Angela and Joe, the brother of our friend Sister Maria from St. Vincent in Delray Beach, Fl.  She was here to celebrate her 50 Anniversary with the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and invited us to the ceremony on Sunday.  We were honored and offered to pick up guest or family in Krakow.

Washing the car in the rain is great because there is no one ahead of you and vacuuming after in the rain is really stupid, but Jag needed some attention and the rain had stopped, so she was beautiful and spotless when we got back to the garage. Susan ended up in the wash alone in the car and I’m sure I heard a couple of ooh’s and aah’s.   Back now it was 3 PM and Divine Mercy hour so we prayed and then had a drink and relaxed until we forgot we had to go buy some chocolates at the best chocolate store in Krakow, so off we went  and got 2 nice big boxes of assorted chocolate delights, one for tomorrow and one for Monday.

By time we got back our drink was warm so we threw it out and had a glass of wine before going to dinner.  We were not venturing far from home, just across the street was a Sushi Place and it is meatless Saturday` so it was perfect…….well, almost perfect.

Getting fresh and a variety of sushi in any foreign country is hard, except for Japan, and Poland was no exception.  What they had was very good but the favorite things Susan likes, forget it, octopus, giant clam, fresh squid, all the chewy stuff, they don’t carry.  Look, we didn’t starve…..a nice order of shrimp and calamari teriyaki, some tuna rolls and I had an assortment of sushi, things Susan doesn’t eat.  We had beer because they didn’t have saki….oops.  Oh well, our waitress was very nice and we left her a big egg roll when we left.

Back to the apartment to layout our clothes and get set up for Sunday, since we will voluntarily begin ground hog day for the next 2 days.  I set the alarm for 5 AM and that’s all I remember.

God Bless you all

Love

Susan & Tom

Dzien Dobry:

We were out of bed at 7, together (no coffee in the room) and went down for a cup of coffee.  The waiter from the night before was on duty again and we laughed and asked what room he was in.  He was a very educated young man in his early 20 and was studying chemistry with dreams of going to America.

Over coffee we made our plan for the day, check-in was 2 and we wanted to go to Mass so why not the St. John Paul II shrine in Krakow.  I figured it was about 1 ½ hours away so went to shower and pack our 2 grocery bags we used for luggage.  I think we are done lugging all these bags in and out. It actually worked out pretty good except we looked like homeless people.

We went back in for breakfast and forgot the camera again, I think it’s tired too.  They made us eggs to go along with the nice buffet they had and refreshed and ready we paid the bill and got into Jag.  Susan set the GPS and it said we would arrive at 12:10, late for the noon mass. Have no fear Jag is here, we arrived at 11:40 and time for a cup of coffee.

We went into Mass downstairs where it usually is and to our surprise we heard beautiful music from the main church upstairs.  We were excited, for in the 3 times we have been here we never attended a Mass in the upper church.

Click here for more information about the John Paul II Center in Krakow, with some great photos from Tom & Sue’s previous trip.

Today they were celebrating a high Mass and there had to be 20 priest and 2 Deacons.  Mass was beautiful and when the homily started I took a walk to the little boys room, the long way and slowly climbed the stairs back figuring it had to be close to the end.  Wrong, it was another 20 minutes and we really get disappointed………we can’t understand, especially when the voice of the priest is so inviting.

After the Mass ended we got in the car and headed for our Apartment.  There will be plenty of time at the shrine and I have to clean this stick I just changed in the camera because all the photos are from last year in Krakow and we have different clothes, well at least Susan does!

The apartment is only 10 minutes away with traffic and when we got there the girl meeting us hadn’t arrived so Susan got out and I went around the block. They we talking and she didn’t realize I booked parking and I passed the entrance so around the block I went again and we were finally in.  This is the hardest part of booking apartments but we are used to it and it is worth it, as was with this place, pretty nice and big.  For the next week we will be very comfortable and the Old Town is just around the block, trust me I know.

Susan unpacked, as usual, all the suitcases for the last time and I went to the market hopefully for the last time.  We don’t know where the time went and every day has been a spiritual adventure like we have never had before.  We didn’t know if it would be difficult traveling the country, especially into small villages and where we knew people hardly or ever see Americans but we made out fine. It has been truly a marvelous adventure we will never forget.

Krakow is like home and we know our way around the Old Town pretty well, so we have our favorite places to go and that’s what we did around 6 PM for dinner.  We left the apartment and after 4 minutes when we got to 3 Franciszkanska, where we have met with Cardinal Dziwisz 3 times and where our friend Fr. Tomasz still lives, it started to rain and it was cold so I did the noble thing and bought an umbrella  (like we needed one, we had 2 of our own in Jag and 3 in the apartment). It stopped raining right after I opened it.  I tried to sell it for 1/3 of the price but I didn’t get any takers.  Hopefully it will rain again before we get home so I don’t feel so stupid.

We got the last table at this Hungarian restaurant that has the best goulash we have ever had, plus a mixed sausage and kelbasa casserole full of wild mushrooms.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, so that’s what we ordered, the same as the last time we were here.  The owner recognized us after we started laughing and joking with our waitresses.  The owner said hello and waited on us the rest of the evening.  We all laughed and laughed, as everyone else in the place was reserved and somber.

I tried to sell her the umbrella when the bill came and I was going to throw in the plastic handle wrap and sheath for free.  More laughter and down right stupidity and then we all hugged and they were still laughing as we went out the door.

Still no rain so I lowered the price and as we passed the stand where I bought it I thought she might buy it back and sell it again for a tidy profit but Susan wouldn’t let me.  We were home in less than 10 minutes and it started raining as soon as we got in the door. We had BBC on the TV and watched some news and checked e-mails, we had a bunch and it was great.  One of our friends sister, whom he had been forwarding our reports to, sent him an e-mail to thank us so he forwarded this beautiful response to us and we thought we would share it with all of you.  Things like this make these pilgrimages all worth while.

I got ready for bed and Susan wanted to watch TV so I laid down to say my prayers and that’s all I remember.

God bless all of you

Love

Susan & Tom