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Tom & Sue Day 4 in Poland: Our Lady of Skepe (Virgin Mary Expectant)

Jane Dobry;

It’s hard to sleep here if you don’t have black out shades and you have to go (you know where). The light came in my room at 5:30, Susan had black out shades.(sort of).  I quickly did my thing and Susan stirred so I told her to get into the little bed with me and we could hug and may sleep to a reasonable hour.  That was about 6:30.  I got up and sent out a trip report and before I was finished Susan crawled out of bed.  We forgot we had bought instant coffee so we showered and packed and left.  TOD almost  8.

It was almost 9 by the time we found a place to stop for café and it was needed. We had made a cheese sandwhich (no meat today, we are abstaining) from the leftovers from our dinner and were  finally were fully awake and refreshed. We continued on our 2 ½ hour ride to Our Lady of Skepe.  Our friends here in Poland, including Fr. Tomasz, don’t even know about this shrine.  It’s a beautiful story so click here to read it.

We arrived around 10:45 and there were 3 cars in the huge parking area and we figured that they worked there, because we were the only ones in the shrine except for the maintenance man. The Miraculous Statue dates back to the 1400’s and has been the source of many miracles as they are listed on the wall outside the main church.  Miracles still continue to this day so we prayed very hard for all of you.

Editors note: You can still send prayer intentions to Tom & Sue for them to leave at the various shrines they will be visiting on their pilgrimage, which does not end until June 22.  Send them to tsmelillo13@aol.com

The old church is being restored and the outcome so far is beautiful.  We felt a great warmth and comfort here and spent a lot of time in prayer and reflection.  The Statue of Our Lady is very beautiful and mesmerizing.  We spent a lot of time here and when we took a break before praying our Rosary we took a walk.  They were kind enough to open the gift shop which was closed and the monk sitting in there was very sick with flu like symptoms.  We purchased a few things and tried to communicate with him but he didn’t understand or didn’t care.  We said thank you in Polish reading from our big cheat sheet and he smiled and Susan handed it to him.  He gave it back and said something and we said God Bless in English and left.

We walked the grounds and there are some very old frescos and paintings to enjoy as well as the grounds.  Back to the church we sat and prayed the Rosary and we disturbed by 6 people who came in so un-reverant and loud.  We realized they were the group doing the restorations. They finally left and we finished our Rosary and went back to the altar for one last prayer before Our Lady.  This Statue of Her is very special as is this place.

Another special day in Poland….it doesn’t get any better than this.  Each day has had something special to offer and we just started.

Our hotel was only 20 minutes away and we talked all the way about this beautiful experience.  When we arrived it was just after 2 and our room was not quite ready so we unloaded the car with our overnight bags and by time we got in she gave us the key.

There was no elevator here so we had to take everything up to the 1st floor (which is really the second floor at home).  I booked a room for the first floor only, they must have laughed when they got it.  This was the earliest time we ever got to a stop and had time to relax and get caught up on things again.  Day-to-day moving is a little grueling but that is how we do our pilgrimages.  Tomorrow we spend 2 nights and Susan gets to do laundry again.

We had dinner at the hotel and it was great.  Bedtime was at 8:30 PM and it was still light out but we had black out shades. That’s all I remember.

May God bless all or you always and Blessed Mother hear our prayers.

Love Susan & Tom

 

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