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Tom & Sue Day 5 in Krakow Divine Mercy Shrine & St John Paul II Centre

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.

Fr Paul quzzing the First Holy Communion class
Fr Paul quzzing the First Holy Communion class here in the John Paul II Centre

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.

Perpetual Adoration at the Shrine of Divine Mercy
Perpetual Adoration at the Shrine of Divine Mercy

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.

 

 

Praying at the Shrine of Divine Mercy
Praying at the Shrine of Divine Mercy

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).

 

The family plot of Pope John Paul II
The family plot of Pope John Paul II

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.

Pew at St. Francis Church where John Paul II prayed
Pew at St. Francis Church where John Paul II prayed

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.

New restaurant we wanted to try
New restaurant we wanted to try

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

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