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Tom & Sue Personal Pilgrimage 50th Jubilee Mass for Sister Maria

Power To Be God’s Prayer

 The Holy Spirit shall come upon you. 

— Luke 1:35 

Mary is called the Temple of the Lord and the Sacred Resting Place of the Holy Spirit:  For by the operation of the Holy Spirit, She became the Mother of the Incarnate Word. 

—  St. Thomas Aquinas

 

Dizen Dobry:

Sunday morning 5 AM and I’m up, and the café wasn’t even ready, and Susan crawled out of bed.  You can’t be late for a Nun or it could be arthritis on the other hand. We were early, so we stopped for a cappuccino and water  for our guest.

We arrived at Sisters Maria’s sister’s house right on schedule and there were a lot of hugs and kisses as they welcomed us. All that were there were going to Nowy Sacz for the festivities.  We loaded Sister and Joe into the car and now we had baggage in the back seat again.  The Angels had to move a little.

GreetingsWe headed out at 7:30 and Sister Angela leads us in a short few prayers to protect us on our journey before Jag woke up and we made the 1 ¾ hour drive laughing, talking and getting to know each other in 1 ¼ hours.    Sister Angela has been in Africa as a missionary sister for a loooong time and that is where she met Sister Maria and they have been friends ever since. Joe moved to Italy over 30 years ago and little did we know that the United Nations were going to be represented. Sister has family in Italy, Germany and Poland and friends coming from The USA, (the two of us and her friend Delores), Africa and somewhere else, that’s all we remember, we met so many people.

Meal #1
Meal #1

We were given a warm greeting when we arrived with lots of you know what.  Sister Maria’s family was great and we felt right at home.

They had food and coffee for us and not having breakfast we indulged and it was great.  (Meal 1)   We met many of the family now and we all headed for the church that we could see from the house.

 

We met the pastor before mass and then we all went in to pray and they had a seat of honor ready for Sister for the mass. The celebration began before the mass when 7 young girls came out and honored Sister in Polish with a tribute and we forgot to ask what they said, but it was beautiful.  They presented her with roses and the mass began with a full procession and a beautiful choir.

The church was packed and Sister was acknowledged all through the service, at the beginning, the homily and before the final blessing.  Another group of the pastoral committee came out and they lovingly paid a tribute to her and gave her a large basket of roses and she placed on the altar and left them there.  She did take the red roses.

The pastor invited Sister to speak and her speech was vibrant and we could tell from her heart and when she had finished and returned to her place of honor the pastor stood up and she stood ,”wait I forgot something”.  She then proceeded to thank all of us in English that had traveled from abroad, just as she had in Polish, she received her second standing ovation, and it was really beautiful.

The pastor then as a special tribute and led a procession of the Eucharist as the churches all did on Thursday for Corpus Christi and had Sister follow the procession right behind Jesus as they processed around the church.  Not a single soul left. After the final blessing we hung back and took a few photos and headed for the reception.

They had the reception at this lovely hotel and the banquet room was perfect for the size of the group of about 60-70 people.  She had us at the head table, much to our embarrassment.  Sister said she had the different languages sitting with each other so they would have a good time.

Sister Marie at the banquet
Sister Marie at the banquet

Then the feast began in Polish tradition.  (Meal 2) Chicken soup was served and on the tables there 4 different salads and then they served platters of breaded pork cutlets, stuffed breast of chicken, pork tenderloin in a mushroom sauce and platters with 3 kinds of potatoes. There were 3 different juices and sodas and gas water.  We all took what we wanted and if the platter got low more came, an insane amount of very good food.

 

Beautiful cake for Sister Marie
Beautiful cake for Sister Marie

After that was over they cut the cake made by her niece and served cappuccino, café and tea.We were full and enjoyed every bit of it.  It was almost 2, and I thought it was a little early to begin to say goodbye, until Susan informed me Sister told her to have some desserts before the next course comes out.  Oh boy, I was ready for a nap because we had just eaten a huge piece of this five layer cake that was delicious and I don’t eat dessert.

Meal 3 then arrived and there were new salads with beef and chicken and dressing, Greek salad, Caesar salad, tomato and mozzarella, platters of cold sliced stuffed roulades, five different kinds of hearing in sauces and an aspic of I think chicken and veggies and topped with vodka and since we arrived there were trays of pastries and fruit that they kept refilling.

It looked so good we had to try it.  I almost OD’d on the herring…..it was terrific. Susan picked a little we were all so full.  So it was time for a walk led by sister Maria and her niece, Katia, there were 6 of us and we visited the church where sister received her First Holy Communion, her childhood church, and then we went to the Basilica to see the famous statue depicting the Pieta. We walked maybe 1-2 kilometers and headed back to the reception.  When we got back sister brought her nephew Wojtek over to our table and he sat with us until we left.  His English was perfect and we had a great time with him.  He invited us to stay with him the next time we come to Poland.  His wife was lovely, although we didn’t get to talk to her very much; she organized the day for the family and was very busy for most of the day. We did accept his invitation.

Meal 4 came at 5 on the dot.  This was the hot meal and remember they eat small at night so they served a very large croquette that we still don’t know what it was filled with but it was good.  We did best we could.

Around 6 people started to leave and so did we, Joe and Sister Angela were both tired as were we. More hugs and kisses from everyone, including people we had not met. On the road it was little tedious getting back since it was the end of a long weekend but we finally got to Joe’s sister’s house and dropped him.  We were taking Sister Angela to her Sister’s house not too far away. Finding it was a different story.  Her sister lives in a complex that is so huge with 70 large buildings and one street name so navigating is difficult. After 10 minutes we asked for help and the woman Sister didn’t even understand all that she said but we got enough out of the hand language and 5 minutes later we were at her building.

Sister insisted we come up to meet her family and even though we were tired we parked and went with her.  She is so sweet we couldn’t say no until we met her sister and she had just made pizza for us.  Sister Angela called her after we had been gone an hour and the fresh pizza was made but as good as it smelled, we couldn’t pick up food…….let alone, eat it.

We made it a short visit and departed for home, exhausted and ready for a glass of wine and our jammies which we did as soon as we got in.  Tomorrow we had to be up 5 again so we talked for awhile and I went into bed and that’s all I remember.

God bless you all

Love

Susan & Tom

 

Prayer for the Sisters

 

My Spiritual Mother, please remain in their conscious awareness always.  Inspire them when they are weak, gently speak to them when they are stressed, sing them lullabies of the wonders of God’s Providence when they fall into fear, graciously cover them in the warmth of Jesus’ Divine Love for you and for them forever.  Spiritual Mother, please Pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit of Love upon them.  Bring anew the Holy Spirit of Courage to their days and nights on Earth.  Pray fervently that they may be made worthy of the Promises of Christ.

 

 

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