At 6:00 a.m. we arrived in Czestochowa. We stopped at a hotel for a lovely breakfast. Eggs, sausage, and some lovely little pastries. We then headed along the path to the Basilica of Our Lady of Czestochowa. It was only about a 10 minute walk up the path. The first thing we saw when we entered the Basilica was a little side altar right in the vestibule. Then when we entered the Church there was a beautiful side altar to St. Maximilian Kolbe. I prayed there for a few minutes. In the front of the Church there was a painting of a beautiful lady. I didn't know who it was but she was so beautiful she could've been Our Lady. Then there was another side altar with a replica of the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. And next to that was another side altar with a statue of the Sacred Heart. It was so beautiful and Jesus had his arms out just drawing me close to Him.
I then went into the next room which led into the chapel with the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. She's so beautiful! I just wanted to run to her and kiss her wounds! We crawled on our knees around the altar until we were behind it and could, one at a time, rest our heads on the wall underneath where the image is and pray to Our Lady. I then kissed the wall and continued on. Right outside the chapel was a beautiful crucifix that really depicted Christ's suffering. I just wanted to kiss the wound in His side. I prayed there for several minutes. Then we had Mass in the chapel and Sarah and I got to sit right up by the altar. I don't even know how we got so lucky! And hanging up behind the altar, right next to the image is the sash Pope John Paul was wearing the day he was shot! It still has his blood on it! Mass was incredibly beautiful! I couldn't take my eyes off her, Our beautiful Lady! And when I received Him, oh my goodness, He gives me His Heart! His beautiful Sacred Heart! His whole Being!
There were beautiful votive offerings all along the walls. They were mostly rosaries and necklaces but also crutches. I just wanted to kiss all the votives.
There was also a treasury and a museum at the Basilica. We went to the treasury where they have the veil St. Therese wore for her first communion! Which is crazy because I've been reading her autobiography and I had just read about her first communion and how it was the happiest day of her life and she was crying and everyone thought it was because her mom was dead and couldn't be there but it was because she was so happy and how could she be unhappy when she was united with her mother and all of Heaven! And we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum but God is so good to me that He's just imprinted the image of her veil in my mind so that it's even clearer than a picture! Then we went to the museum and there was the most beautiful painting I've ever seen of Pope John Paul! I wish they had had postcards of it since we weren't allowed to take pictures there either.
We then got on the busses to head to Auschwitz. I wasn't planning to go in because I have anxiety disorder and I knew I couldn't handle going in there. I had a fit of bravery while we were at Czestochowa and I thought maybe I should go in but I knew I couldn't. But I did wish that I could just see St. Maximilian Kolbe's cell. So we got to Auschwitz 1 and I sat with Sr. Monica in the reception area. And she said to me: "Now would you have any interest in just going to see Max's cell?" Meaning St. Maximilian Kolbe! And so we walked straight to his cell, I didn't have to see anything else! We said a rosary on the way. And we got there and it looked so anti-climactic but it wasn't! It was just a small, plain, unassuming cell. But it was the cell where he was left to die and where he sang and praised God even as he was being starved and where he died! And right next to his cell Sister showed me another starvation cell where the prisoners had carved into the concrete walls the most beautiful images of the crucifixion and the Sacred Heart WITH THEIR FINGERNAILS! It was so terribly beautiful!
Sister and I then went back to the reception area and just talked and it was so nice! And Sister just wanted to hear my life story which I loved cuz I love to talk about myself! Haha I should probably work on that. But we had a lovely talk and then it was time to head to Auschwitz-Birkenau about two minutes away.
We got to Birkenau and I wasn't sure what I should do so I just kind of followed everyone and the next thing I knew I was inside. And I was nervous but I was there so I just went with my household sister in her tour group and we saw one of the wooden barracks. It was originally built as a stable for 50 horses but then it was used as a barracks for 400 human beings. There was no insulation, the only heat was a small wood stove. Next to that barracks was another barracks which was used as a latrine. There had been no latrine at first but when the typhus broke out they had to build something so they came up with this poor excuse for one, basically a bunch of holes in the ground. surrounded by a couple wood walls and a ceiling. When the Nazis took over the town they had torn down many of the houses and used the wood to build the barracks. After the war, when the Poles came back to their town they tore down many of the barracks to rebuild their homes. So the chimneys are the only part of many of the barracks that are still standing. After the tour two of the girls in our group invited us to say a chaplet of divine mercy. We walked along the train tracks saying the chaplet. When we finished we saw another group kneeling in the snow around a little memorial of a couple of candles in the snow also praying the chaplet. So we knelt down and joined them for the last decade. Then as I knelt there after we had finished I thought about something my mom always used to tell me when I was little. She told me how whenever Pope John Paul would visit a country the first thing he would do when he arrived would be to kneel down and kiss the ground. As he got older it became harder and harder for him to kneel down. So one time, I believe it was in Cuba, he got off the plane and some children lifted up a bowl of dirt to him so he wouldn't have to struggle to reach it. On Thursday one of our professors told us that one of the Blesseds, a man from Poland, I can't remember his name, said that if you took a lump of Polish soil and squeezed it the blood of the martyrs would flow out. And so I knelt in the snow debating whether I would humble myself by kissing this earth. I finally swallowed my pride and knelt over, kissing the snow. As I leaned back I found myself terribly embarassed because the snow stuck to my lips. I quickly brushed it off and stood up. As I stood there, seeing others also leaning over to press their lips to the earth, I felt the most incredible sense of peace wash over me.
I have a lot less pictures from this trip than I thought I would. I've said for other trips that it almost wasn't worth taking pictures because a picture couldn't capture the reality. On this trip it wasn't even that it wasn't worth taking pictures it's that I could not take pictures - I was too busy being in awe. I can't really explain it but I just could not take pictures - it was too beautiful. I guess the best way to explain it is that I wasn't experiencing this with my eyes - I was experiencing it with my soul and a camera can't capture that.
After this we got on the busses and headed to our hotel in Krakow. Once we got to the hotel we just checked in, had a lovely dinner, and went to bed. Amy was good enough to tell me what they had experienced in Auschwitz 1 and so Jesus did not even deny me this - He allowed me to know what was experienced without having to go in myself. They had seen rooms filled with the hair of the prisoners and next to that rugs made from that hair. They had seen mountains of shoes and other belongings that were taken from the prisoners. And they had seen the gas chambers and the crematoriums. There's nothing I can say about that place that hasn't already been said but hearing it firsthand from Amy brought it home to me better than books can and let me feel that I had really experienced it.
That was the end of the excitement for Friday. To be continued . . .
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