He is risen! I hope it has been a blessed Easter for you all. Hard to believe that Easter Week #5 has already almost begun...
I wanted to share with you all a couple highlights from my Easter travels. This year, we had two weeks of vacation during the Easter break. We get two weeks of travel time every other year for Easter break, while, on the other years, we celebrate Holy Week in house, and then travel during Easter week. So, this year, we had a pretty nice long break!
My Holy Week travels took me to Poland with two of my classmates, where we looked forward to celebrating the mysteries of Our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. I had been to Poland once before - during my study abroad semester in 2013, so I was excited to both revisit some familiar places, as well as see something new. I've also learned a little bit more about my own Polish ancestry in the last few years, which has given me an even greater appreciation for the magnificent history of this beautiful country. For instance, I learned just this past year that I do have another priest in the family! He was my great-great-great uncle, a Fr. Stanislaus Tyblewski, a diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, in Western Poland. He was very young when he died in the early 1920's (he was only in his mid-30's!), but he had 10 years of priestly ministry, and was a vicar in a little town called Dziewierzewo. It's pretty cool to think that, even though we are 4 generations apart, "Uncle Father Stan" and I will share the same priesthood of Jesus Christ for all eternity! I hope that I will get to see him one day.
Unfortunately, all the places associated with my uncle were pretty far out of the way, and, since my license had just expired, renting a car wasn't an option! So maybe I will get to Dziewierzewo on another trip...For the time being however, our travels took us to Warsaw and Krakow, the two largest cities in Poland, both with their own huge share of culture and history.
Downtown Warsaw...looks a lot like any downtown metro!
Warsaw was our first stop. I had heard mixed review about the city from those who had been there before, many of whom said that it lacked a lot of the charm and history of Krakow. This was true in a certain sense, especially since Warsaw itself was completely leveled during the Nazi occupation and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. But it was still an amazing place! There are so many lovely old cities in Europe, but sometimes, you can't beat a day of walking around among skyscrapers, popping into a Starbucks, riding a sleek subway train, or ducking into a pretty little downtown church, tucked between two state-of-the-art buildings.
The churches in Warsaw were really quite lovely, but it wasn't so much the art and architecture which struck us, but the simple fact that these churches were full! Unlike so many other countries in Europe which can boast some stunning Catholic churches (Italy, France, Germany, Belgium), the churches of Poland were almost jam-packed sometimes with people coming in and out for prayer or Confession. The Sacrament of Confession, in particular, struck us profoundly. Every church we entered had at least 4 or 5 priests sitting in the confessionals, with no fewer than 3 or 4 dozen people waiting in line - elderly folks, kids, college-aged students, moms & dads - everyone was there to confess their sins before Easter began! It was such an edifying sight.
And that's just one side of the church!
Many churches had Adoration throughout the day.
Everywhere we went, the culture and lifestyle of Poland seemed deeply faithful. There was a always a beautiful reverence at Mass; there were young priests and even seminarians all over the place; and, to complement this faith, there was a deep kindness present in all those whom we met throughout our journeys. This phenomenon of the faith of the Polish people would continue to surprise and edify us as we moved along toward Easter. It also gave my classmates and me a lot to think about and pray about. Why should we, as future priests, not strive to bring the people of our parishes to this same deep devotion and love for the Sacraments? Why should we not preach about Adoration and love for the Blessed Sacrament when we're back home and seeking to proclaim the Gospel? The faith of the Polish people was a great challenge to us, because it showed us that we've always got to be working to bring about deeper conversion in peoples' hearts. And, as we saw in those Polish churches, such conversion of heart is certainly possible!
While in Warsaw, we also had the chance to visit a heroic priest-martyr who has become a good friend of mine, by the name of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. Father Jerzy was a priest of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, who led the Polish people in peaceful, God-centered resistance to the Communist dictatorship during the late-70's and early-80's. He was a zealous shepherd of his people, and his efforts as a man of communion and peace were especially powerful during his years as the chaplain to the steel workers of Warsaw. His "Masses for the Homeland," which he celebrated outside his parish in north Warsaw with the intention of promoting peace and Solidarity among Polish workers and families, became one of the most significant factors which led to the fall of Communism in Poland. Because of his beautiful ministry among the Polish people, and because of their great love for their priest, Father Jerzy was kidnapped by the Communists in October of 1984 in the middle of the night. He was beaten unconscious, and drowned in the Vistula River, with the only sign of alarm raised the next morning, when he did not arrive for the daily 7:00 am Mass at his parish. Father Jerzy's life, ministry, and death, were an inspiration to millions, and served to bring the Polish people even closer together around the Church which they already loved so dearly. He witnessed to the power of non-violent protest, and appealed to Christian love as the great victor over sin, and this made him a powerful instrument in the Lord's hand for bringing about the salvation and the freedom of the Polish people.
Being suburban Warsaw at Fr. Jerzy's parish, St. Stanislaus, was very surreal. Around the church, for miles on end, was a quiet, peaceful residential area, with cars parked on the street, children running around with their parents, and little cafes on every street corner. Then there was the church itself: a beautiful but modest neo-Romanesque structure with two spires rising above the line of trees and houses. The entire area seemed to be under the shadow of those spires, and, as we walked slowly toward the parish, I could feel that Fr. Jerzy's pastoral presence was still very real there, in this neighborhood which was still very much his own. Today, St. Stan's, while serving as a shrine to Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, is still a "normally functioning parish," taking care of all the souls in that Warsaw neighborhood. And yet, something very special about that parish is that its erstwhile pastor is one step away from sainthood, a man known all around the world as one of the greatest priestly witnesses of the last century. It got me to thinking: the Catholic parish is a really spectacular place, isn't it? To think of what happens there, day after day; how the people of God assemble there around the altar, with their priest leading them in prayer...The parish really is a place where saints are made! They might not be saints who garner attention for fighting against a totalitarian state, but those parochial saints are the ones who seek to do God's will day after day, men and women who come to their local church to receive Christ's Body and Blood, and to experience his forgiveness. The local parish is truly a place where saints are born, and this shouldn't come as a surprise to us!
