The Transforming Power of Mercy

Our Pilgrimage Through the Land of Kolbe, Faustina, and John Paul II

(Wadwice, childhood home of Pope Saint John Paul II)

Although I’ve loved Pope John Paul II my entire life, Poland was never high on my list of places to visit. I suspect I’m not alone in that. On our first day in Warsaw, a local woman stopped Fr. Dave Pivonka outside of a church that holds relics of St. Faustina. With a look of genuine confusion, she asked why we had come to Poland. Yet, when the opportunity arose to co-lead a pilgrimage with the Franciscan University president, I immediately said yes.

(Fr. Dave leading a Divine Mercy Chaplet at Auschwitz Birkenau)

Poland is a heavy country. The language, the food, even the name carries a sense of gravity. Despite its abundant natural and architectural beauty, it’s not a place that immediately seduces the traveler with lightness or leisure. Being on pilgrimage changes that sort of calculation. Still, the heaviness is real, and it runs deeper than hearty meals and consonant-laden words.