Redwings in Poland

World Youth Day

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Dzien dobry (Jen-doh-bre) Redwings! I wrote this while attending World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland!  wyd-krakow-logo

Our group of 15 students departed from O’Hare Airport on July 25 and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, eight and half hours later. After a four hour lay over filled with German pretzels and surprisingly no bratwursts, we boarded an hour flight to Warsaw, Poland. In Warsaw, we experience a traditional Polish meal of dill potatoes and pot roast, but everyone’s favorite was the beet root soup. Now filled with the delicious beet root soup, we toured downtown Warsaw before meeting the bus for a five hour drive to our hotel in Kraków.

World Youth Day this year focused on the year of mercy. Poland is very blessed to have three saints in particular known for their courageous acts of mercy- St. Faustina Kowalska, St.Maximilian Kolbe, and St. John Paul II. St. John Paul II is especially dear to the Polish people’s hearts.

We were blessed to stay in a hotel near the church that St. John Paul II fought to build during the communists’ reign over Poland. The workers carried this cross through the sewers and put it up to celebrate Christmas Eve Mass and years later The Lord’s Ark church in Nowa Huta was constructed. Our group received special permission to celebrate mass there before we had to catch the tram to the Kraków city center, which is the largest medieval market square in Europe.

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Selfies with groups from different countries at the opening mass at Blonia Field

It was raining when we arrived to the city center, so everyone threw on the provided red, yellow, or blue World Youth Day ponchos. Ponchos may seem like a trivial detail to include, but as we marched through the city center to get to Blonia for opening mass, the atmosphere was indescribable. Countries from every corner of the earth chanted their love for Jesus and their nation. We waved our American flag proudly as other countries cheered with us, “USA! USA! USA!” As our group waited for the opening mass, we ran around our section taking GoPro selfies with groups from Italy, France, Brazil and Africa. Trading key chains, pins, bracelets, and flags was also a huge part of the World Youth Day culture. World Youth Day was filled with once in a lifetime opportunities. The opening mass was one of those moments. How often do you get to receive the Eucharist with the universal church? Just to be surrounded by so many deeply religious teenagers is deeply inspiring. Freshman Claire Kubacki commented, “It was cool to see that even though everyone spoke a different language, we all understood and were united by the language of Christ.”

The next day we were walking to the Stations of the Cross in Blonia, when we saw Pope Francis’s motorcade drive through the Kraków streets! When we were not at Blonia, we could be found at Tauron Arena for catechesis! Catechesis was held daily, but Tauron Arena was specifically for English speaking countries, which was refreshing after the many Polish masses. At catechesis we heard from many big names Catholic speakers such as Chris Stefanick and Jason Everet. We also heard from the New York Cardinal Dolan, Boston Cardinal O’Malley, and Philippines Cardinal Tagle. Everyone had an empowering message especially the testimonies from the Iraq and Syrian Christian refugees. Even the musicians were inspiring! There was a guitarist named Tony that didn’t have any arms so he played with his feet. Catechesis ended with a concert and Eucharist adoration with Matt Maher and Audrey Asaad.

As World Youth Day neared the end, we had to face our hardest test of faith: the camp out at Campus Misericordiae. We loaded up our backpacks and began our long walk through the Kraków streets. It would take us four hours to push through the crowds to get to our section. The sun was beating on our backs as we began to feel the weight of our packs. We were lucky to survive the bridge crossing where overheated and dehydrated people began to faint and ambulances pushing through the crowds to attend to them. It was a scary moment in time, but it was also eye opening to see so many young adults suffering just as Jesus did to see Pope Francis. That is something everyone will hold dear to our hearts to experience even a sliver of the suffering Jesus did for us by dying on the cross.

Our time at Campus Misericordiae was not all suffering though! We had fun rocking out to the different bands from around the world, praying at the candle vigil and staying up playing cards. During the morning mass, the Pope renewed our baptismal vows. His main message to today’s youth was to not be satisfied with couch happiness. Happiness does not come from comfort but by going out and helping the world.

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Members of SALT at the salt mines in Krakow

Everyone was sad to see World Youth Day come to a close, but our trip was not over yet! Anna was our phenomenal tour guide that introduced us to her homeland. She told us about the legends of Smok the Dragon and Kraków traditions such as the bugler who stops mid song every hour on the hour to honor the bugler shot mid song in the 13th century. Her city was a beautiful medieval city that we loved touring, because the history goes back beyond anything one can find in the United States. She took us to Calvary and Wadowice too. Wadowice is the area that St. John Paul II grew up. His family home has now been turned into a museum. We all enjoyed eating the papal cream cake! Next stop was the Shrine of Our Lady Of Czestochowa, where it is tradition to walk on one’s knees around the relics on display there. Tyniec the Benedictine abbey was beautiful! We were introduced to this adorable old monk who is known for his numerous books in Poland. He is often seen on billboards around Kraków sporting his “Keep Calm and Ora Et Labora” t-shirt under his traditional monk attire.

We finished off our touring with a trip to the salt mines, where workers carved out statues and a church out of salt. How cool is it to celebrate mass over 1000 feet underground?! Our trip ended with Anna our guide’s favorite restaurant where we were treated to traditional Polish folk dance entertainment while eating delicious pierogis. The plain home was filled with mixed emotions with the sadness of World Youth Day ending and the joy of coming home to our own beds. All I can say is I cannot wait for World Youth Day Panama 2019, and I hope to see you all there!