By Fr. Alec Sasse
Vocations Director
Things don’t always go as we plan them, and, if God is entrusted with our “ruined” plans, it always ends up for the best.
For the past few years, I have sensed a “tug” from the Holy Spirit to take college students on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I sensed that the Lord wanted us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to reverence the holy places of the Incarnation, and to find deeper holiness through leaving our environment in search of God! The pilgrimage was planned, students were signed up, and all signs pointed toward a dream pilgrimage to Israel… And then, as happens in a fallen world, war broke out in Israel.
With the Holy Land no longer an option, the brainstorming began: Where is Jesus uniquely present, and where is the Holy Spirit inviting the Newman Center students to take a pilgrimage? The answer came back clearly: Poland — the home of Sts. John Paul II, Faustina and Maximilian Kobe. Poland endured two brutal regimes in the 20th century, only to receive a purified, vibrant faith. It is a land that lit a flame of hope for a world sorely in need of that virtue. This spring break, 20 of us from the Newman Center set off for the homeland of some of our favorite saints.
In the end, our trip to Poland provided us with exactly what we desired from the Holy Land trip. We walked in the footsteps of Jesus: His hidden life in John Paul II’s home, His public ministry in the message of Divine Mercy through Sr. Faustina, His death in Maximilian Kolbe’s cell in Auschwitz, and His Resurrection in the glory of a people who persevered through death into glory. We reverenced holy places of the Incarnation through celebrating Masses in places where people poured out their own lives for Jesus. And our students found deeper holiness by encountering hope: for their vocations, for their healings, and for their stories.
For me, my favorite part of the trip was seeing our students encounter St. John Paul II. I grew up with Pope John Paul, and my earliest memories of the faith are tinged with his fatherhood and magnanimity. His thought and teachings informed much of my seminary formation and prayer! But for young people growing up today, they’ve never known him, since he died in 2005. To watch our students discover this incredible modern saint – a saint of holiness, masculinity, courage, and suffering – was to watch the “JP2 Effect” happen all over again. Our students left Poland believing they had received a new spiritual father, and indeed they had.
Our Lady also accompanied us at each twist and turn of this trip. Poland is a land particularly devoted to Mary and her maternal presence. At the various Marian shrines – St. Maximilian Kolbe’s monastery, Our Lady of Calvary, Our Lady of Czestochowa, seemingly every street corner in Krakow, and certainly within every heart of the saints of Poland – our students found a Mother who has been waiting to comfort them in their struggles.
Finally, our visit to the small town of Markowa ended up being the favorite site of the group. Here, in March 1944, the Ulma family (consisting of Josef, Wictoria, and their seven children) were executed by the Nazis for giving shelter to three Jewish families. We meditated on their holy lives of joy, offered Mass in their parish church, and asked that this little Heavenly family would give us shelter from a harsh world as well. The favorite Scripture passage of the Ulma family was that of the parable of the Good Samaritan, which would be emblematic of the way they lived and died. As we left Poland after 10 days of holy encounter, we too heard the words of Our Lord: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).
