41 ‘Pierogi Pilgrims’ from Philadelphia Find God in Poland’s Holy Sites

More than 40 young Philadelphians traveled to Poland July 2-12 on a pilgrimage seeking God. They found the Lord in expected and unexpected places, with poignance from lost loved ones, in persistent symbols of faith that rebuilt a nation, and in the unabashed joy of a surprise engagement and future matrimony. Pauline Father Timothy Tarnacki, the director of the archdiocesan Office for Ministry with Young Adults (OMYA), took 41 Catholics on the pilgrimage themed “We Want God!” to a series of holy sites and other stops in Poland, a nation long-defined and even reborn through the Catholic faith that permeates within the Eastern European land. “With the pilgrimage design and Father Timothy’s guidance, we really saw how connected faith and culture, and truly everything is in Poland,” pilgrim Mairwen Minson said. “We visited religious sites and historical sites, but really all of them were religious. The faith is so built into Poland and it is a gift to see that.” Each participant received a 102-page journal filled with related Saints of the Day plus daily Mass readings accompanying the liturgies they would encounter during the pilgrimage. Father Tarnacki, a native of Poland who came to the United States as a boy, says the journey was not about himself but about God touching the lives of the assembled young adults under 40 years old who came with him. Yet it was impossible for him to not be touched by how he brought new friends from across an ocean to places that have deeply touched his own faith life. That includes Jasna Góra, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Częstochowa that houses the original Black Madonna icon, and its attached monastery in Częstochowa that was part of his own pathway with the Pauline Fathers. “That is the heart of Polish spirituality, and I spent every summer there,” he said. “Throughout the year, we would be very often sent there to minister at the shrine. That’s such a big part of my formation and the charism of my community.” Laura Lindmeier encountered the day of a lifetime beside that Black Madonna icon. “The icon itself tells the story of the Polish people whose deep devotion has been tied to a history of deep suffering,” said Lindmeier, whose spiritual journey has often been anchored at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. “I encountered Our Lady’s tenderness in a new way,” she added. “Our group had the privilege of celebrating a private Mass in the chapel which houses the original miraculous icon.” Then after she helped lead music for the Mass with her boyfriend, Alvaro, the blessed surprise of a lifetime happened. “Álvaro got down on one knee and proposed immediately after the Mass had finished!” she said. “I was absolutely floored! Father Timothy’s homily that day spoke of the icon and the loving gaze of Our Lady over unique moments in our life. I felt this so clearly. Beneath her gaze, I said yes to my vocation with profound peace and joy, a vocation which promises to hold tenderness and suffering ever in tension, just as she does.” Father Tarnacki plans on being a celebrant for their wedding. Pilgrims traveled to the Sanctuary of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Giertzwald, the Shrine of St. Faustina and the Tomb of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko in Warsaw, the location in Krakow where St. Stanislaus was martyred, the city of Wadowice where St. John Paul II was born and where a museum is dedicated to him, and the city’s Our Lady of the Calvary Shrine, and then a return to Krakow with a Mass at the Chapel of the Tomb of St. Faustina. “I had been struggling to talk to Mary because of some losses,” Minson said. “Going to Giertzwald, the Marian apparition site, was both the hardest and best day of the pilgrimage for me. I genuinely wanted to hide from my pain and Mary’s presence, but with the group there, I stayed and had such a healing conversation with Mary. It was incredible, to sob and get through my grief with Mary there guiding me through what I needed.” The pilgrimage also included time marking how totalitarianism attempted to drown the Catholic faith, from fascism in World War II to communism during the Cold War era. In both cases, the Church more than survived — it served as the response. The young adults saw both the horrors of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the hope and joy of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, a city of the Catholic-inspired Solidarity resistance to the Soviet bloc rule of Poland at the time. “We remembered the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe as we visited the starvation bunker that served as the place of his martyrdom,” Lindmeier said of the saint’s willingness to give his life for another person at Auschwitz. “St. Maximilian Kolbe, in imitation of Christ, proves that sacrificial love is what gives these gifts their staying power and why they are worthy of laying down one’s life.” Colleen Flannery, who has Polish heritage, saw many examples of the resilience of the Polish people, deeply imbued within the Catholic faith. “We were on the pilgrimage over the Fourth of July holiday, and it felt so different not being home, but being abroad helped me to see freedom through a different lens,” she said. “It put into perspective how precious freedom is, and how important it is to safeguard and not take it for granted.” Andrea Maychak celebrated a birthday that led to a most Polish, and appropriate, surprise. Father Tarnacki “surprised me with the most appropriate birthday presents: a pierogi pillow paired with a third class relic of Pope John Paul II,” she said. “I joked the rest of the trip that I was a ‘pierogi pilgrim!’’’ The 41 who came from Philadelphia returned with more than pierogis. Father Tarnacki believes they came back changed. “It’s just amazing to see how the Lord works in these kinds of pilgrimages, because the pilgrimage is all about transformation,” he said. “It’s all about encountering God on the way, and I think that’s what has been happening through the Holy Spirit.” PREVIOUS: Special Collection Will Aid Earthquake Victims in Venezuela NEXT: Author’s Strong Faith, Love for History, Leads to First Book Share this story