"A Pilgrim in Poland"

Joan Desmond does a phenomenal job of bringing her readers onto pilgrimage in Poland in her new piece, "A Pilgrim in Poland." She spent time in the country following the steps of Bl. John Paul II.

Here's the beginning:

“There are no coincidences,” Blessed Pope John Paul II observed more than once. The insight reflected his belief that the central events and people that shaped his life and set him on the path to Rome were part of a divine plan revealed over time through the crucible of the cross.

This was the cross that cast its shadow on his own life and that of his beloved native land, forcing every believer to grapple with the mysterious purposes of a loving God who permits suffering, war and infirmity to serve as the “refiner’s fire,” silently and painfully advancing the pilgrim’s progress through the valley of death.

Yet, it’s one thing to read the statement — “There are no coincidences” — and something else to retrace the path of a man and a nation that clung to their hope in Christ as evil forces sought to destroy everything they held dear.

A weeklong pilgrimage to Poland barely scratches the surface of Karol Wojtyla’s own earthly existence. Still, the luminous beauty of his holy witness, nourished amid the defiant religious convictions of Polish Catholicism, draws the uninitiated into a direct confrontation with his mystical vision.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/a-pilgrim-in-poland/#ixzz1Tsh928JH