A heads up for tomorrow. I will try to post some photos on Facebook but tomorrow I have some appointments in the morning and then take off for the airport and my flight to Rome, thus time for writing may either be rare or perhaps nonexistent. I did prepare a VATICAN INSIDER for this weekend so be sure not to miss that – I did a special report on Krakow and the papal visit. If I do have time to post photos, there will probably be little or no commentary.
TWO SHRINES, TWO SAINTS, ONE POPE
I don’t have much time to write tonight because I had to spend much of the morning trying to check in for my Ryanair flight tomorrow (the first time I’ve ever taken this airline and probably the last, given this experience) and getting a new suitcase (a much used carry on suitcase got ripped on the flight from Rome and is unusable).
Later morning and early afternoon were delightful, however. I went to the Divine Mercy Shrine and the new St. John Paul II Shrine in Lagiewniki, about 7 kilometers from the center of Krakow, where I roamed the grounds, prayed in various chapels and attended Mass. The afternoon included a late lunch and a carriage ride through the Old City to Wawel Castle.
Pope Francis will visit both shrines on July 30. He will go through the Door of Mercy and confess several young people and, at 10:30, he will celebrate Mass for Polish priests, men and women religious, consecrated persons and seminarians in the John Paul II Shrine. This great, modern church and shrine complex was built in only three years.
I’ll have to let the photos I took today do the talking for now, although I have no pictures of the chapel at Divine Mercy where Saint Faustina is buried and where there is the miraculous image of Divine Mercy. Photos are forbidden and I could not find a way around that – and no one else was even thinking of taking photos. Not a cell phone or camera in sight. People kept pouring into the small chapel – though none were allowed in while Mass was ongoing – and lining up to kiss the small relic under glass of a knuckle of this Polish saint. Other relics were on the altar above her tomb and under the Divine Mercy image.
John Paul II Shrine:
Divine Mercy grounds
Joan's Rome 