The Tamil group at St.Paul’s Church, Bergen made a pilgrimage to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Krakow from 4th to the 8th May 2016 in order to mark the current Jubilee year of Mercy.
The group consisted of 37 pilgrims from Bergen, six from England and one from Denmark and one from Rome.
We arrived in Krakow during midday on Wednesday the 4th of May. After lunch at our Hotel (Quality System Hotel), we visited Saint John Paul Centre, situated in a very close location to the Divine Mercy Shrine. We had Holy Mass in one of the Chapels in this Center in the afternoon. The structure is built as a monument for the Saint where the relics of the Saint are preserved.
We visited the Divine Mercy Shrine on Thursday the 5th. Visiting the Divine Mercy shrine was the main aspect of our pigrimage. We spent the whole day at this shrine. We arrived at the Shrine around 10.00 and we had holy mass at one of the main Chapels at 10.30 am. During this Eucharist we remembered all the priests, religious and laity of our Parish. We had arranged lunch for the whole group at the restaurant at the Divine Mercy Shrine. One of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, the Congregation to which St.Faustina belonged to, gave us a talk on Divine Mercy Devotion at 1.00 pm. We joined the 3’ o clock prayer at the Divine Mercy Chapel. After this prayer the whole group was able to make the sacrament reconcilitation following a talk by Fr.Jegan Coonghe OMI, a final year student at the Biblicum institute in Rome.
We made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Jasna Gora in Chestohowa on Friday the 6th of May. We celebrated the Holy Eucharist when arrived there. We were able to have lunch in one of the Religious institutes closer to the Sanctuary. We returned to Krakow in the afternoon.
In the morning on Saturday the 7th, we visited Kalwarya, the Calvary which is located on a very beautiful mountainous area around 50 kilometers from Krakow. The way of Jesus and the way of Mary are beutifully made in this area which runs through a few villages.
Following the visit to Kalwarya we proceeded to Wadowice, the birth place of Saint John Paul II. Saint John Paul II was born in apartment next to the Parish Church in 1920. This apartment has been made into a very beautiful and informative museum after the Canonisation of the Saint in April, 2014.
At this museum one can learn all about the life of Saint John Paul II, beginning from his birth in Wadowice and ending in his death in the Vatican. This was a very powerful moment to all the pilgrims who took part in this pilgrimage.