Religious Treasures of Central & Northern Europe Pilgrimage
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$50 Early Booking Discount if Reserved by April 5, 2017 Religious Treasures of Central & Northern Europe Pilgrimage November 24 - December 3, 2017 - 10 Days $2,899 from Newark (includes current airline taxes & fuels surcharges) For Information and Reservations, Contact Or Virginia Ricablanca, Unitours, Inc., Tel 848-466-0234 Email [email protected] Friday, November 24 - Day 1 - DEPART USA - continue to Krakow and transfer to our hotel for dinner Today, we depart Newark to connect with our and overnight. overnight flight to Prague. Tuesday, November 28 - Day 5 - KRAKOW - "THE Saturday, November 25 - Day 2 - PRAGUE/ POLISH ROME"/LAGIEWNIKI - This morning we PILSEN - We arrive in Prague airport and meet our visit the Church of St. Florian, where Pope John Paul II Tour Manager. We drive to Pilsen, Czech’s served as a curate, and where he lived while university Republic’s 4th largest city founded by King chaplain. Afterwards, we meet our guide and begin our Wenceslaus II in 1295. Pilsen is a bastion of sightseeing tour of Krakow. Our first stop is the Catholicism and religious monuments form a large courtyard of 16th century Royal Castle, and Wawel part of the city’s historical heritage. We briefly tour Cathedral, where generations of Polish Kings are buried. Republic Square, then celebrate Mass at the We then take a walking tour of Old Town, visiting some Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, known for the Pilsen of the treasures of this wonderful old city. We view the Madonna and the tallest Gothic church spire in the Town Hall Tower and the Cloth Hall, the Collegium Czech Republic. The hardy can climb the Maius in the oldest university area and St. Mary's Cathedral’s tower to see the magnificent view of the Church. Here we enjoy the ancient tradition of the city. Afterwards, we enjoy a tour the world-famous "Hejnal" or bugle call from the Tower, which warned Pilsner Urquell brewery and beer tasting. Before residents of the coming of an enemy. Afterwards, we returning to Prague, we stop by the Patton Memorial drive to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki. Museum whose exhibits depict the moments of We visit the Basilica, see the convent and meet with the World War II’s final days. We transfer to our hotel Sisters there. At 3PM we pray the Divine Mercy for dinner and overnight. Chaplet and celebrate Mass at the chapel where the Sunday, November 26 – Christ the King - Day 3 - miraculous Divine Mercy image and the tomb of St. PRAGUE - This morning, we celebrate Mass at the Faustina can be found. Before returning to Krakow, we Church of Our Lady Victorious. We view the stop at the nearby Shrine of Saint John Paul II and see the famous statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague, originally Holy Father’s relics. We return to our hotel in Krakow from Spain and donated to the Carmelites in 1628. for dinner and overnight. We visit the museum to see part of the Infant Jesus’ Wednesday, November 29 - Day 6 - KRAKOW/ wardrobe, most of which are gifts of gratitude. The AUSCHWITZ/CZESTOCHOWA - We depart early vestments of the Infant Jesus are traditionally this morning and travel to the infamous Auschwitz changed about ten times a year according to the Concentration Camp. We visit the martyrdom Museum liturgical season. We proceed to St. Nicholas Church and the cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe. We journey to (Mala Strana) one of the most beautiful baroque Czestochowa and celebrate Mass at the Jasna Góra churches in Prague, where Mozart’s spectacular Shrine, the home of the miraculous icon of Our Lady of masterpiece, Mass in C, was first performed. Częstochowa. According to tradition, the famous Icon Afterwards, we tour Castle Hill and visit St. Vitus was painted by St. Luke on a tabletop built by Jesus. It Cathedral, Vladislav Hall and Golden Lane. Our was discovered by St. Helena during her search of the afternoon tour of Prague will include the Old Town true cross in Jerusalem and was enshrined in with Astronomical clock, Our Lady before Tyn Constantinople. It remained in a royal palace in Ruthenia Church, Jewish Quarter and Charles Bridge. Dinner for 600 years, then finally transferred to Jasna Gora and and overnight at our hotel. entrusted to Pauline monks in the 14th century. We tour Monday, November 27 - Day 4 - the shrine, then transfer to our hotel for dinner and PRAGUE/KRAKOW - After an early breakfast, we overnight. depart Prague and journey to Poland. En route, we pass by Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope St. John “Have questions about this pilgrimage? Ask Paul II. We visit the parish church where the Holy us! Go to www.Unitours.com/questions.” Father was baptized and the museum in his small family home. We proceed to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska Benedictine Monastery where the Holy Father often prayed and walked the Stations of the Cross. We Thursday, November 30 – St. Andrew - Day 7 - Saturday, December 2 – Day 9 - VILNIUS - DIVINE CZESTOCHOWA/WARSAW/BIALYSTOK - MERCY SITES - Following St. Faustina’s death, and at the Today we journey Warsaw, where Blessed Fr. outbreak of World War II, Fr. Sopocko gave a copy of the Divine Michael Sopocko, St. Faustina’s confessor and Mercy image hanging in St. Michael’s Church and Divine Mercy spiritual director, studied moral theology at the documents to Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, a member of the University of Warsaw and served as Military Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception, who was in Vilnius, escaping the Nazis. Fr. Joseph, after aperilous Chaplain during the Polish-Russian war. We drive journey, eventually reached the U.S., where later, the Marians to Bialystok, where Fr. Sopocko fled in 1947 and established the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, continued to proclaim the truth of God’s mercy Massachusetts from which they have spread the message of which he began in Vilnius with St. Faustina. Despite Divine Mercy around the world. the opposition of Church authorities in approving the Today, we trace the origin of Divine Mercy devotion as devotion at that time, he tirelessly corrected the errors well as the colorful story of the first and original painting and ideas that did not represent the true concept of of the Merciful Jesus, known as the Divine Mercy image. the message of Divine Mercy, until his death in 1975, St. Faustina lived in Vilnius from 1933-1936. It was here on the feast day of St. Faustina. Jesus’ revelation that she met Fr. Sopocko, who asked her to write diary about Fr. Sopocko was written in St. Faustina’s diary, and helped her carry out her mission to spread the essage “He is a priest after My Own Heart; his efforts are of God's infinite Mercy. Our first stop is the cell where pleasing to Me (...) Through him it pleases Me to St. Faustina received many revelations from Jesus, proclaim the worship of My Mercy” (Diary, 1256). including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. We proceed to We visit the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy where we the house, now a convent, where the original image of the celebrate Mass and visit the tomb of this humble Merciful Jesus was painted by Eugeniusz Kazimierowski priest. We also visit some of the sites associated with in 1934, as St. Faustina saw Him in her visions. Then to Fr. Sopocko to gain more understanding of his St. Michael’s Church, now a museum, where the painting remarkable contributions in spreading the Divine was hung for public veneration in 1937 by its rector, Fr. Mercy devotion. Dinner and overnight at our hotel. Sopocko. We also visit the Dominican Holy pirt Church Friday, December 1 - Day 8 - BIALYSTOK/ where the image was moved in 1951, before it was VILNIUS (Birthplace of Divine Mercy Devotion) - transferred to a church in Belarus where it remained till After an early breakfast, we depart Bialystok and 1986. The image was spirited back to Vilnius, and in drive to Vilnius. We proceed to the Gate of Dawn 2005, after restoration, the original Image of the Merciful sanctuary, a major pilgrimage site in Lithuania, the Jesus eventually found a permanent home at the Holy shrine of Mary, Mother of Mercy. We celebrate Trinity Church, now the Divine Mercy Shrine. We Mass here. Pope St. John Paul II visited the Gate of celebrate Mass here. Time permitting, we visit other Dawn and prayed before the miraculous icon when churches in the Old Town area, since Vilnius is also he visited Vilnius in 1993. After a brief panoramic known as the City of 40 Churches. Tonight, we enjoy tour of the city, we transfer to our hotel for dinner our Farewell Dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight at and overnight. our hotel. In April 1935, for three days leading to the first Sunday Sunday, December 3 - Day 10 – USA - This morning, after Easter, the Divine Mercy image was venerated for the we transfer to the airport in Vilnius to board our flight to first time in public at the Gate of Dawn sanctuary, the the USA arriving later with memories of a lifetime. shrine of Holy Mother of Mercy, one of the most important religious sites in Lithuania. St. Faustina participated and Blessed Fr. Michael Sopocko, her confessor and spiritual director, presented a homily about the Divine Mercy. Here are the excerpts, from St. Faustina’s diary on this first Feast of Mercy: “When the image was displayed, I saw a live movement of the hand of Jesus, as He made a large sign of the cross” (Diary, 416). “When he began to speak (Fr.