8 Days Poland
*** DAILY MASSES INCLUDED ***
Day 1 – Depart the U.S.A for Warsaw Poland. Dinner and breakfast will be served aloft.
Day 2 – Arrive in Warsaw. Upon arrival you will be met by your tour escort and transferred by private motor coach to your hotel. You will then have Mass at St. James Church, the church where St. Faustina went when she arrived in Warsaw. Free time before this evening’s Welcome Dinner.
Day 3 - Warsaw - Swinice Warckie - Niepokalanow - Czestochowa. After breakfast, you travel to Czestochowa stop atto Niepokalanow, see the Franciscan Monastery founded by St. Maximillian Kolbe and home of Basilica of Virgin Mary. Continue on to Gologowiec andSwinice Warckie. Lunch on your own – Perhaps a light lunch at the convent of the Divine Mercy in Gologowiec. Visit the parish church, St. Casimir, where St. Faustina was baptized Helen Kowalska ( Mass at St Casimir Church) . Continue to Czestochowa for dinner and over night.
*** After dinner if wished group can individually walk to the monastery ofJasna Gora for individual meditation and prayer
Day 4– Czestochowa. (06:00 If you wish, attend the Unvieling of the Icon of the Black Madonna) Czestochowa is the site of Poland's greatest pilgrimage shrine, with a tradition of pilgrimages that goes back to the 14th century. Pope John Paul II, had frequently visited the Shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa, which contains the miraculous image of the Black Madonna and Child. 08:45 Celebate a private Mass at the Chapel of the Black Madonna followed by a tour of the Monastery by one of the Paulinian Brother. Afternoon if wished you can walk the Via Del Laroza. Dinner and overnight
Day 5 – Czestochowa – Auschwitz- Wadowice - Krakow. After breakfast, travel to Auchwitz the notorious Nazi concentration camp. See the cell that imprisoned St Maximillian Kolbe and the Martyrdom Museum recalling the horrors of the Holocaust. Then drive by Birkeneau rcallingthe martyrdom place of St Edith Stien. Lunch on your own – carry on to Wadowice, the birthplace of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. Visit the house where the Pope was born, which has since been turned into a museum. Celebrate Mass and visit the church where he was baptized and where he attended Mass as a child. Continue on to Krakow for dinner and overnight.
Day 6- Krakow. After breakfast, explore Market Square which has remained relatively unchanged for almost 700 years, and is where the Town Hall Tower, the Cloth Hall, the Burgher's Houses and St. Mary's Basilica is located. It is within the Basilica that you will find the extraordinary Wit Stwosz Altar, a hand carved wooden alter that took three years to build, and is the largest Gothic Sculpture in the world. Afterwards, you will tour the Wawel Cathedral, Coronation Chapel and the Royal Chambers where a superb collection of Arras tapestries is on view. Wlak along Kanonisza street pausing at building 21 “Deanery “ it was here were PJPII resided at while living in Krakow then continue to see the courtyards of the Jagellonian university where Copernicus and PJPII have studied at. Dinner at local restaurant. Overnight in Krakow.
Mass at St Stanislaw on the rock – Poland’s 2nd most important Pilgrimage site.
Day 7 - Krakow - Full Day Visit to Lagiewniki. After breakfast we depart for our day's excursion to Lagiewniki, home of the Divine Mercy. It was here that the Lord revealed to St. Faustina His message of Divine Mercy and instructed her to commission the very likeness of Himself, now known as the grace-working icon of Merciful Jesus, with the caption which reads in Polish: Jesus, I trust Thee. While at the Sanctuary of Our Lord's Mercy, we will visit the Shrine of Divine Mercy, St. Faustina's convent chapel, and St. Faustina's Tomb. Return to Krakow for dinner.
Day 8 - Departure. Sadly it is time to bid farewell as you drive to the airport for your transatlantic flight home – the end of a memorable journey.