22 Marian Helper • Fall 2025 • Marian.org Some of our men made a traditional shuffle on their knees around the image. Others, including me, spent all night before the Black Madonna in a prayer vigil led by the local priests. We were invited to come up in front of the Black Madonna to receive a special blessing. We were congratulated on the new American pope, and asked to each lead a couple of Hail Marys of a Rosary decade, praying the first part in English while the people responded “Holy Mary, Mother of God ...” in Polish. Blessed George and St. Faustina In addition to seeing the tomb of St. Stanislaus, we stopped at the tomb of the Marian Renovator, Bl. George Matulaitis (18711927) in Lithuania; at St. Faustina’s tomb; and at sites closely linked with Pope St. John Paul II. We met sisters from religious orders founded by Bl. George and by St. Faustina’s priest-confessor, Bl. Michael Sopoćko, as well as sisters from other religious orders, and many Polish Marians. We also visited Niepokalanów, St. Maximilian Kolbe’s “City of the Immaculate” in Poland, which today has a sizable Franciscan community, despite having been decimated by the Nazis. All of these holy sites were blessed places to pray. We visited the religious house where St. Faustina used to live and where she saw key visions linked to the Divine Mercy devotion. Our guide told us a story of how Communist authorities gave the order to bulldoze all the buildings in the area, but on their list of buildings to destroy, they forgot to put the one St. Faustina was in. Therefore, it was the only building left standing, and it remains to this day. The chapel where Jesus sometimes appeared to her was destroyed, however. I found it striking that Jesus allowed His own house to be destroyed but saved His bride’s house. To me, that says something about what kind of Person Jesus is. The White Habit At the end of our pilgrimage, all of our men in temporary vows received our Congregation’s white habit, and we are free to wear it whenever we please. The garment honors Mary’s Immaculate Conception, the heart of our order’s charism. When I asked two Polish superiors for their understanding of our Marian identity, they pointed to the Immaculate Conception as being the core of who we are called to be and what we are called to witness to. Receiving the white habit felt like a culmination of our gazing into the Marian heritage. For me, the white habit seemed to carry a message: Go and live by what you have seen. Above, outside the Marian Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Goźlin, Poland. Below, Mass at the Chapel of the Miraculous Image of the Merciful Jesus and the tomb of St. Faustina in Łagiewniki Shrine.
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