About 30 people traveled 268 kilometers in nine days. The pilgrims set off on July 7 from Góra Kalwaria, where the tomb of St. Father Stanisław Papczyński, the founder of the Congregation of Marian Fathers.
My soul glorifies the Lord
We put the emphasis of the soul on praying for the dead, which is part of our Marian charism ... Apart from water and a sweatshirt in a backpack, everyone took their intentions, family and friends with them. They ranged from requests for health to prayers for a good husband. - We always remember about our relatives and benefactors who welcome us along the way. Our pilgrimage is based on the good heart of another person who will give water, feed or stay overnight
For Fr. Pawlak was a unique pilgrimage because he led it for the first time. - It's a big responsibility. I wasn't going for myself and not as the most important one, but as someone who cares for the pilgrims. I have acquired a lot of experience - admits and emphasizes that all situations should be entrusted to God, convinced that the pilgrimage is not a human work, but God's work.
Families with children, grandmothers with grandchildren and individual pilgrims aged 11 to over 70 traveled across Poland under the slogan taken from the Magnificat: "My soul glorifies the Lord".
Participants also had the opportunity to confess on the way. The parish priests of the parishes where the pilgrimage stayed were also happy to serve the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.
In addition to the traditional forms of pilgrimage piety, the pilgrims prayed a novena to St. Father Papczyński and prayed the Chaplet of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The intentions with which the pilgrims traveled were brought to the presence of Our Lady of Licheń, and the relatives of the deceased were remembered during the Marian Appeal in the Lichen basilica.
The pilgrimage ended with a solemn Holy Mass. July 16 at 10.00 a.m.
Text and photos: Sanctuary Press Office
