The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Polish Saints and Pilgrimages with Fr. Josh Johnson

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

Jeff Cavins and Fr. Josh Johnson are in Poland! From Auschwitz to Pope St. John Paul II’s house, they discuss the places they have seen in connection with great Polish saints like St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Faustina, as well as some amazing glory stories that reveal the mercy, truth, and suffering of these saints. Snippet from the Show “Blessed Jerzy, St. John Paul II, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Faustina, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, they were all witnesses, not only of mercy and truth, but of suffering.” SHOWNOTES St. John Paul II * Suffered and had the capacity to hate, but chose to love instead. He forgave the man who shot him. * Influence of the domestic church: His father set an example of holiness by praying, self-sacrifice, and keeping close to the sacraments. * Inscribed on the wall of his home: “Time flies, eternity waits.” St. Maximilian Kolbe * Called out evil where he saw it, stood up on behalf of those being persecuted * Last words of St. Kolbe to his brothers before being taken to Auschwitz: “Forget not love” * Took the place of a man condemned to death. While he was being starved to death, he was praising God. * John 15:13 - “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” St. Faustina * Example of how to the saints can intercede for us. St. Faustina appeared to a priest and asked him to pray with a man who was convinced he couldn’t be forgiven for causing the death of several people. The priest was able to forgive this man because it was the priest's family who had been killed. Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko * Always went out to be with the community * Persecuted in communist Poland, and brutally martyred. RESOURCES * Romans: The Gospel of Salvation (https://ascensionpress.com/collections/romans-the-gospel-of-salvation?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=romans&utm_content=tjcspoland)

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 133, Why Poland, Why Now. A chat with Father Josh Johnson. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, my friends. I want to welcome you to the show today. And this one's a little bit different because we are coming to you from Poland. That's right. We are in Poland right now and we're getting ready to launch out on our final day of our Poland pilgrimage. And if you hear that noise in the background, that's our people. And they are excited. A lot of things have happened on the trip. And I'm joined by our illustrious chaplain, Father Josh Johnson. What's going on, Jeff? How are you? I am doing great.

This has been an amazing trip, and it's hard to believe that it's almost over. We're going to be going back home. But, yeah, we decided to go to Poland, and I've never been here before. I've never been here as well. But some of the greatest saints in our church's recent history are all from Poland. Yeah, I did not expect to experience what I did. You know, I've been to the Holy Land, I've been to Rome, I've been Ireland, and, you know, all over the world. I've never been here before, and some of, like you said, some of the greatest saints come from Poland, and they're not long ago.

I mean, you got, and I want to talk a little bit about this with you, why Poland, why now, why are we here? We've got St. John Paul II, which is everywhere in Poland. We've been to Warsaw, Vadovici, we've been to Chestahova. We're in Krakow right now. We have Sister Faustina, which yesterday we were able to, or the day before yesterday, we're able to, who really learn a lot about Sister Faustina. We saw that amazing painting, the second painting of divine mercy.

And of course, Maximilian Colby. Yeah, that was powerful. That was incredible. And Father Jersey, who I know is personally a real hero of yours. Yeah. So let's go through them right now. You know, of all the places to go on a pilgrimage,

why Poland and why now? Why do you think that the people are starting to come to Poland on pilgrimage. I don't know. I mean, clearly the Saints are drawing is here, right? But I think that if we discern our times that we're living in right now, what we see is a lot of unforgiveness. And I think that a lot of these saints who we are being invited to a company right now

in our walk toward eternity, hashtag Jeff Kavings, they all manifested just mercy and forgiveness and authentic love to the people who they they were able to encounter in their walk with the Lord. And I think that's what we need to bring back to America right now. Is mercy toward people who are different than us? It's forgiveness to people who have hurt us and love to people who don't realize what they've been called for and who they've been called to be in relationship with.

We went to the, in Vadovichu, we went to a museum right above St. John Paul, the Second's home. Oh, man. He grew up there, and the church literally was, 15 feet from his house. And so he was over there. He's an altar boy. But out of that one life has come so much grace and so he changed the world from that little city. You look at it. So we visited John Paul and we also visited Auschwitz where Hitler killed so many Catholics and so many Jews. These are two people. Two people have changed the face of our world forever. Two individuals. They both

have the capacity to love and they both have the capacity to hate. And John Paul, though he experienced so much pain and suffering, his mom died when he was a baby, his sister died before he was born, his brother died when he was a kid, his dad died when he was 21, his best friends were put in prison and or killed by the Nazis and then the communist in seminator formation. He was persecuted. He had to go to the underground church for formation, people's homes. He experienced so much suffering. He was shot stabbed, that he had the capacity to hate, to be bitter. He had the capacity to bring about pain and suffering in the lives of other people, but he chose to love. And because of his choice to love, he's literally changed the face of the world. At the same time, Hitler also could have

chosen to love, but he didn't, and he also changed the face of the world forever. So it goes to show us that as individual people, we have the capacity to do a lot of good for the kingdom and to also do a lot of bad, not only for ourselves and for our immediate community, but for the entire world. Well, when you come to Poland, you really get a dose of just how influential St. John Paul the second was. He, everywhere you go, every single city, there are churches, there are monuments. And, you know, Emily has joined us on the trip, and she was saying to me the other day that the thing that makes him extraordinary is that not only was the political situation extraordinary during his time, but he made the right choices at every intersection of his life. And that was usually

dying to himself and giving of himself constantly until the very last day that he was alive. And Jeff, this also shows the influence of a father. Because John Paul, the second's father, and when we were in his apartment, they lived in the same bedroom. So there was, you walk into their house, and you have the living room that his mother put together before she passed away, the kitchen, and then their bedroom. And there's two twin beds right next week. other and his father would sleep on the side of the room where it was most cold just so he could suffer so his kid john paul could have the the comfort of the heat his father on a daily basis every single day he said there was not a moment in my life when i did not see my father praying

they had to pray do a kneeler in their bedroom where the father would go and pray and so for a kid to to witness his dad sacrifice every single day and pray every single day it had to have a huge impact on him granted he also lived right across the street from the church with a blessed sacrament, which is pretty awesome. But he had the domestic church in his house as well. And that was a great witness for him that I think everybody who listens to this show can think, oh my gosh, I can do that in my home now. I could begin to not only speak Jesus to my kids, but show them the life of Christ and my thoughts, words and actions as well. That was one of the points on this pilgrimage, Father, that just, it really touched me.

That was his home, the bedroom. And from the kitchen, there's only three rooms in his home. There was a family room, a bedroom with two beds, and a kitchen. And from the kitchen table where he did his homework and talked to his dad, his friends came over, you could look out the window and you could see on the side of the church this mosaic with, or this picture with the phrase, time flies, eternity waits. And he took that into his pontificate. And he talked about it several times. So clearly, that domestic church had a profound impact on the family of God as a whole.

And I think that's a challenge for us today and all my friends listening that it's a challenge that your home must become a place where perhaps a pope would come from, you know, and that they would, what are they going to remember from the walls? What are they going to remember from the relationship? What are they going to remember in terms of their family's relationship to the local church? And obviously, his was very, very powerful and his dad had a big influence on him. But as you said, he's a man who understood suffering. One of the other things about St. John Paul II, which we did just the day before yesterday, was we went to the St. John Paul II Center. And there was that casick that he wore.

Yeah, he was shot. When he was shot. The blood stains are still on the casseys. Oh, my word. Just like his clothing at Chesterhova, they also had some with blood on it. But I knelt down before that cat. I just thought to myself what this man has been through and the impact that that blood has had on my life in terms of understanding suffering and the suffering of Christ and it immediately drew Emily and I both back to the blood of the cross and that that we not only understand the blood of Jesus, but we consume it ourselves. We become one with him. So that that John Paul to his center was powerful. Whenever I prayed before the cassock, it just drew me back to the theme of forgiveness because he forgave the man who shot him.

I mean, he forgave that man, and here we are as human beings today in 21st century, and we have real issues with people who we love very much, but how often do we hold on to bitterness and unforgiveness to people who have maybe let us down, right? And here he is a guy tried to kill him, tried to assassinate him, and he forgave that person. And so it was just a reminder to me that we're always called to extend the forgiveness of Christ with everyone because Christ gave it to us. Christ extended it to us on the cross. Right. Well, I'm not going to be the same after this trip. And, you know, he's part of my posse.

You know, I've got my saints that I walk with every day. And St. John Paul II is one of the ringleaders, you know, of my posse. And I'm going to go back and I've already made my mind up that I want to read all of his encyclicals again. I just want to soak myself in those and get his. mind on these things once again. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I want to talk about Sister Faustina and Maximilian Colby, both of which have changed our lives, and we were able to go to those places and encounter their work. We'll be right back, my friends. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show. We're from Poland with Father Josh Johnson.

Imagine this. You're walking down the street and a Christian at a table with a bunch of pamphlets ask you. Have you been saved? What would you do? Would you know how to respond? Hi, I'm Dr. Andrew Swofford, and I'm co-presenter along with Jeff Kavins in Ascension's new great-adventure Bible study, Romans, the Gospel of Salvation. In this study, we teach you the biblical foundations for the Catholic teaching on salvation, how to explain salvation quickly and easily to non-Christians. What St. Paul really meant by works not leading to salvation and how we can enter more deeply into Christ.

Paul's letter to the Romans has been at the center of reflection, conversion, and controversy from the very beginning, and it's widely considered his greatest work. I invite you to start a small group in your Homer Parish and embark on this great adventure. Romans, the Gospel of Salvation, is available for pre-order right now and for purchase on September 1st, 2019. To order, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. We're in Krakow today.

One of the few shows where we're not actually deep in the woods in Minnesota, but we're here with Father Josh Johnson. We're in Krakow. We're going to be going home tomorrow. St. John Paul II has had a profound impact on our lives. and everywhere we go. He has changed Poland. He's changed the world. But another one was Maximilian Colby,

this amazing priest who really saw his life as one of sharing the good news about our lady, the macchiata, to the world. But his plan was interrupted by God's plan. And what was cool about just St. Maximilian Colby, St. John Paul, and the one we're going to talk about in a second, St. Faustina, is how each one of them also lived so close to each other. These are all canonized saints. And they all lived within, what, 30 miles or something like that

of each other, which is a crazy thought. And pretty much the same time period. And the same time period as well. And St. Maximian Kobe is a witness to authentic love as well. The last words that he spoke to his religious community right before he was taken away by the Nazis. And we have to always keep this in mind. St. Maximilian Kobe was taken away by the Nazis

and persecuted because he spoke out again. the Nazis through his publications. And so that's a witness to you and I, I think, that we are called to call out evil. We're not called to sit here and just say, well, I'm gonna pray my rosary about that, but we're also called to speak out against evil whenever we are in the midst of something

that is not good, not it's not just. But the last words he spoke to his community of brothers and priests were forget not love. Well, on that last day that he was with his brothers, He, the Nazis came and they took him away. Briefly tell that story, they took him away, and what happened in Auschwitz? Yeah, so he's in Auschwitz now, and he's being suffering and being persecuted just like all the other Jewish men in there and Catholics. And there was a guy who, with the Nazis who do, they'll line people up and they'll pick ten people.

And they'll say, these ten people are the ones we're going to kill. And one of the people that they chose to kill was a Jewish man who had a family. and he began to scream, he began to cry out. I know my family. I don't want to leave my wife, my kids. And Maximia and Kobe walked up and said, I would take his place. And what was just so crazy about that

was that the Nazis listened to Maximia and Kobe. Like typically they would have saw that. Yeah, they would have said, this is disrespectful. We're going to kill him on the spot. But they said, okay. And so they took Maximum and Kobe in place to this guy. Maximum and Kobe wanted this guy to have a chance to live because Maximia and Kobe was already a biosephi and Kobe.

was already abiding in Christ. He had received the bread of life before he went away. He was living in a state of grace. He wanted to make sure that this guy had a chance to potentially get right with God in case he wasn't. And so he knew he was ready to go. And so he went and they tried to starve him with other people, but we have to keep in mind

that Maximum and Kobe fasted on a consistent basis. And because he fasted so much as a religious brother, as a priest, going without food and water wasn't anything. And so while he was in the prison fasting, everyone was dying he was praising god right just like the scriptures he's in prison praising god praying for his persecutors and we know he forgave them going back to the theme of forgiveness here because he's a saint and god says the only way that i'm going to forgive you is if you forgive others and so he must have not only prayed for them but he must have forgiven them as well well

after 10 days he's still alive he's alive and it's not doing great it's two weeks in fact two weeks yeah and so they they actually came and murdered him um and uh because they had to get rid of his They were ready to move on, but he died for someone else, and that guy that survived has now since gone on sharing the good news about what Maximil and Colby did for him. And that's what the scripture says, doesn't it? It says that there's no greater love than this that one would lay down his life, you know, for his friend. And that's what Maximilian Colby did. So when I was, we went to that cell. He was taken from Block 14, brought over to 11.

11 is where the torture took place. They stick four men in one cell where they couldn't even sit down in total darkness. But his was an 18, cell 18, where they literally starved him to death and he ended up dying. He gave his life. And now he's a saint, and we have access to him. And so I would really encourage, you know, all my friends who are going through a difficult time to ask Saint Maximilian Colby to intercede for you. We're getting ready to leave here.

You might hear that noise in the background. That's someone counting their money, I think. Yeah, so over here, you know, we have dollars in America, and we have changed every now and then, but the coins here are worth a lot. Yeah, so, but also another saint we have access to is St. Faustina.

Yes. And one of the cool things that I experienced when we were at her shrine, was it two days ago? Yeah. Was whenever a sister, by the name of Sister Faustina, was giving a talk,

And that was her real name. She was given the name of Austin. Yeah, she's coming to America. So if y'all are in America, then go meet her. But she shared a beautiful story about a time in history recently whenever a priest who was a chap in a hospital, was visiting the sick. And a nun walked up to him and said, go to this room,

go to room whatever, and visit this person and pray to this person. And he went to that room, and the person said, I don't want you to pray with me. So he left. And then nun came back to him and said, Father, I really need you to go and pray with this person. And so he went back to that room and said, hey, can I just please pray with you?

And the person said, you can do whatever you want, but I don't want to pray with you. And so the priest began to pray. And the guy was like, yeah, I can't be forgiven for what I've done. And the priest said, so what did you do? And he said, well, I was a train operator. And one day I wasn't paying attention. Maybe he was drinking.

And I killed a whole family because of my lack of negligence. Yeah. And anyways, he said, because they can't forgive me, I can't forgive myself. And so the priest said, well, in the name of my family, forgive you because it was that priest family who was killed that day by the train and so he said but also the name of god i want to let you know you're forgiven so then he forgave the guy absolved the guy gave him um last rites and holy communion and then he went back and said i want to meet that sister who told me to come go to this room and he was told there is no sister here and when

they described he described his sister it turned out to be saint faustina who was already dead but fully alive in heaven who appeared to him to do that and so um not only are we close to the saints because we come to visit them, but the saints also want to come and visit us. We have our posse of people that we like to pick, but I like to say the saints also pick us. And so St. Faustina certainly picked this priest to walk with him. Was your concept of divine mercy renewed on this trip?

In what way? Well, it just drew me to remember that God's mercy is on, like, it's unfalienable, first of all, but it's outside of my limited notion of when it should happen for people. You know, like, I sometimes have doubted that it's going to happen in my lifetime. Yeah, certainly I believe God's going to do something,

but maybe I'm going to be a saint by the time it happens. But coming on this trip, especially hearing the Testament of that sister, it was a reminder that, no, God might do a lot of miracles right now for a lot of people. He might bring about a lot of conversions for people who are hard in sinners right now in my life and my family,

but also in my own heart for myself. You know, I'm still a broken and perfect priest, and there's still areas of growth for me. And there's been times where I've said, you know what, God? Well, maybe I'm just going to have this thorn on my side until I die. But this trip has reminded me that, no, maybe I'm not, though. Maybe God's going to move the thorn if it's for my sanctification tomorrow.

And so I kind of, yeah, that was powerful for me. It was for me, too. You know, I think about forgiveness a lot. You know, God has forgiven me. But on this trip, I'm renewed in my love for his mercy. And his mercy is so beautiful. And he loves mercy, scripture says. and he wants us to be merciful towards other people

when he's been merciful to us. And so when I get back, I want to read her diary again. You know, it's been a while, and I want to read that again, knowing what I know now. Do you take notes when you read? I underline. Can you see me pictures of your underlines? Because I don't feel like reading the diary again,

but I would love to see what you're underlined. Yes. Thanks. Yeah, and I'll get your books, too. Speaking of that, you lost a book on this trail. Oh, I lost a book of my man, my saint. Tell us about it. Jersey

Blessing So can I just Can I just call you? So one of my favorite saints He's a blessing right now He's blessed Jersey Popoluski And and throughout the entire trip Jeff every time he talks about him

Has been calling him Jerry Blessed Jerry And so at first Not on purpose And I was thinking Well maybe that's like The American version of Jersey But in the book that I read on his life

They said that his nickname was George Like that's the American And so finally I asked one of the people On the trips Who's from Poland and I said, is Jerry another name for Blessed Jersey? And she said, no, father, he's messing up. And I got into that groove, and I couldn't get out of it, I guess.

So Blessed Jersey, he was a priest who's one of my greatest inspirations. And I lost his book on this trip, but he's from Poland. He was a young seminarian persecuted by the communists here in Poland, because one of the rules that the communists had for the seminarians was, and this is, he died in 1984. So this is, like, recently. This is yesterday. They couldn't pray the rosary, and he loved Our Lady.

And so he would continue to pray the rosary. They persecuted him because of that. And so he got to be a very sick priest after his ordination. But the cool thing about Blessed Jersey is that he never stayed inside the walls of his church. He always went outside the walls to meet people where they were at. And so whenever he was at one church, he went to the playground with the kids. He went into the hospital with the sick. He went into the nursing home with the elderly.

And finally, whenever the stillworkers went on strike against the atheistic authorities, the communists, he went to their actual job, their place of work where they were striking and he began to offer the sacrifice of the mass and the sacrament of reconciliation there. They then, many of them were arrested by the communists because of their protests against the unjust practices and policies of the authorities. And so he not only went to court to fight for them and with them, but when they went to prison, he went to prison to minister to them. Then he went to take care of their families because since the men were in prison now, the women and the children weren't able to. eaten so he would find food for them he would listen to their stories and then he would bring it to the sacrifice of the mass and he would preach about the injustices that were happening from the pulpit and because of that the communists began to attack him they began to gossip about him curse him beat him

accuse him of things that were not true throw bricks at him vandalized his home vandalized his car throw him in prison as well and eventually they martyred him he was a martyr for truth brutal death but he's really the one that did all the groundwork that brought down communism certainly it was was a collaborative effort of St. John Paul, the Great, and many other people in history, but Blessed Jersey Popoluski was really the one who was doing most of the groundwork to make sure that it would actually happen. And so he's just one of my favorite saints because he was a martyr for truth. He was concerned more with truth than he was with comfort. And I think we're living in a time, especially in America, where our Catholicism is all about comfort. We have a comfort

church. And the American Catholicism is not the way to sanctification. That's why we don't have a lot of saints in America right now because we're too comfortable. And so Blessed Jersey, St. John Paul the Great, St. Paul St. Paul St. Maximine and Colby, St. Teresa, Benedict of the Cross, these are all witnesses of not only mercy, but of truth, but of suffering. Yeah, I see a common theme in our trip. Yeah, several common themes. One is mercy for sure, all throughout, and all the saints that we met. Another one is truth, that they stood up for truth in the face of overwhelming odds, persecution, death, all of them, all four that we just mentioned. And not only that, but a sacrificial love in the midst of it. And those are the things I'm taking back.

You just said something I think is so important. Why are there so many saints in Poland? Well, there's been a lot of opposition. And when the enemy abounds, grace abounds even more. Yes, the blood of the martyrs is the seat of the church, right? Yeah. And that's what I'm taking back. And this has been an absolutely wonderful trip. Father Todd Lloyd joined us. Yes, my buddy from Baton Rouge. Wow, he delivered some homilies. So I just want to share one of the homilies he delivered that was absolutely powerful. And I'll be taken home with me this weekend. Me too. Was about Rudolph Hess. Yes. So when we're in Ashwis, one of the Nazis who murdered so many, I mean, hundreds of thousands of Jewish men and women and children and Catholics, Rudolph Hess,

we saw the place where he was hung because after they lost he fled, he became a farmer. He was the commandant to Fort Oshitz. Yes, and he changed his identity and he got caught and so he was brought back to Poland. But one of the cool things that happened during his life was that

not cool, but he went and brought an entire community of Jesuit priest and brothers to Oshua and killed him with the superior of that Jesuit community was not present when that happened. And so the superior was a stud of a man and he went to oswis and said i want to die with my brothers you're going to kill them you're

going to kill me and rudolph hess was a man who was all about duty and duty as a kid duty to god he was catholic but he fell away from his church um as he grew older but he's still duty to his country he's all about duty and so he said you know this priest has duty to his community i respect that you're not going to die go back home so the priest went back home and eventually he he was now caught and he was put on trial and they decided we're going to hang you and so we saw the a place where he died, where he was hung right in front of the gas chambers where he killed all these people. So right before he died, because of the way that the Polish authorities treated him with such dignity and respect and love, right, even though he treated their people so poorly,

he said, I want to go to confession. I want to go back to his roots. And they said, who's going to hear your confession? Like, we've treated you fine, but what priest will your confession after what you've done not only to all these Jewish people, but also to Catholic priest? Who's going to hear your confession and he said there was a guy I remember years ago there was a guy who came here was a priest his name his father and he named the name of the priest and he said maybe he'll do it he said I saved his life maybe he'll save mine so that priest ended up being called he came and he not only heard his confession but he gave him the bread of life and as you know Jeff John chapter 6 Jesus Christ says if he eat my flesh and drink my blood you will have eternal life

so right before he was executed he received the Eucharist which means he saved Isn't that something? God's mercy at the last minute. And if God can be merciful to him, then how can we not be merciful on other people? And if it bothers you, you're the older son and the prodigal son. Exactly. I mean, that's the kind of love that God has for all of us, too, and for ourselves. Like, God is so merciful.

He speaks to us through St. Paul and First Timothy. He says, I desire that all men be saved. He wants us to be saved, and he's going to do everything in his power to make that happen. And I talked to Father Todi. That's an autobiography. It's H-O-E-S-S- it's not. Rudolf Hess's second command of all of the SS, it's the commandant for Auschwitz. And that book is available. I already ordered it. I'm going to read it.

You know, that was a great great thing. Can you send me those underlines of highlights as well? I will do that. That's my favorite thing. Whenever I get it like a book from a friend, and I see their notes, I'm like, oh, wow, that makes so much sense. I love their reflection. I've appreciated you on the trip. You're a good friend, too. Good friend and brother, and you're available to the people. And that's what makes a good pilgrimage. You know, if you stay available to the people and walk with them as they're walking. You know, a pilgrimage is taking life and kind of squishing it down. And whatever happens in life happens on a pilgrimage, but it's a little bit amplified

because you can't get away from anyone. You know, and you're eating together, you're on the bus together, you're walking together. And you realize so many things about yourself and you bring them to the Lord. And that's the way we started this off. We started it off in Warsaw at the very place that St. Faustina was brought into her, order. And I remember saying to the people, listen on this pilgrimage for what God is saying to you. What is he trying to do in your life? Don't just look at things. Listen. And I'm hearing from people now that God is meeting them in a beautiful way in this country, which by the way

is a beautiful country. Beautiful cities. I would say it's one of the cleanest. It's super clean. And also the churches are packed. Yes. One of the cool things about Poland as opposed to other places in Europe is that everyone still comes to Mass here. I mean, the churches are always packed, whereas if you go to Europe, I've been to Europe on many occasions, and you walk into the church, and it's almost completely empty. It's beautiful. The Lord Jesus Christ is there in the tabernacle, the blessed sacrament. The saints and angels are certainly there, but no one else is there.

And these churches, the people are still coming and they're praying before the blessed sacrament. They're praying the roads. They're going to confession during mass. Oh, I talk about God's mercy in the confessional. Yeah. Yeah, and so it's just, it's very beautiful to see the witness. But one more other cool insight I just want to make sure I share is that all these saints

who we've been blessed to learn about and to visit with and to become friends with, they also were all rooted in the interior life. Yes. It's very different. They each had a different prayer life, but they were all rooted in prayer. And so I think that's the foundation of the reason why they were able to love, speak truth, extend God's mercy and forgiveness, be courageous, was because they were rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. the most important thing about each one of them was their relationship with God. Amen. Hey, let's close

in prayer. And let's pray for all my friends. And my friend, if you can go on a pilgrimage to Poland, do it. I mean, it'll change your life. Pilgrimages are good in general. And part of our faith and the church talks about pilgrimages. And all throughout history, people have made pilgrimages. And St. John Paul II said that all of life is a pilgrimage to the Father's House. Amen. To the Father's House. So let's pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord, I thank you today for giving us life and I thank you for giving us this opportunity to go on pilgrimage in Poland. For the things you've taught us, the people you have introduced us to our older brothers and sisters, may we leave better people, inspired, equipped. And my friends

who are listening, may they be inspired by the lives of St. Maximilian Colby and St. John Paul II, St. Faustina and Benedict of the Cross. Lord, may we go deep with our posse. May we go deep with our relationships in these gifts that you have given us. We commit this pilgrimage and the fruit of this pilgrimage to our lady. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now at the hour of our death. Amen. Our lady of Chesterhova, pray for us. The name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you, Jerry. Pray for us. Exactly. God bless you, my friend. I love you and look forward to seeing you. God bless.