A JOURNEY OF FAITH AND AWE
From Prague to Poland….
One of the best known devotions for Catholics throughout the world is to the Infant Jesus of Prague. This devotion then, was one of the prime motivations for just 20 of us under the spiritual guidance of Rev Fr. Prageeth Perera, Parish Priest of the Church of St Joseph the Worker in Ratmalana, who was accompanied by Rev. Fr. Leon Babapulle from Negombo, to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic. The statue of the Infant Jesus was first brought to Prague in 1556 by a Spanish Princess as a wedding gift to her Austrian royal cousin. The statue is nineteen inches high and is made of wax and wood. It represents a three year old child with thick curly hair, clothed in a long white robe with only one foot barely visible.
The left hand encircles a miniature globe surmounted by a cross, signifying the worldwide kingship of the Christ Child. The right hand is extended in blessing with the first two fingers upraised to symbolize the two natures of Christ, while the folded thumb and last two fingers touch each other representing the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
The Carmelites began to venerate the statue of the Infant Jesus, remembering the words of the gospel “Unless you become like one of these children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. From the beginning, many miracles and extraordinary events were attributed to this devotion. Later the statue had been discarded in war and His hands destroyed. Found by a Carmelite, he was stunned to hear the statue speak “Have mercy on me and I will have mercy on you. Give me hands and I will give you peace. The more you honour me the more I will bless you.” The hands were fixed and the statue given a place of honor in the church of our Lady
Victorious in Prague, where it stands to this day. Many miracles have occurred through the intercession to the Divine Infant.
Prague struck us as being a city of unassuming and courteous people in addition to its beauty and cultural history. A tour of the city took us past the John Lennon
wall. After his murder in 1980 John Lennon became a pacifist hero for many young Czechs who have filled it with John Lennon –inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs.
Charles Bridge is a historic bridge that crosses the River Vltava in Prague. Completed in 1402 it was a very important trade route, on which stand 30 statues in baroque, classic and neo-gothic style. We saw no vehicular traffic here since the bridge is now used by pedestrians, tourists and street vendors. Then there is the world famous Astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Square and is one of the city’s most popular landmarks. It is well over 600 years old and is one of the oldest functional astronomical clocks in the world. It is also a magnificent blend of mechanical engineering and art.
The Gothic Cathedral of St. Barbara, the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and the Ossuary Sedlec, a church decorated with 40,000 human bones unearthed when a cemetery was exhumed, was all part of the
UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage . A river cruise and a cultural show in Prague gave us a further glimpse of what this country had to offer its people and its visitors.
A five-hour long but comfortable journey by coach took us to Pope John Paul ll’s favourite
Monastery Kalwaria in the South of Poland as we made our way to Krakow in Poland, where stands the chapel where the miraculous image of Merciful Jesus and the tomb of St. Faustina are found. This then, was the other major religious motivation for our embarking on this pilgrimage. This small church consecrated in 1891 has since witnessed the Prayer of the Apostle of the Divine Mercy and the extraordinary graces received by her in this place.
The miraculous image of Merciful Jesus is placed above the side altar. The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red, for the blood of Jesus (which is the life of Souls) and pale for the water which justifies souls. The whole image is a symbol of charity, forgiveness and love of God referred to as “the Fountain of Mercy”, thereby fulfilling the words of Jesus spoken to Sister Faustina at the first of His revelations: I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel and then throughout the world.
The primary focus of the Divine Mercy devotion is the Merciful love of God and the desire to let that love and mercy flow through one’s own heart towards those in need of it. The Shrine of the Black
Madonna, shows a well-known icon, where the Virgin Mary directs attention away from herself gesturing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation. The Birthplace of St.jean Paul the second, Museum and the Baptismal Font where this Saint of our lifetime was anointed a Catholic, filled us with awe that here was one of God’s chosen few who had walked the streets where we now walked. We were close to our last day in Poland when we had to re-live perhaps the darkest hours of “humanity’s inhumanity” with a visit to the Auschwitz
Concentration camp. No matter how much one has studied and read about this epoch and its atrocities, the living proof that this all really did take place, left us with dark and searing minds. “Please God, never again!”
To say that this 9-day tour of Prague and Poland was magnificent is an understatement and not just from a religious perspective. Our food, accommodation, guides and coaches were as usual, beyond par in the experienced hands of a tour company whose slogan is “we don’t just promise memories, we make them”. So true.