St. Maximillian Kolbe - Pray for us!

It's about 6:30 am on Friday, August 27th. I am in a little town called Harmeze - outside of Oswiecim - the town where Auschwitz I is located. It's true that I have been in Poland for almost two days now. It is also true that I spent my first night in Krakow with the wonderful Daughters of Charity there. Somehow, it is more true and right that my Polish journey really began here at the Kolbe Center where I am staying. It began yesterday as I visited Auschwitz I. Where so many lives were stolen, and people's humanity stripped away.

I had the privilege of my own personal tour guide. Antonella is a Father Kolbe Missionary. I have known her for almost 20 years. And it was in her care and with her help that I took a very long walk through Auschwitz. I don't know how to share with you the power of such a dark place. I don't know that it is possible. I also don't know how to share with you the stories of the little specks of light that people found from time to time.

St. Maximillian Kolbe was one of those lights. Yesterday, on the Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen of Poland, I stood at the spot where he offered his life - where he stepped out of line to offer his life for another man's. I stood at the cell where he breathed his last breath as a guard injected him with carbolic acid. I stood in the place where the gas chamber once claimed the lives of thousands and thousands of people. And I saw the hanging block where Commandant Hoss was hanged after the Nuremburg trials.

I have more to share. I think right now, this is more enough.

I will update when I can. The connection his quite unpredictable.