27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

10-05-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Abraham Orapankal, Pastor

Dear OLP Family,

As you know, I was away for a pilgrimage and am very happy to be back to our parish. I wish to thank the priests who helped us with Masses in my absence - Fr. Sean Winters, Fr. Ken Kolibas, Fr. Justin Akkara - and in a special way Fr. Sebastian Kaithakkal who is our resident priest helping us in many ways.

We were 60 pilgrims in this trip to Poland, Czech Republic and Italy with Fr. Antony from Phillipsburg and myself as chaplains.

It was a wonderful spiritual experience for us all to visit so many holy places, basilicas, cathedrals, and shrines – too many to describe in detail in this column. We flew into Krakow where we visited so many memorials of Pope Saint John Paul II. Among the many relics, his blood-stained cassock (when he was shot in the Vatican In 1981) was on display in the International Shrine of Spirituality in Krakow.

A very moving experience was visiting the concentration camp of Auschwitz where Hitler had ordered the extermination of millions of Jews and political opponents. I was so touched to see the cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe and nine others were given the punishment “to starve to death.” It was truly heart-wrenching to know the details of the cruelty meted out to those countless innocent men, women, and children: death in the gas chamber as well as by starvation, disease, catastrophic sanitary conditions and exhausting labor.

Krakow also has the Shrine of Divine Mercy which is among the world’s top Shrines in terms of the number of countries from which pilgrims come – about 100 countries annually. This Shrine in Krakow-Lagiewniki grew out of the spiritual heritage of Saint Faustina Kowalska who we all know is the apostle of Divine Mercy. We visited the central place of the Chapel with the miraculous image of the Merciful Jesus and the tomb of St. Faustina.

Then we drove to Brno in the Czech Republic, stopping at Velehrad to visit the shrine dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius - the missionaries who Christianized the Slavic region and created the Slavic alphabets. Driving to Prague, we visited the Shrine of Loreto and celebrated Mass at the Church of the Infant Jesus, Prague. I gladly remembered that we have a niche or shrine here in our own parish church with the statue of Infant Jesus of Prague.

The last five days were spent in Italy, visiting Rome, Siena, Turin and Milan. So much to share about these – hopefully another time. But at every place I offered the Mass, I included all of you, dear OLP Family, in my prayers. I carried you in my heart, together with your intentions and asked God to bring about a new energy and spiritual renewal in all of us for the good of our parish of Our Lady of Peace.

Your brother in Christ.