Be Not Afraid

...come with us to Poland. 🇵🇱

“Do not be afraid. Open, I say open wide the doors for Christ. To His saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development.” - Saint John Paul the Great at his inaugural papal Mass

When I was a surly college sophomore, I was very sure that I actually knew all of the answers to every question in the known universe. (College students, I adore you. I was one of you, I served in mission with you, I walked in discipleship with you, and you can not look me in the eyes and tell me this is not how a majority of your peers think and behave.)

So when I informed the campus missionary I was working with about how much the church hated women and she pointed me towards Saint John Paul the Great’s writings on women, it broke open some cracks in my heart that I didn’t even know were there.

To hear a saint call for a feminist church—I can’t even put into words what that did for me. To read a saint thanking women for working, for serving their families, for simply being the gift to the world that they are radically changed me.

And the more I learned about JP2, the more I fell in love. The role he played in ending the oppressive communist regimes of Eastern Europe. The love he had for poetry and playwriting. The way he sought God in nature, and found Him there.

Saint John Paul the Great was not Jesus; his abhorrent record of responding to the sexual abuse scandal in the church can’t and shouldn't go untold. And: he is a saint who changed my life.

In 2023, I’ll be spending his feast day in his childhood hometown of Wadowice, visiting his home and museum, praying in the church where he was baptized, and begging for his intercession. I’ll spend the days beforehand visiting in the mountains he loved and praying in the chapel that was built as gratitude for his survival from his attempted assassination. I was wondering if you’d like to join me?

The New Feminist Pilgrimage to Poland is taking place October 15-25, 2023, in response to JP2’s call for a “new feminism” in the church.

I can’t promise you anything about this trip. I can’t promise you’ll walk away with friends that feel very much like spiritual sisters, and I can’t promise God will work wonders in your heart, and I can’t promise that you’ll grow closer to some of the great feminist saints in Catholic history.

But I can give you the opportunity for those things to happen.

I can tell you that just two weeks ago, I cried at a winery with friends I’d made on our first pilgrimage (some of whom will be joining us!)

I can tell you that Saint John Paul the Great and Edith Stein are two saints whose writings on women kept me in the Catholic faith when I was dangerously close to walking right out the door.

I love the tangible nature of Catholicism; I adore that we taste and see and feel our faith. I love that we do things like pray in front of bones of dead saints, and that we find power in place. Our faith is physical, and to be in a physical place, praising God with other Catholic feminists, is something mighty special.

We’ll have an English speaking tour guide, amazing Polish food (y’all…#pierogi), and beautiful hotels. Fr. Stephen Buting will be accompanying us as a spiritual father so that we have access to daily Mass and the sacrament of reconciliation. In addition to exploring all things JP2, we’ll also be visiting the Divine Mercy center to pray at St. Faustina’s tomb and see the Divine Mercy image. We’ll also visit the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, St. Maximilian Kolbe’s cell at Auschwitz, the Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko museum, the underground salt chapels, and more.

We still have a handful of spots left on our trip next autumn. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or reply to this email.

In Him Through Her,

Claire