Day 5 Świnice Warckie and – Czestochowa
Today we visited the town of Świnice Warckie where St. Faustina was born and received her baptism. The church was fairly new and had the most interesting tabernacle shaped like a globe. It made me think of the first line of St. John Paul II's first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, "The Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of history." What beautiful words to begin his pontificate! Our pilgrimage guide translated a presentation about the features of the church from a Slovakian nun who is a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy. We then celebrated Mass and headed to the home where St. Faustina and her 9 siblings were born. It was a very small house and it is hard to imagine so many people living in such a small space. There was only one bed so most of the family had to sleep on the floor each night. After our brief tour of the Kowalska house (a common name in Polish like "Smith" in English) we traveled to the city