Truly, the Blessed Mother unites Christians of many different backgrounds. All over Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia one finds strong devotion to the Mother of Christ, the one who points us to her Son and says as she did at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.”
So it has been especially edifying for me – and not at all a surprise – that so many of Polish descent go out of their way to welcome the Black Madonna on her pilgrim journey. When Father Greg Golba, the associate pastor at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, New Jersey and an immigrant from Poland, heard that the pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa was coming to New Jersey he immediately made arrangements to have her visit. Deacon Kamil Piotr Wierzbicki, who will be ordained a priest next year, was also very excited and welcoming.
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Benjamin Franklin called New Jersey "a barrel tapped at both ends" since it is sandwiched between two large cities: New York in the northeast and Philadelphia in the southwest. It is the most densely populated state in the union with 1,205 inhabitants per square mile (465 /km2), and is the third wealthiest state with a median household income of $67,458.
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Before beginning the North American leg of the From Ocean to Ocean Peregrination in Defense of Life, I met with His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, who leads the Orthodox Church in America, along with some of his brother priests in Syosset, New York. His Beatitude has represented the Orthodox Church at the March for Life in Washington, DC.
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Mark Pennington heard about the pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa through my Facebook posts and invited me to come to the National Catholic Singles Conference in King of Prussia, PA. I was happy to come since it was on my way from Libertytown, Maryland to South River, New Jersey.
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The pilgrim icon of Our Lady visited St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Libertytown, MD on September 27th. The region has an interesting history. In 1608, William Coale left his native England as a Catholic seeking religious freedom in the New World. By the time he arrived in Jamestown he had become a Quaker. When colonists in Virginia began persecuting anyone who was not a member of the Church of England he fled to Maryland before the arrival of Fr. Andrew White and the Calvert family on St. Clement’s Island on the Ark and the Dove in 1634. Later, the Coale family converted back to Catholicism and began a long and happy association with Lord Baltimore and the Calvert family.
- Walking in the Steps of St. John Neumann in Pennsylvania
- Good vs. Evil in the Streets of Philadelphia
- Our Lady Visits "The City of Brotherly Love"
- Our Lady Prays Before Three Abortion Mills in One Day
- Our Lady of Czestochowa Visits the Earliest Known Replica of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes
- Our Lady Visits Her Future Priests at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary on the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary
- A Light Shines in the Darkness - September 11
- Our Lady of Czestochowa Reveals Herself as a Mother of Mercy at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Fairfax, Virginia
- Our Lady Visits Front Royal, Virginia - Home of Human Life International
- Labor Day with Our Lady of Czestochowa at St. John the Evangelist Church in Warrenton VA