LETNICA, Kosovo – The thousands of pilgrims who flocked to the bright white Church of the Black Madonna this year were hoping to receive the gift of grace that one of its most famous parishioners once experienced.

In the short two weeks I spent in Poland for WYD, I underwent a profound spiritual revival, one which I had been searching for over the last few years.

There is something about welcoming and initiation that connects so much to this idea of mercy. Baptism is first, of course, an introduction and welcoming of a new person into the Catholic community, but it also results in the automatic washing away of all sins. This cleansing, this figurative flood of forgiveness, just given automatically without need for confession or admission of sin or anything, is such a monumental act of mercy. As a baptized-as-an-adult Catholic, it is this act of mercy that’s recently begun to stick out to me, and it’s what’s been on my mind as I travel on this pilgrimage with my group.

Cześć! Greetings from Kraków! My name is Vanessa, and I am one of the 40-odd pilgrims traveling with Jesuits Canada to World Youth Day 2016. It is not my first World Youth Day experience, but it has certainly been a very unique one so far. The spirituality of the Jesuits has been one that has resonated with me since I first learned about Ignatian contemplation, and I already had several friends traveling in the Jesuits Canada delegation, so it felt like a good fit. And thus far, I can only say that our group, made up of young adults from all over Canada, has been pretty awesome.

More than two million young people from around the world are expected to descend on the city of Krakow for a week of spiritual formation as the Polish city hosts World Youth Day from July 26-31.

I have begun my very first major pilgrimage. On July 20, I’ll board a flight to Warsaw, Poland, where for the following 12 days I’ll join thousands of others partaking in cultural and religious events at World Youth Day, created more than 30 years ago by St. John Paul II. This year’s event is being held in his homeland, Krakow, where he was archbishop.

Sometimes, God works in not so mysterious ways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that today’s Gospel speaks to something I’ve been anxious about for weeks now. 

TORONTO – What started as a 30-day awareness campaign about Irish immigration to Canada in the 1840s became a pilgrimage into his people's past for veteran long-distance runner Michael Collins.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will welcome several thousand homeless and vulnerable people from all over Europe when they make a pilgrimage to Rome in November.

Last summer I was privileged to travel on pilgrimage to France with a young adults group. The 2 1/2- week trip (called “In the footsteps of St. Eugene de Mazenod”) under Fr. Marcin Serwin OMI, served to bring to light the full breadth of the foundation of who and what the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate are.

TORONTO - For most, a trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France is a luxury many may never be able to afford.

TORONTO - Fr. Bob Holmes is heading off to war, again.

VATICAN CITY - Given the Holy Land's long and complex history of military, religious and cultural conflict, the run-up to Pope Francis' May 24-26 pilgrimage was inevitably marked by fears it would be marred by controversy — or worse.

JERUSALEM - The Pope had a simple plan as he set out for the Holy Land with a rabbi and a Muslim sheik in tow. But simple plans can be difficult to execute.

Pope Francis will meet with a group of sex abuse victims for the first time in June, he told reporters May 26.