“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
As you know, my brother, Fr Matthew, trains young people in Poland in how to be apostles. One of the ways he does this is by inviting inspirational speakers to talk to the boys. Recently he invited 92-year old Dr Wanda Półtawska.
After the war she became a close friend of Fr Karol Wojtyła. Her face is half paralyzed as she was experimented on by the Nazis in Ravensbruck where she was imprisoned from 1941 to 1945 and was one of the many female prisoners forced by German physicians to endure inhumane and criminal medical experiments. After the war she wrote her memoirs of those terrible years not as a mere condemnation of those who had been in charge but as a profound study of her own personal response to what she had endured.
Despite her fragile condition she continues to travel Poland spreading the teachings of Pope John Paul II on marriage and the family. For me, this is someone who knows her final destination is Heaven!
