God is good! There have been "tante benedizioni" (many blessings) over the last week. What a trip! Where to begin...the beginning?
So Matt, a friend and fellow seminarian, and I decided a while back to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, to be present there for the 150th Anniversary of the first apparition (which happened February 11, 1858) of our Lady (Mary, the Mother of God) to St. Bernadette. The entire trip was, appropriately enough, full of grace. And we knew it from the moment we got in line for the airplane.
A young woman of college age who was studying abroad in Grenoble, France, asked us if we were from the States (we are). And as it turned out she was from Canada. "Canada, eh?" we rejoined, and the conversation took off from there. As we got on the plane, we discovered that she was a devout Christian and that God had healed her: one of her legs used to be shorter than the other, giving her terrible back problems. In a prayer meeting, the leader prayed over her and she saw her leg lengthen before her eyes. (I wanted to make a joke here about how prayer really stretches you, but I didn't want to take away from the truth of the situation...and yet I managed to get the joke in.)
Let's just say, we knew at that point that we were in for a grace filled experience. God blessed us in so many ways. For one, just being there was a grace: the castle-like facade of the Shrine rises up out of the side of a wooded mountainside, the slope descending into a blue river running past it. Beneath the Shrine is the Grotto itself, the place where our Lord's Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette, asking her to pray for the conversion of sinners. Powerful stuff. We got to pray in that spot, walk into the Grotto, and we were able to bathe (a.k.a. submerse) ourselves in water from the spring that welled up under the Grotto as a reminder of our Baptism. Tons of healings happen there all the time, and God is in the air. Divine electricity, and we wanted to get struck.
Well, on the night of the 150th Anniversary itself, after a day filled with prayer, good conversations, and a Eucharistic procession, we found ourselves waiting for the start of a torch-light procession with 80,000 other pilgrims. (Plymouth Rock ain't got nothin' on Lourdes.) And in the midst of that throng of people holding their candles aloft, Fr. Ryan, one of the Priests here at the NAC, emerged from the crowd right in front of us, like Moses parting the Red Sea. He then ran into another friend of his, Barbara, and in his amazement, he said, "When I got here, I said 2 prayers to Our Lady: one to find you guys and one to find her. Our Lady's good." The rest of the trip changed from that moment on.
Basically, we got to have Mass with Fr. Ryan at the formation house of his friend Barbara (who is part of a Diocesan house of formation for women). A couple of days later, we returned to that house to eat lunch (read as banquet). Fr. Ryan's friend then took us to see the countryside of Bartres (pronounced Bar-trez'), the area where St. Bernadette pastured flocks as a teenager when her family was too poor to support her. We got to walk in the footsteps of a Saint. If only I could learn to do that on a daily basis....
There was also a young woman staying in our same religious hostel whom Matt and I got to know while we were there: Laura. She has been trying to find her vocation, and because we "ran into" Fr. Ryan and therefore met Barbara, she might have found it (Laura, if you read this and have found your vocation, let me know). She met Barbara through us, and Barbara gave her information on the house of formation she runs. Providence? I think so. It's just amazing to be able to see God unfolding His plan all around you. You never know what He's lining up if you just open yourself up to His Will.
And then we finished it all up by returning to an in-house retreat back at NAC--as though we needed it. Yes, there was even more grace. God really is good.
Well, back to school this week. Please pray for us, that the graces may continue to flow into our ordinary experience (you know, ordinary...like having classes in Italian). Thank you, and God bless you all! OH, and I prayed for you all at the Shrine! Peace be with you! Another exclamation point!
