I have just heard about a pilgrimage to Lisieux to be held next May and I am pondering joining it. After all, it will be the centenary of St Therese’s canonisation. The trouble is very simply that I am not a great pilgrim – nor even much of a traveller. But whenever I am lured out of my home, I seem to receive graces. My first visit to Lourdes took place only because my then parish priest asked me to go – and I will never forget that beautiful experience. Since then, Lourdes became one of the few places that I regularly visit in my mind. My only visit to the Holy land - on a Carmelite Renewal Course - opened an astonishing tap of graces that has never ceased to flow since: it truly changed my life – but not for any reason that I might have expected. I can truly say that my life has never been the same again – in a good way of course. A recent visit to Compostella resulted in a minor miracle – so minor that I am keeping it to myself, but real to me nonetheless. In each case the graces received were wholly unexpected – but why should I be surprised? It reminds me of a book that was a best-seller back in the day – God of Surprises by Gerard Hughes SJ.
Intercessions:
Marie – cancer
Siena – infant with severe medical issues
Rosemarie – multiple afflictions
Bernard – cancer, and wife Angela
Comments