Accidental Pilgrimage

Jake Schirra and I went on an accidental pilgrimage. We meant to travel around Italy and France for a couple weeks, just seeing the sights. Yes, we planned on visiting the Vatican and spending a day in Lourdes, but beyond that, spring break was just supposed to be a normal secular vacation.

If you want to make God laugh...

First of all, no matter what other plans we tried to make, we ended up wandering into churches.

We kept finding Mass or Eucharistic Adoration going on in these churches, sometimes multiple times in one day.


In Rome, I ended up spending a lot of time talking to Mary and experienced at least one miracle per day.

In Florence, we got lost on the buses and ended up spending the rest of the time talking about God and vocations.

And in Lourdes, well, that was an adventure. We missed our train, and God made us a new train. I swear that the train we took to Lourdes did not exist in any records the night before.

And in Lourdes, I can't even really explain what happened. We both got strong vocation calls, and Jesus and Mary started talking to me (not audibly, but there are now thoughts in my head at times that I know aren't my own).

We witnessed very real spiritual warfare, as the devil tried every which way to keep us from continuing our journey.

And finally, during Mass at Sacre Couer in Paris, I was doubting Jesus' voice in my head the last couple days. He told me to look up and open my eyes, and my eyes came to rest on a blank space above the altar with a white sheet, where I assumed a statue was supposed to be. I thought, "Great, I've just been imagining everything. There's nothing there." Jesus responded "I'm here." and I strained my eyes trying to see some sort of vision, to which He replied, "I am not a ghost. If you see me, I will not fade in, I will be real." I sat there for a few moments, thinking that I was imagining everything, when suddenly, the sheet began to rise (because the priest was raising it), revealing a giant monstrance with the exposed host. Jesus had been there all along!

Anyway, that is my bizarre-sounding story of how I can now hear Jesus and Mary talking to me in my head sometimes.

I'm praying for you!

:)