The suprises of God's providence in Philadelphia

My life has been rather busy lately. Life at home with five boys 13 and under never seems to go at a slow pace—especially during CYO football season. But I’ve also had to deal with the sickness with my mother, my parents selling their home and moving into a condo, along with a period of unusual busyness at work.

So I did not do as much research about all the things going on in Philadelphia connected to the World Meeting of Families that I might have otherwise prior to making the trip here.

But I found out today that this may have been a good thing.  When I visited the Basilica Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul with several other pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, I was quite taken aback by various things I encountered there that I did not know about until I arrived.

The first was a makeshift shrine to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots on the grounds beside the cathedral. This is a favorite devotion of Pope Francis, one that has emerged in the Church in Latin America. The shrine was marked by literally thousands of strands of paper (made out of a hardy fiber) on which people had written prayer intentions. They then tied them to the surrounding fences, chicken wire, other netting and a domed structure made out of strips of wood.

The physical witness of so many prayers offered up by so many people to our Lord through our Lady’s intercession was powerful and brought tears to myself and other pilgrims as we wrote down our own prayers and added them to all the others.

Then I walked into the cathedral, turned down a side aisle and soon saw a case of second degree relics of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian wife, mother and physician who died in 1962 four days after giving birth to her fourth child. During her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a tumor on her uterus but refused her doctor’s recommendation of a hysterectomy. She demanded that priority be given to her unborn child.

(The child born shortly before her death, Gianna Emmanuela Molla, became a physician like her mother and will be a speaker at the World Meeting of Families.)

The relics included her wedding dress, a stethoscope, photos, books and a rosary. Nearby were also first degree relics of St. John Paul II (a vial of his blood), St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.

Encountering the relics of such wonderful saints, one who died just eight years before I was born, and a shrine overflowing with faith and prayer would be wonderful on any occasion. Coming across them as a total surprise made the experience all the more powerful and evident that it was a gift of God’s loving providence.

What a gift this pilgrimage is also, even though it comes with the sacrifices and trials of any pilgrimage. May the grace of God so evident in this city be brought back by the pilgrims of central and southern Indiana to bless the faithful of the local Church there in every new and surprising ways.

Following our pilgrim path

The 46 pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis traveling to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families and to worship with Pope Francis next Sunday started on their path this morning shortly before 8 a.m. We’re now driving through the hills of western Pennsylvania. You can learn more about the archdiocesan pilgrimage to the World Meeting of Families here.

Since the earliest days of the Church, pilgrimages have been understood at a deep level as being suggestive of the entire life of faith in which followers of the Lord make their way by faith through this world to their heavenly homeland.  Indeed, The Didache (“The Teachings of the 12 Apostles”), considered the earliest non-scriptural Christian writing, dating from the late first or early second century, calls Christianity simply “The Way.”

What was true for the first Christians is true for the 46 pilgrims upon this motor coach.  We are all seeking our way by faith through the twists and turns of life, much like the byways of western Pennsylvania, always seeking to keep our eyes on the Lord.

The first Christians were a diverse lot. Some were social pariahs like St. Matthew, whose feast the Church celebrates today. Although a wealthy man, he and other tax collectors were on the margins of Jewish society because of his collaboration with the occupying Roman forces.  Others were deep in their Jewish faith and at the heart of the Hebrew nation. Still others were not Hebrew at all but pagan gentiles who had been drawn to the Lord through grace much like the first Jewish believers.

Today’s pilgrims have followed their own unique path. But they have all done it with the grace that God provides, with the same heavenly destination in mind and in a context marked by the life of the family.

The goal of this particular pilgrimage is the World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia from Sept. 22-25.  It is a gathering sponsored by the Catholic Church about every three years in cities around the world that is intended to strengthen families in their faith and their love for each other and to help them spread Christ’s vision for marriage and family life in the broader world.

The pilgrims from central and southern Indiana who are making their way to Philadelphia will gather there with Catholic families from around the world who have all followed their own pilgrim path. And they’ll join with Pope Francis, too, who is currently finishing up his pilgrimage to Cuba and who will arrive in the U.S. tomorrow.

We all make our way through the pilgrimage of this life with the help of the prayers of fellow believers.  Please keep the pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in your prayers. And know that they are praying for you.

Previewing the pilgrimage

Greetings all. Through this blog, I hope to update readers of The Criterion and others interested in the pilgrimage group of Catholics from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to the World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia from September 22-25. The gathering will culminate on Sept. 27 when Pope Francis will celebrate an outdoor Mass in Philadelphia that is expected to draw 1.5 million.

The World Meeting of Families is sponsored by the Catholic Church and is held every few years in different cities around the world to strengthen families and to spread the Church's vision for marriage and family life to the broader culture.

I'll start putting up one or more posts a day starting on September 21 when the group sets out on a 14-hour bus ride to Philadelphia. The group is a diverse array of Catholics from across the archdiocese, including husbands and wives, parents with their children, single parents and their children, grandparents, and single young adults, all representing numerous ethnic groups from around the world who have settled in central and southern Indiana.

To get a taste of the diverse paths that our pilgrims have taken to God through family life, you can read this article published in this week's issue of The Criterion. You can also follow The Criterion's coverage of the World Meeting of Families on Facebook and Twitter.