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Will the First African-American Saint come from New Orleans?

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Will the First African American Saint Come from New Orleans?

By Teresa Bergen

During a recent trip to New Orleans, I was startled to learn there are no African American saints. Linda Harris was showing me around Saint Augustine Church when the matter came up.

“Really?” I ask Harris. “No African American saints?”

Not yet. While there are at least a dozen black saints, including the Peruvian Saint Martin de Porres and the Egyptian Saint Moses the Black, no African Americans have been canonized.

Saint Augustine Church is in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood, just outside the French Quarter and about ten blocks from the river, on the corner of Henriette DeLille Street. The street is named for the woman many New Orleanians hope will be the first African American saint. “We do believe and pray,” she says. “We hope that will happen real soon.”

DeLille was born a free person of color in New Orleans in 1813. In 1842, she founded the Sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Family, the country’s second order of African American nuns (The Oblates were the first). DeLille ministered to free people of color and to slaves, earning the nickname “Servant of Slaves.” Pope Benedict XVI declared her venerable in 2010. Now she’s two confirmed miracles away from full-fledged sainthood.

“The Sisters of Holy Family are a strong presence,” Harris, the church secretary of Saint Augustine’s, tells me as we gaze at a portrait of DeLille. Their mother house is in New Orleans East. The sisters manage schools and nursing homes in New Orleans, other parts of the country and even as far away as Belize.

The Importance of Saint Augustine Church

Henriette DeLille had close ties with Saint Augustine Church. In fact, when she died in 1862, her funeral was held here.

The Treme was originally a plantation. When the land was divided in 1790, free people of color bought most of the lots. “This Treme neighborhood that we’re in is one of the oldest communities that allowed African Americans to purchase property,” says Harris, who’s a Treme native. “It’s considered by many the oldest African American neighborhood in the country.”

The church was built in 1841, established by free people of color. The Ursuline nuns donated money for the church grounds. When I visited in December 2016, banners celebrating the church’s 175thbirthday hung above the altar.

The French influence of early New Orleans is apparent, from the John 4:10 quotation painted in French above the altar, to the stained glass windows depicting French saints. “We have a particular fondness for Saint Joan of Arc,” Harris tells me. As patron saint of New Orleans, Joan is popular throughout the city.

Two of the beautifully painted Stations of the Cross are missing. During Hurricane Katrina, they were out for repairs in an area that got eight to 12 feet of water. “So they’ll never be seen again,” Harris says.

The Saint Augustine community is proud to be honored by the new National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian. The museum has several pieces from the church in its collection, including a votive candle holder and a kneeler.

War of the Pews

One of the famous stories about Saint Augustine Church is the “war of the pews.” While the church was being constructed, Harris tells me, “People were buying pews so they could sit with their own family on a pew and sort of be guaranteed it every Sunday.” Whites and free people of color tried to buy up the best pew real estate. “So it was a war of the pews,” Harris says. For once in New Orleans, the free people of color won. “They bought slightly more than the whites,” she says. “The free people of color bought pews for the slaves as well. So in that light, it was sort of a place of integration, way back then.”

Tomb of the Unknown Slave

Outside the church is one of the most moving monuments I’ve ever seen. The Tomb of the Unknown Slave, dedicated in 2004, is made of grave crosses, chains and shackles. As it says on the accompanying plaque, the monument is dedicated “to the memory of the nameless, faceless, turfless Africans who met an untimely death in Faubourg Treme.”

“It’s a very powerful piece,” Harris says. The slaves that died on the former Treme plantation are very real to her, not just part of long ago history. “Historically, while they may not all have felt as cared for in life, they appreciated a decent burial, and a decent burial for family members.” The monument was designed to help soothe those abused, neglected and forgotten souls. “It acknowledges and shares with its significance anyone who perished due to mistreatment, no health insurance, those type things. So it’s shared with all who passed away and had no real burial place.”

Integrated into the City

Church membership has dwindled a bit since Katrina, with about 340 members currently registered. But the church’s historical importance and its connections to the French Quarter Festival organization, the Jazz and Heritage Office and the New Orleans Marketing and Tourism Commission spread its reputation beyond regular attendees. “They support us,” Harris says. “And they appreciate the fact that while we are a Catholic church, we embrace the music and culture of New Orleans.”

The French Quarter Festival sponsors the Satchmo Summer Mass here in conjunction with the Satchmo Summer Festival in August, celebrating Louis Satchmo Armstrong. Armstrong, who lived in the neighborhood, had ties to the church. Saint Augustine also participates in the citywide Christmas New Orleans Style events, with three concerts in December of 2016.

The church draws tourists – black, white, some from as far away as Asia. Thanks to social media, Harris says, word about her church’s significance reaches around the globe. The gospel choir is also a big draw. “We have a very spirited service, while it is a Roman Catholic mass,” she says. “And it’s nice to have tourists in town and also have a place of worship they can come, as well as just partying and drinking and what have you.”

Tourists come and go, but New Orleanians continue to attend every week. Sometimes members of DeLille’s order, the Sisters of the Holy Family, attend mass and other church functions. “They’re an aging order like most religious orders, male and female,” Harris says, admiring the nuns that are still carrying on DeLille’s legacy. “Sometimes they walk in on crutches. But they get more done in a day than you or I.”

As an inner city church, and an old church, Saint Augustine struggles with repairs and maintenance. “But we love our old parish,” Harris says. “We love our old church.”

For more from Teresa Bergen

 

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Archbishop Sheen’s body to be moved to Peoria, Illinois

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In a strange legal battle, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s body has been in New York.  The Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, where he was originally ordained has been fighting to have his body returned.  He was born in El Paso, Illinois.

The Peoria Diocese has spearheaded a campaign for sainthood for Sheen, who became renowned as television’s first televangelist. In fact his Saturday night show in the 50’s at one time aired opposite Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra…..and he bested them both!

In the sainthood process, a custom of the canonization comes into play: the remains of a saint get buried at the site of where the sainthood petition began — in this case, Peoria.  Sheen’s remains would be interred in a marble crypt to be built near the altar at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, where hewas ordained as a priest.

Sheen, who died at age 84 in 1979, is buried in the crypt under the sanctuary at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.

 

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Four Best Travel Destinations Based on Public Transport

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Public transportation–such as buses, subways, and trains–can provide some of the best ways to get around a city. The average driver spends 42 hours per year sitting in traffic, which contributes to stress, anxiety, and late nights getting home. In cities where public transit is popular, however, there is a trend toward shorter commute times, and that spells relief for many who are choosing to leave their cars behind.

For travelers who want to see the best a city has to offer and aren’t interested in using a rental car, there are many options these days. The best way to start is by sitting down with a map of your destination and choosing the top places you’ll want to visit–tourist sites, restaurants, bars, clubs, and museums–so you’ll have a good idea of the route you need to take. Do some research on how much fare will cost for buses, trains, or bike rental so there will be no surprises later.

Here are a few of the best places for public or alternative transit.

 

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen has made several lists in recent years of the best cities to get around in, and for good reason; they have committed to making bicycling more popular than automobile travel and have built several bike bridges around the city, making it a clean, beautiful place to travel in.

 

Washington, D.C.

Buses and the train–called the Metro system–are the easiest ways to get around in D.C., but it will cost you; the city has some of the highest transportation fares in the country, with a monthly pass reportedly costing around $230.

 

Austin, Texas

Many young couples are flocking to Austin to start a family or pursue a career because they know they can put their money toward a new house and forgo a car payment. Austin is one of the best places for walking and bike riding, as the city has gone to great lengths to build protected bike paths which had the added benefit of relieving traffic congestion.

“Building protected bike paths downtown has been great for Austin. Not only has it made getting around downtown safer and quicker for cyclists, but the protected paths have moved them out of harm’s way and relieved traffic congestion. Having a bikeable downtown has made everything better in Austin,” said Mayor Steve Adler.city-768797_960_720

San Francisco

San Francisco’s Bay Area is one of the most beautiful, historic places to catch a ride on public transit, either by bus or by cable car. The latter is one of the most cost-effective ways to get around, particularly if you’ll be heading to several stops in a day; you can get multiple rides on a day pass for around $17.

The best thing to do before any trip is a bit of research; find out the costs, possible discounts, hours, and peak busy time for any public transportation you think you might use during the visit and consider day passes if you’ll be riding more than a couple of times.

Article by blogger Dolly Santos

Photo via Pixabay by Unsplash

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Heroic Early Catholic Women Who Shaped Montreal

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By Teresa Bergen

As a travel writer, I’m fortunate to often have tourism professionals help me devise itineraries. My contacts at Tourism Montreal were especially helpful in routing me through a bunch of religious museums and churches in 2 ½ days. But I was a novelty to my tourism hostess, who said travel writers never ask to go the places I wanted. And I was the first to ask her to schedule Mass into my itinerary.

Quebec has a rich Catholic heritage, but centuries of Catholicism resulted in a backlash against the church. My informal research is based mostly on talking to museum guides, Uber drivers and tourism professionals, but here’s what I learned:

After a few hundred years of Catholicism dominating French-speaking Canadians while the Anglos got all the good titles, positions and money, the French were tired of such an invasive Church influence. Several people I talked to mentioned that priests pressured women to produce a baby per year, and would publicly shame those who didn’t.

This all led to the so-called “Quiet Revolution” of the 1950’s and ‘60s. “In the ‘60s, people started leaving the church because they said the religion is too severe,” said Nancy Prada, director of the Museum of the Sisters of Providence. In the 1960’s, some museums even tried to soften the artwork, to make early church figures seem friendlier and less intimidating. But it was too late. By the end of the ‘60s, Quebecers had abandoned the Church in droves.

I was surprised when one of my Uber drivers told me that many words from Catholicism are used as swear words. This was later confirmed by my tour guides and by Wikipedia.

Reclaiming Important Quebec Catholics

I quickly deduced that the non-religious locals considered me a bit of a freak to be so interested in their Catholic past, but in a friendly and tolerant way. So I quietly made the rounds of Catholic attractions, appreciating the rich history and art. I couldn’t get to all of Montreal’s museums and churches. But here are a few that I visited and found intriguing. I was especially interested in early women’s contributions to Quebec.

Musee des Hospitalieres

This museum records the history of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, an order founded in LaFleche, France. It’s a good place to get a feel for Jeanne Mance, one of Montreal’s founders. “She was very exceptional for the period,” my guide, museum volunteer Carolyn Grant, told me. Mance was a pious Catholic, but neither married nor a nun. Born in 1606, Mance served as a volunteer nurse during the Thirty Years’ War, honing her skills on the battlefield. In 1640, she heard a cousin speaking about Canada. “It awakened her vocation,” Grant said. Angelique Faure de Bullion, a rich French woman, gave Mance the money to establish a hospital in Canada.

Mance started dispensary inside Fort Ville-Marie (Montreal’s original name, after the BVM) in 1642. In 1645, she opened the first hospital outside the fort. It had five rooms, including one six-person sick ward. Mance had come to care for the “savages” indigenous to New France. Instead, she tended to colonists wounded by unhappy Iroquois.

After ten years, Mance was ready for some help. In 1658 she sailed to France to bring the first three Hospitaller sisters back with her.

This museum is fascinating if you’re interested in early Quebec, the lives of nuns, and/or medical history. My favorite part was the display of relic artwork. The nuns practiced a craft of rolling up gold-edged papers and making intricate 3-D art pieces with them. They’d insert relics into these paper rolls. The relics were displayed annually for the Feast of Relics. This was a double indulgence day. If you bought an indulgence, you got twice as much for your money. This practice lasted into the 1950s, Grant told me.

Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum

Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, who was canonized in 1982, founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. This was one of the first uncloistered religious communities. As Bourgeoys wrote, “The Blessed Virgin was never cloistered. She did indeed withdraw to an interior solitude, but she never turned away from any journey where there was some good to be done.”

Bourgeoys is credited with being the first teacher in Montreal. She taught native children, white settlers’ children, and the famous filles du roi, or king’s daughters. These last were young women, mostly orphans, who Louis XIV sent from France to make wives for the white settlers.

The museum has a lot to see. The first room is full of doll dioramas depicting Bourgeoys’ life, made by nuns in the 1940’s. It’s almost like reading a 3-D comic book. I took a 20-minute guided archeological tour, where you can still see ashes from the fire that destroyed the old chapel in 1754. The rebuilt stone chapel is also called the Sailors Church. People came to the chapel to say prayers before crossing the sea. Visitors can climb many stairs up to the tower, where you get a close-up look at the pair of 1892 angels perched atop the chapel.

Maison Saint Gabriel

I visited the Maison Saint-Gabriel on a rainy afternoon and had the place almost to myself. This is a large house and farm that Marguerite Bourgeoys bought in 1668. She didn’t live there herself. Instead, a combination of nuns, male workers and filles du roi stayed there.

My tour guide, Charlotte Kelly, was dressed in period attire. She patiently answered my many questions about filles du roi. In the 1660s, there were only 3,000 inhabitants of the colony, mostly men. At the same time, Louis XIV had a bunch of orphaned girls on his hand. Most were from poor families. They could neither marry nor become a nun because they had no dowry. This came as a surprise to me, but Kelly said that the church required prospective nuns to provide a dowry. So Louis XIV solved two problems by buying these girls tickets, providing each with a trousseau and a dowry, and shipping them to New France.

Between 1663 and 1673, 800 filles du roi came to the province of Quebec. Most stopped in Quebec City or Trois Rivieres. Only about 100 came to Montreal. “It took two weeks to canoe from Quebec to Montreal,” Kelly said. “They had to be courageous to come here.”

About 40 of them resided in the Maison Saint Gabriel between 1668 and 1680. They usually stayed two to five months before marrying a settler. The program proved fruitful. After ten years, the population grew to 7,000. The women averaged seven children each, and the most prolific woman had 18.

I was very curious how the girls got matched up with settlers. Kelly explained that many suitors came to the Maison Saint-Gabriel to woo the girls. “It might look like a speed dating session from the 17thcentury,” she said. I asked if the girls would pick the guys who were handsome and funny, but Kelly looked at me like I was daft.  “Women would choose a man who had land or farm already,” she said. “They would want someone with a farm and house to survive for winter.”

Before marrying, the girls signed wedding contracts about the intention to marry. A few women hedged their bets by signing more than one. One woman signed three in the same week!

This is a very interesting historic house where you get a feel for the hard work of the time. It’s filled with artifacts like molds the nuns used to make pewter plates, molds to make Eucharistic wafers, early crow’s beak lamps (named for their shape) that burned smelly fish oil, and a butter churn that nuns used to occupy hyperactive children. It was a fabulous tour. Kelly knew so much about daily life on the farm.

Sisters of Providence Museum and Emilie Gamelin Center

I was especially moved by my trip to this museum. Nancy Prada, the museum director, gave me a personal tour and told me the sad yet inspiring story of Emilie Gamelin, one of the first Sisters of Providence.

Gamelin was born in Montreal in 1800. She was the fifteenth child. Her worn-out mother died when Emilie was only four, so she went to live with her aunt. The upside of this tragedy was that her aunt was wealthy enough to send Emilie to school. She was the only child in her family who got an education.

As a teen and young adult, Gamelin helped out in the households of various relatives. She was always devoted to the poor. While staying with her brother, she put a table in the kitchen to welcome beggars. She called it “the table of the king” because she thought poor people deserved to be treated like kings and queens.

In 1823, she surprised everybody by announcing her marriage to Jean Baptiste Gamelin. He was 50 and had twice jilted brides at the altar. “But they had the love of the poor in common,” Prada told me. He taught Emilie about business, which was very uncommon for women at the time. “This was a heritage he gave to Emilie which she later gave to the Sisters of Providence,” Prada said.

Within five years of marriage, Gamelin’s husband and three children all died. “At that moment she decided to become the mother of the poor in Montreal,” Prada said. Gamelin began a devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, who was very present in every day of her life.

Gamelin’s husband had long supported a mentally handicapped boy named Dodais and his mother. His death bed wish was for Emilie to continue caring for them. She did. “For the Sisters of Providence, this is an important piece of history,” Prada pointed out. “Back in those days, mentally handicapped people were sent to jails.” Taking care of Dodais gave her the experience of caring for handicapped, which later would be part of the work the Sisters of Providence carried out.

The Sisters of Providence was founded in 1843. By that time, Gamelin was 43 and had realized that her life was very similar to that of a nun. So she became one of the first members, and was named Mother Superior in 1844. As Bishop Bourget put it, she’d made her novitiate in the streets of Montreal all those years. The bishop gave the new order a daunting mission: To take care of everything the other congregations didn’t already do.

Within their first eight years, they’d opened 19 Providence houses serving populations like elderly, orphans, old priests and the mentally handicapped. They took care of typhus victims, opened a school, a hospital and Montreal’s first deaf mute institution.

Then, in 1851, Gamelin contracted cholera. Twelve hours later, she was dead.

Prada showed me a reproduction of Gamelin’s coffin. More than a hundred years after her burial, the tomb and the Providence mother house were moved to their current site, to make way for Montreal’s new subway system. When they exhumed Gamelin’s body, they found that along with her Sisters of Providence cross and her nun ring, she’d been buried with her wedding ring and a little pouch containing hair from her three deceased children. These items were all laid out on her replica tomb.

That’s when I lost it. Her life was so sad, and she’d done so much good. And even though she was a devoted nun and was supposed to put away things from her past life, she’d always kept her wedding ring and her children’s hair. Obedience has a limit. I had no Kleenex, so I sniffled for about five minutes while continuing to ask Prada questions.

I guess what I really took away from these religious women of Quebec was their commitment and unflagging hard work in the face of such a hard, hard life. Nuns are strong, tough people. And they had to be even stronger and tougher in the early days of New France. Gamelin especially touched me. After all she lost, she didn’t give up or drown in self-pity. Instead, she picked herself up and spent the second half of her life helping every type of outcast in the Province. If any one of us could find just one-hundredth of her goodness inside ourselves, we’d make the world such a better place.

This article written by travel blogger Teresa Bergen

For more about Montreal click here

 

 

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New entry requirement now transiting through Canada need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA).

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New entry requirements for those flying to or through Canada go in to effect on Sept 30, 2016.

 

New entry requirement: visa-exempt foreign nationals who fly to or transit through Canada need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA).

Those traveling by land or sea are not required to have this form.

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Your prayers answered…Tom is cancer free

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Hi:
To all of you who have been so diligently praying for me, I can’t express right now how I feel. Many of you I know and so many I haven’t met but I have felt the power of your prayers.
Today, Susan and I got the results of the Pet Scan I had last week.  Susan was a basket case as we waited in the Doctor’s office for him to come in. I was mostly calm just trusting in God’ plan no matter what the outcome.  When the doctor came in and wanted to hug me, I knew.  Your prayers were answered. The tumor was gone and there is no evidence of cancer in my body from the top of my head to my knees.
It is still surreal after almost a year of so many tests and procedures and negativity, that the path we took would not work.
We believe that by the power of prayer we were guided down the path we took.  We also believe that this Miracle will strengthen the Faith and Hope of many people.
I would like to talk to each and everyone of you to thank your for love, support and prayers that I offered up each day to Our Blessed Mother for so many others in need, and I continue to pray for each and every one of you every day.
I have to thank Susan most of all for her diligence, determination and unbelievable love for me, for getting us into these programs that we did and for getting so many people to pray.  She has touched the hearts of many but none no greater that mine.  I love you honey, more than you know, thank you.
May St. John Paul II intercede for you in all your needs.
God bless all of you
Tom

Tom & Susan Melillo
(Please Note Our New Adcdress)
4365 70th Court North
West Palm Beach, FL 33404 (USA)
Residence: (561) 622-0855 – Cellular: (561) 818-3422
E-Mail: TSMelillo13@aol.com

Prayer for the Intercession of
Saint John Paul II

O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
For having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
The tenderness of your fatherly care,
The glory of the Cross of Christ
And the splendor of the Spirit of love
To shine through him.

Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
And in the maternal intercession of Mary,
He has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.

He has shown us that holiness
Is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
Achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession,
And according to your will,
The graces we implore …
Especially (State your Intention Here)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This Prayer Works … Trust Me (Susan)


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Tom & Sue Personal Pilgrimage June 18 (Day 23) Prado Nuevo, Spain

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Buenos  Dias:
You got it……….we are back in Spain, (actually we are home, but we couldn’t forget to write this report).  I was too lazy to write on the plane, even though we had 10 hours.

We arrived in Madrid at 8:30 AM and had a rental waiting.  I felt good today (getting over my cold), especially after they gave us a white Mercedes…… perfect!

We drove to Colmenarejo, to Saint James the Apostle’s church to meet up  with Consuelo for Mass.  We had time, so we had some café con Leche and split hunk of a Spanish tortilla (eggs, potatoes and cheese)……..we had to survive until our luncheon later that day.

Mass was at 12:30, so we went to the church and waited for Consuelo.  She was inside and the Pastor whom she knew was waiting for us saw us out side and sent her out. Hugs and kisses abounded and we got so caught up we were almost late for mass.  Our friend, Fr. Guillermo, was hearing  confessions so we wouldn’t see him until after the service.  Today’s Gospel was about the acceptance of all men no matter what nationality and in Father’s homily he let everyone know that we were foreigners, like they couldn’t tell with the big T on our foreheads.

This  will be the last mass until we return home tomorrow.  We have attended mass in 8 different languages, and now I am starting to get confused.

After mass we met up with Fr. Guillermo and we headed to El Escorial to meet his Parents Carmen and Antonio (we call him Toni).  We had met them last year and they took us around and spent a whole day with  us.  They don’t speak any English, but we managed with them and we became very fond of each other.

Dinner was at this very fancy Spanish Restaurant.   They served a 4 course meal that was outstanding from beginning to end.  We joked and talked and  laughed and cried, they all are great people, very warm and loving and very religious.  It was hard to say goodbye after dinner, for Carmen and Toni were going home. Lots of hugs and  kisses we ( with Consuelo) left and went to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows to pray at the rosary service.

First, we made a stop to see the Sisters at the home for the Elderly.  We had brought them a little something from the Cardinal.  We had a great time them as always, as we talked about our journey. Another priest from the shrine, Father Juan Carlos, came by and joined in with us for quite awhile. Although Father Juan Carlos didn’t speak English, the “Universal Language” kicked in and we had a great time with Father, Consuela and some of the Sisters.

Unfortunately, many of the  other Sisters were assisting the elderly residents or were over at the Prado Religious Store, so we did miss seeing them to bid farewell! We didn’t go in to see the residents, even though I felt better………. we didn’t want to take the chance of giving them my cold, and now Susan was starting to sniffle.

Again, lots of hugs and kisses…….it’s always hard to leave here, and we  left for the shrine.   We were a little late but caught up and the service, which is in the field, where most of the apparitions happened,  ended just before mass at 7:00 PM.  We went to put your intentions in the box before our Lady putting you all in Her care.

We were taking tomorrow off.  (editors note:  how these two do it for 23 continuous days is beyond me.  And Tom is just getting over liver cancer to boot!)

Toni had come to  the shrine, he missed us already, and Father Guillermo was there and we meet  a couple more Priest assigned there. We were so comfortable with them for they  are so holy and peaceful, like most of the Priests we have met over the years in our travels.

Father G. had to get  going since he had Mass at 8 at St. John’s, and Consuelo had to work in the  morning and we had to find out if we still had a hotel room since it was getting late and we had told them we would be early.

Again, more hugs and kisses and a few tears and we all departed, all hoping that God willing we would see each other  again. There are some interesting photos coming.

Our hotel was easy  to find and our room was waiting.   A very, very, nice room to be exact.  We had picked up some snacks earlier  and packed and wrote a report and finally exhausted we went to sleep in this  wonderful bed.  We had a wakeup  call for 8:30 since our flight wasn’t until 1:00 and we didn’t have to rush  today. Our only problem was that Susan had full blown bronchitis and was in  pain.  I started her the  2nd z-pack I had and a little later a decongestant. She felt a  little better after being up.

We got the car back and I didn’t go by a gas station, so I thought they would nail me for the cost of filling the tank, but they said no problem, no  charge.  That’s a first!

We had time before the flight to relax in the lounge and boarded on time, but had to wait to 1 hour to take off.  We slept……no problem, actually Susan slept the whole way after she ate.  It was a greatflight and this was the first plane that had a Bathroom I could stand up in and not feel like I was  going to fall back out the door.

The worst part of the day was Miami customs, as it took almost 1 ½ hrs  to get thru. We picked up our rental and in 2 hours we were home to our new home, that we had only spent 2 days in before leaving.   Everything was fine at the house except cable TV was out, so after a  glass of wine we went to bed.

It’s always good to be home!

We hope you enjoyed  the journey.

May the Peace of  Christ be with you always
Love
Susan &  Tom

We dedicate this  Prayer to all the wonderful Priest we have met on this Journey and to all the  Priest on our prayer list and all our Priest friends and acquaintances we may  have forgotten on the list.

A  Prayer for Priests

Gracious  and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our priests.
Through  them, we experience your presence in the sacraments.
Help  our priests to be strong in their vocation.
Set  their souls on fire with love for your people.
Grant  them the wisdom, understanding, and strength
they  need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Inspire  them with the vision of your Kingdom.
Give  them the words they need to spread the Gospel.
Allow  them to experience joy in their ministry.
Help  them to become instruments of your divine grace.
We  ask this through Jesus Christ,
who  lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
Amen.
This  prayer is to be found at the website for the US Conference of
Catholic  Bishops.
Prayer to Mary Queen  of Apostles

Immaculate  Mother of God, Queen of the Apostles, we know that God’s
commandment of love  and our vocation to follow Jesus Christ impels us to
cooperate in the mission  of the Church. Realizing our own weakness, we entrust the
renewal of our  personal lives and our apostolate to your intercession. We
are confident that  through God’s mercy and the infinite merits of Jesus
Christ, you, who are our  Mother, will obtain the strength of the Holy Spirit as
you obtained it for the  community of the apostles gathered in the upper
room. Therefore, relying on  your maternal intercession, we resolve from this
moment to devote our talents,  learning, material resources, our health,
sickness and trials, and every gift  of nature and grace, for the greater glory
of God and the salvation of all. We  wish to carry on those activities
which especially promote the catholic  apostolate for the revival of faith and
love of the people of God and so bring  all men and women into the faith of
Jesus Christ. And if a time should come  when we have nothing more to offer
serviceable to this end, we will never  cease to pray that there will be one
fold and one shepherd Jesus Christ. In  this way, we hope to enjoy the
results of the apostolate of Jesus Christ for  all eternity.
Amen.

Tom & Susan Melillo

E-Mail: _TSMelillo13@aol.com_ (mailto:TSMelillo13@aol.com)

Prayer for the Intercession of Saint John Paul  II The Great
for Thomas F. Melillo

O Blessed Trinity, we thank  you for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing  the tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and  the splendor of the Spirit of love to
shine through him.

Trusting fully  in your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of
Mary,
He has  given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that  holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way  of achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession,  and according to your will, the graces we
implore …
Especially the  Healing of Liver Cancer for Tom Melillo, through Christ our
Lord.
Amen.

 

 

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Tom & Sue Personal Pilgrimage June 17 (Day 22) Krakow

by

Bon  Jour,

Today is our last full  day in Krakow and tomorrow night we will be on a layover at the airport in Paris.

I woke up this morning with the sniffles…….great! More fallout from the caves.

We had breakfast in the apartment, since we had so much food, and re-planned our day.   Mass at noon at the Saint John Paul II shrine was perfect  and gave us a chance to relax.  That’s why we like Father Brian’s noon mass and we can understand him too.  Well…… most of the time.

Today, we would leave all the intentions that you had asked to be left here or at the Divine Mercy Chapel and that’s what we did. We did part of the rosary at Saint John Paul II’s and finished in the Divine Mercy chapel, along with the chaplet.  All the rest of the intentions would be delivered to Our Lady of Sorrows on Sunday in Prado Nuevo, Spain.

The sniffles began to increase and I knew that this sinusitis had the chance to become a full-fledged cold, so we went back to the apartment when we were done and I started the Z-Pack that I had gotten from my doctor for the just-in-case bag, along with a  nasal spray.

We had an 8:00 PM dinner planned with Fr. Tomasz, but we decided it was not smart to go and take the chance of getting him sick……. with his busy schedule, he would have infected half of Krakow.  I think he was grateful and we planned to see him in the morning at  9:00 AM.   We did sneak out for a quick bite around 5:30 and had the best Hungarian Goulash ever.

Bed time was early, since we had to get up at 5 AM for Mass that the Cardinal invited us to. We had mass at the Chapel in the residence where St. John Paul II was ordained and spent much  time in prayer, celebration masses and work, at the desk he had in there, so that he could think and write before the Blessed Sacrament.

Mass was at 6:30 AM and the Cardinal celebrated along with two other priests for the nine Sisters plus Susan and I.   This is a place where sanctity seems, not something passing or short lived, but a quality of real people, lives not unlike our own in their challenges, and meeting those challenges through the  grace that makes heroic virtue possible.

We had a brief moment with the Cardinal before and after mass and later Father Tomasz told us he had  told him that I did look a little under the weather and that we were a very pious couple, even though I did snap a couple pictures.

After mass we had a  quick cappuccino, bought some chocolates for the Cardinal and staff and then we went to Saint Francisco across the street and sat in Saint John Paul II’s seat and prayed our rosary. It was a strange feeling being in that pew where he prayed the rosary every day.   I hope some of it rubs off, God knows I can use  it.

I did feel better today, so before leaving we went to the cemetery where the Saint’s parents and  brother were buried.   The Cardinal just dedicated a statue of him next to their graves.   Now this cemetery is huge by any standards and only polish people come here and they don’t speak English, so needless to say, we didn’t find it after 40 minutes of walking around.  We  went back to the apartment and loaded the car and headed for the airport, sorry that  we didn’t have more time.

The flight to Paris went well, other than waiting 40 minutes for the hotel shuttle in the damp rain.  The restaurant was closed, so we walked to the village and picked up some bread, cheese, sardines (this was a no meat day) and a bottle of wine and dined  in.

To bed early, since tomorrow we have a 3:30 AM wake  up
call.   See you in Madrid.

Bon  Soir,
May God bless all of  you,
Love
Susan &  Tom

PRAYER TO SAINT  JOHN PAUL II THE GREAT
Oh, Saint John Paul  II the Great, bestow from Heaven your Blessing upon
us.
Bless the Church  you loved, served and guided so well, by courageously
leading Her through the  pathways of this world, by bringing Jesus to everyone
and everyone to  Jesus.
Bless the Youth,  who were at the center of your caring love.  Lead them to
dream once again, lead  them to look above to find the light that will
enlighten the paths of life  here on earth.
Bless the families  … bless each family!  You were  aware of Satan’s
assault against this precious and indispensable spark of  Heaven that God has
ignited on earth.   Oh, Saint John Paul II the Great, with your Prayers,
protect every  family … and every life that blossoms in the family.
Pray for the whole  world still marred by tensions, wars and injustices.
You have opposed war by invoking  dialogue and by sowing love.  Pray  for us,
Saint John Paul II the Great, so that we may become tireless sowers of
peace.
Oh, Saint John Paul  II the Great, from Heaven’s window, where we see you
next to Mary, Our Mother,  send down upon all of us God’s Blessings.

Amen.

Morning Consecration to  Mary

My  Queen, My Mother, I offer
myself  entirely to thee.
And to show my devotion to thee,
I offer thee this day, my  eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without  reserve.
Wherefore,  good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me as thy
property and  possession.
Amen.

Tom & Susan Melillo
E-Mail: _TSMelillo13@aol.com_ (mailto:TSMelillo13@aol.com)

Prayer for the Intercession of Saint John Paul II  The Great
for Thomas F. Melillo

O Blessed Trinity, we thank you  for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing the  tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and the  splendor of the Spirit of love to
shine through him.

Trusting fully in  your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of
Mary,
He has given us  a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness is  the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of achieving  eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession, and according  to your will, the graces we
implore …
Especially the Healing of Liver  Cancer for Tom Melillo, through Christ our
Lord.
Amen.