My name is Mignon Toppino. I am a Junior studying Religious Studies and Social Justice at Cabrini University. This past June I was blessed with the opportunity to go on an eleven-day Italy Pilgrimage with Select International Tours. The experiences I had on this pilgrimage opened my heart up to greater growth and learning of who I am and who my heavenly Father is.
Before attending Cabrini University in Radnor, PA, I attended Cabrini High School in New Orleans, LA. So, I grew up learning from and about Mother Cabrini. Going to Mother Cabrini’s birthplace was truly the highlight of the trip for me. Being able to be in the presence of the relic of Mother Cabrini’s heart was such an awakening moment. It’s quite difficult for me to really form the right words that describe the amount of joy, peace, love, and beauty I felt in those moments. I do know I have never felt surer of God’s love and mercy.
To explain to you fully what this whole experience meant to me and what I learned from it, I must explain what season of life I was in before the trip. I was having a great struggle with loving myself, seeing the face of Christ in myself, and hearing and understanding God’s voice.
To say that this trip was simply a great trip with beautiful opportunities would not be completely honest, because for me this trip was transformative. Everyday since the trip, I have learned a little more, I have started to love myself a little bit more, and by God’s grace this beauty will not stop. This trip was so transformative for me because it taught me the power of intentionality.
Diving deeper into Mother Cabrini’s story I learned how she was a very intentional women. Like her, I must intentionally remember who I am, and what my Heavenly Father calls women of faith to do, which is to love and serve their brothers and sisters. I owe all of who I am and all of my life experiences to my Heavenly Father, for everyday despite my sins and faults he chooses to love me and desires a deep and intimate relationship with me. I am unbelievably blessed but not only by the love of Christ but for the bond and relationship I have made with Mother Cabrini over the 
years. I can tell you for a fact that without Mother Cabrini’s life of love, faith, and bravery, my life would not be what it is today.
Note: the photo here is the group at Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore e Santa Francesca Cabrini
(Church of the Most Holy Redeemer and St Frances Cabrini). The skull of St Frances Xavier Cabrini rests within this church. It is placed within a wax figure of her likeness as shown here.
Her place of birth is Sant’ Angelo de Lodigiano
The above article was re-posted with permission from Select International Tours.
