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THE MARY UNDOER OF KNOTS SHRINE IS AN IMPORTANT CATHOLIC AND AMERICAN LANDMARK THAT EDIFIES EVERYONE WHO VISITS. IF YOU CAN'T MAKE A VISIT TO THE SHRINE TODAY, ENJOY THE MANY RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR YOUR INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL EDIFICATION.
Hero pro-life man cares for children who have miraculously survived abortion. Pray for all mothers who are afraid and are considering abortion; that they may choose life.
The founding of America was remarkable. Now, learn about the incredible significance of Paul Revere's Liberty Bell — and visit the Shrine for a spectacular up-close look!
The Theology of Pilgrimage — Our Path Home to Heaven
There is something transformative about venturing out, away from the comfort of your home, to intentionally seek the Lord and encounter him anew.
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Every single one of us is a pilgrim on a journey. For us Christians, as Pope St. John Paul II said, this journey should ultimately lead us to the heart of the Father.
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But do we truly believe that?
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Too often, we can get lost in the demands and routines of our everyday lives. That is why pilgrimages to holy sites are so important. As far back as Abraham, we hear stories of God inviting people to leave their homeland and to travel to an anointed site. To this day, our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters make pilgrimages to Jerusalem and to Mecca. There is something transformative about venturing out, away from the comfort of your home, to intentionally seek the Lord and encounter him anew.
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At this very moment, hundreds of thousands of young people are preparing for a pilgrimage of a lifetime. Following the tradition of St. John Paul II, Pope Francis is inviting the Catholic youth of the world to join him this summer for World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. I’ve been blessed to participate in seven World Youth Days, and I’d like to offer some thoughts on taking a pilgrimage — whether you’ll be traveling to the 2023 World Youth Day or not.
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One important part of a pilgrimage is intercession. Praying for our intentions — and those of loved ones not able to accompany us — helps us listen for the still, small voice of God in our lives and leads to deeper conversion.
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At World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, my group stopped at Lourdes. There, pilgrims from so many different countries were coming to bathe in the waters and ask for God’s healing from illness. Although some were not physically healed, they still experienced the special grace of spiritual healing from taking their journey in faith.
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Along with intercession is penance. Historically, if an individual had committed some serious sin, he or she could trek to a holy site and offer the pain and discomfort of the journey in atonement. Today, we might not seek out pilgrimages for the same reason. Nevertheless, pilgrimages are not without their difficulties — travel mishaps, long days, unpredictable weather. If we offer our struggles to God, he can and will do great things.
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I recall my World Youth Day in Madrid. The vigil Mass took place on one of the hottest days of the summer. Scorching heat and lack of shade made for several grueling hours — that is, until a thunderstorm broke right as we were going to bed. The teens I was with handled it so well. They began naming the person for whom they were offering up their discomfort: “This is for my mom who has cancer” or “for my brother who has left the faith.” It was a very difficult but very graced night.
Another aspect to pilgrimages is the solidarity. When we go on pilgrimage, we are more present to those around us and to our fellow pilgrims. Sharing a common experience, a common purpose, and a common worship and prayer life creates a profoundly powerful bond of community. This is especially true for World Youth Day, when young people come together from across the world for a single purpose. And we don’t just form a deeper connection with our immediate travel partners. We also feel more connected to the millions of pilgrims and saints who have gone before us in the faith.
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Lastly, pilgrimages are opportunities for thanksgiving. I absolutely love being a priest. My vocation is a pure gift. For my 10th ordination anniversary, I wanted to do something to show Christ my deep gratitude for allowing me to share in his priesthood. So I decided walking 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago — an ancient route to the burial site of St. James the Apostle — was a good way to say, “Thank you.”
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When you walk 17 miles per day, every day, you have lots of time to pray. Each morning, I would ask God to show me who I should pray for, who I should offer the day’s struggle for, who needed grace. I was amazed; some of the people who came to mind were men and women I had not thought of for decades. But, for one reason or another, God placed them on my heart. It was a blessing to pray for them, and the journey made me even more grateful to be a spiritual father.
Going on pilgrimage does something to our hearts and to how we see the world. Yes, we often go on pilgrimages intentionally looking for God. But, in the process, our vision sharpens. We begin to see him in places where we didn’t before. We realize how he is present in our families, our homes, our workplaces and our parishes. We let go a little bit more and give God a little more room to work in our lives.
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So, I encourage you to go on pilgrimage. You don’t need to go to Lourdes, Fatima, Rome or the Holy Land (but if you can, totally do it!). You can visit the cathedral in your diocese for an afternoon. Or perhaps take a trip to a local shrine. Or even just spend an evening in an adoration chapel.
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Do something intentional that takes you out of your ordinary routine. Seek to encounter Jesus. You will be amazed what God can do in your heart and the ways he will make himself known to you. Buen Camino.
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Father Dave Pivonka Well-known author and speaker Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, became president of Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2019.
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Come see the beauty of creation aligned to the worship of God in a truly glorious fashion at the Shrine. The Shrine is beautiful in pictures... but nothing compares to witnessing the beauty of God's holy house in-person!
The American Revolution Today: Dusty Bells
Dust ....
Dust was everywhere,”
Rev. Daniel P. Matthews proclaimed in his first sermon following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Rector of Wall Street’s Trinity Church described the plague of dust on New York as unbelievable. But he also reminded his congregation that dust had another purpose. It served as a symbol: They were not alone in their tragedy.
“Dust did not just fall in southern Manhattan. Dust fell over all the world on September 11,” Matthews stated dramatically. He reminded his congregation that people throughout the world were mourning with them. “Everybody is covered with the dust of the World Trade Center of September 11. None is without dust.”
Matthews also encouraged his audience to take comfort in the story of the bells. Through a presidential proclamation, President George W. Bush called on Americans to come together in a day of prayer and remembrance on September 14, 2001. The president’s proclamation encouraged people to pray and churches to ring their bells at noon.
Dr. Matthews called one of the church’s engineers and asked if they could ring the bells of St. Paul’s Chapel, which is a part of Trinity’s parish and next to the site of the World Trade Center.
“No,” was his reply. They couldn’t do it. The church had no electricity, and the bells were electric. By this time New York’s governing authorities had also restricted access to the entire Wall Street district.
An hour later the engineer called Matthews back. They had done it. Mike and Jim, the two engineers, and Lyndon Harris, the chapel’s rector had risked their lives by carefully climbing St. Paul’s dark wooden bell tower to ring the bells at noon.
“While Jim held a flashlight, Mike found a steel pipe and ‘whacked’ the bell 12 times. Rescuers at Ground Zero removed their hats and stood in silence,” the chapel’s website later reported.
The bells gave firefighters, police officers, and other rescue workers on the scene a chance to attend “church.”
“The workers stood in silence as if to say,
‘The Lord God reigns, even in this hell,’”
related Daniel Matthews in his sermon.
“Sometimes in the midst of the most horrible tragedies,
We see with eyes with which we haven’t seen before,
At times like this a bell becomes more than just a bell;
It becomes a sacrament.”
And in that sermon:
Dust became a symbol of comfort
Bells bore the people’s atonement
God still reigned.
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“Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope…Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (Lamentations 3:29, 32)
Let us pray,
Father, thank you for your compassion in grief, for the encouragement of bells buried in dust that lead hearts to look to heaven evermore.
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Battlefields and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War. Jane Hampton Cook, God and Country Press. 2007
What holds you back from living your most authentic self? God wants you to be fully alive in the Holy Spirit, but what is holding you back? Read more to find out how to live in the freedom of the Holy Spirit.
God has sent His Son - and His Mother - into the world to guide us in our journey of holiness. Be impressed and inspired by the amount of apparitions that the Holy Mother has made throughout the ages!
The Five Thresholds of Discipleship
In the mid-1990's, a campus minister named Doug Schaupp was struggling with evangelizing students at UCLA. Schaupp wanted to know what, how and why his efforts were limited in their success. He asked a small group of students who had experienced conversion to describe how their conversion progressed. He asked them to recall what seemed remarkable during their conversion experiences. Here is what he said in Five Thresholds of Postmodern Conversion:
"At the end of the year, we interviewed most of the 37 students to find out what kind of internal and external dynamics helped them into the Kingdom of God. What we found was that they actually all went through the same phases of growth and transformation, though each student obviously took different amounts of time to grow from one place to the next.”
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Schaupp and his collaborators found there were five thresholds or stages of conversion that all had passed through. They found that conversion wasn’t instant nor without an increasing engagement and commitment to making their life and life choices deliberate. What they gleaned from their qualitative data was a distinct process that is substantiated in the gospels. For example, the blind man in John 9:1-38, who went through a series of steps on his way to full commitment to Jesus. When the priests interrogated him, he spoke of a man called Jesus. He later described this Jesus as a prophet. Later he went on to describe Jesus as being from God. When he was reunited with Jesus he called Jesus, Lord and then he naturally worshiped Him.
We can learn from this remarkable book by Doug Schauup and by its interpretation by Sherry Waddell in her book “Forming Intentional Disciples.” In her book Sherry re-imaged the five stages as thresholds we enter into as Catholics. We will find that we enter into them one after another, yet we will go back and forth. The five thresholds appear to be helpful in recognizing both growth and goals for people who want to become saints!
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Excerpt(s) from Forming Intentional Disciples © Sherry Waddell Published by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. 1-800-348-2440. www.osv.com Used by permission. No other use of this material is authorized.