Journeying With The Saints

CONGRATULATIONS, Catholic Pilgrims! You finished Season Five with St. Frances Cabrini.  Thank you so much for joining along with me. It has been such a wonderful season and I couldn't do it unless people like you listened.  Today, I give my final thoughts and share with you who I will be reading for Season Six.   

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we will read the Epilogue which happens to be the Catholic News report on Mother Cabrini's death, life, and funeral.   We will simply read this news article about her today and just sit with the words and all that we have read this year. I won't offer any reflection now, but will so in our final episode.   Please grab your books and open to page 347.  

Well, Catholic Pilgrims, today we will finish the last letter. This has been a long one as we heard about Mother Cabrini's travels around the western United States. It's been interesting, at least for me, to hear about all the places she's visited, because I've been to quite a lot of the same places. Currently, I live in California, not too far from Los Angeles. She's, also, going to talk about Ca...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. So, today we will read Part Two of our last letter. Mother Cabrini is filling in the students at the Teacher's College in Rome about all that she has been up to and, man, was she traveling a lot.   This is a really interesting read and, for most of us, we will know a lot of the places she's talking about. That is, if we've traveled much around the US.   Without say...

Alright, Catholic Pilgrims, this is the last letter. Since it's longer, we are going to break it up into three parts. So, don't worry, we still have five more episodes to go, including this one.   This letter to the Teacher's College in Rome is twelve years before her death and three years before she is a naturalized citizen of the US. In what we read today, she's going to talk a lot about her fel...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, Mother Cabrini will finish telling the students in Rome about the opening of the hospital in Chicago. If you remember, last time, there was some worry it wouldn't open on time, but it does. Lots of hard work went into making sure it opened on time, within regulations, and with everything being done well.   We will start on page 315 at the second paragraph. Let's go...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we begin reading the second letter in the book to the Teacher's College in Rome. This is written approximately one year after the last letter that we just read.   We are going to hear her describe the work being done on the hospital she founded in Chicago—Columbus Hospital. One of my followers on Facebook shared with us that he was born in that hospital. Sadly, i...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we will be finishing up this first letter to the Teacher's College in Rome, which means that I will have a short reflection when we are done.   Let's go ahead and jump right in by opening to page 302 and starting on the second paragraph.   Catholic Answers Interview EWTN Article

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Okay, today we begin reading the first of three separate letters written to the Teacher's College in Rome.   I went to look up this college on the internet and here is some information that I found:   "Mother Cabrini established a Teacher's College in Rome as part of her broader educational and missionary work. This college aimed to train teachers who would not only imp...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Last time, we read Part One of Chapter 14 and today we will read the second half. I mentioned last time that this was awesome for me to read, as I was just at Mother Cabrini's Shrine in Golden, Colorado.   I think you will like today's reading; it has interesting bits of information about the conditions of the people in Colorado. After our reading, I will give my r...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. I'm glad to have you with me.   So, today, we are reading a letter that Mother Cabrini wrote to her daughters filling them in on the inauguration of the house in Denver. So, the Mother Cabrini Shrine right outside Denver is what she is referring to and it's what I talked about yesterday in Episode 99.   I recently visited the Mother Cabrini Shrine and it is the site of...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back to the last reading from this voyage. This is actually the last letter we are going to read that is designated as being on a voyage from one place other than another.   Mother Cabrini is going to talk a lot about obedience. It's something the Saints bring up pretty frequently. Humility and obedience are two of the virtues that Saints talk about all the time a...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims.   Fog has rolled in and the doctor on board feels terrible with seasickness. Mother Cabrini is not a sailor, she is an old pro on the sea. In fact, she's told us many times that she feels best when on the sea, which is interesting for someone with a fear of water.   Let's join her on this foggy day by turning to page 280.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Good to have you with me today.   After a short stop at a port in Ireland, Mother Cabrini is off to New York. Some of her Sisters fall ill to seasickness and, man, do I get that.   My family went to Catalina Island one year for our anniversary and you have to ride a boat to get there. So, we left the small port in LA and off we went. It's about a 40-minute ride. Well, I...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.   Mother is in London and it just so happens that she is there right at the time when the ceremony for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra is about to take place. Their coronation took place on August 9th, 1902, so you can see that she was there just days before. Naturally, the city of London is full of people.   King Edward and Queen Alexa...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. It is time to travel with Mother Cabrini from London to New York.   Today, in the letter, Mother Cabrini is going to make mention of persecutions happening in France to Catholics. I'm really only familiar with the French Revolution and the persecutions that happened then, but it's 1902 in our reading for today. So, it can't be the French Revolution.  I went to look it u...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome!   So, we just finished up the voyage that brought Mother Cabrini to Buenos Aires and now we are starting one that takes her from Buenos Aires to Genoa.   It's August of 1901, so about nine months from when she landed. This is just one letter. It's unfinished, but there is only one date entry. That means we will read the whole thing today and then I'll give my ref...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We have a long reading today and it's also the end of a voyage…sort of. This letter and voyage are incomplete, so we never really hear about Mother Cabrini getting to Buenos Aires. Because it's the end, we also have my reflection.   We've got a lot to cover today, so let's get started by opening to page 258.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today in our reading, it is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1900.   Mother Cabrini has a lot to say about Our Blessed Mother Mary. It's always a good day to honor her and stand in awe that she is the Mother of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ.   Let's open to page 255 and begin.  

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today is a super short reading and there's not too much to say.   So, let's jump right in by turning to page 255.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We have a short reading today. Mother is sitting on the steamer near Cadiz, Spain, which is on the western side of Gibraltar. Malaga is on the eastern side, so that means that the steamer passed through the Straits of Gibraltar.   Mother Cabrini has a cold and she says she is curing it with milk. Tinned milk to be exact. I've never heard of that being a cure, but who kn...

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. We are going to hear a lot about raisins today in our short reading.   Raisins are not my favorite and by that I mean I really can't stand them. My favorite comedian is Brian Regan and he has a skit on raisins which pretty much nails my feelings on the matter. I'll share the link in the show notes.   Anyway, this is a short and sweet reading, so let's get started b...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, and welcome back. As the steamer lifts anchor and begins the journey, Mother Cabrini has a bit of a reunion with two priests. At first, they don't quite recognize each other, but then the pieces start to fall into place.   One of the priests is the Provincial of the Scolopi in Buenos Aires. So, Scolopi is a Religious order, also known as the Piarists. Piarists are the old...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to another day in the Mediterranean Sea with Mother Cabrini. Today, in the readings, it is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier. Mother is very excited to celebrate because St. Francis Xavier is who she modeled her name after. Remember, St. Francis Cabrini wanted to go to the East, like he did.   St. Francis Xavier was born on April 7th, 1506, so he was born 344 years be...