Journeying With The Saints

Hello and welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Are you ready for another trip? This time, we are going from Genoa to Buenos Aires. Here we are in the year 1900. Think back to all Mother Cabrini has done in our time with her and we are just getting a taste of all her works through her letters. She did so much more than is written down here.   As we sail from the Northern Hemisphere to the South Hemisphere,...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to our last day of the this voyage from New York to Havre.   Maybe it's just me, but on this voyage, I wasn't really paying attention to the trip. Maybe it's because we've done the New York to Havre trip with Mother Cabrini already, but I almost forgot she was cruising across the Atlantic. Sure, there were the storms and wind and such, but I wasn't as keyed into that. I...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to a beautiful day at sea with Mother Cabrini. In our reading for today, it is September 8th and that is the day that we celebrate Mary's birthday.   This got me thinking, "Why this day?" So, I went to look it up. I'll read for you an answer from Catholic Answers.  With all that, let's hear about Mary from Mother Cabrini by opening to page 244.  

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back to another day at sea where the steamer is rocking around. It's not because of the water today, but because of the wind.   Today, Mother is going to talk about grace. Grace was not something I understood until I became Catholic and started homeschooling my kids. The good 'ole Baltimore Catechism teaches you all about grace. Essentially, grace is the Divine Li...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We have a very short reading today as the sea is rocking so badly Mother Cabrini can't really do anything at all.   At one point, she calls a steward to ask if they should prepare for an emergency and he tells her in a calm and collected way to just 'remain calm, everything is all right."   It's a good thing she didn't get someone like me when she called because I would...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we will hear about how fog rolls in, the air grows cold, the steamer is rocking pretty substantially, and there is an air of nervousness throughout the steamer.   Mother takes this time to speak about being thankful to Jesus. Something I've really been trying to do is to thank God when I can see that a prayer has been answered. Oftentimes, we ask God for somethin...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.   As we've traveled around with Mother Cabrini, you may have wondered how she handles leaving behind the things she has started up. How does she feel about starting something up and then leaving it in the care of others?   That takes a great amount of trust. I do think there are people who can handle starting something up and then once it's up and running, m...

Welcome to our 10th voyage with Mother Cabrini, Catholic Pilgrims. This voyage is from New York to Havre. We've made this voyage with her before but that was a decade ago. She has grown wiser and more experienced. I suspect that will show up in her writings.   Mother is plain worn out as she boards the steamer for this trip and she falls asleep as soon as she waves goodbye. Let's join her leaving...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to the end of another voyage.   Though it is the end of the voyage, you will find that the letter is incomplete. We get no sign off as is typical of the other letters. Who can say why? Maybe the letter was destroyed or lost over time.   Anyway, it will end a bit abruptly. Obviously, Mother will have made it to New York, but we won't hear about that.   Since it is the en...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.   It just dawned on me the other day that we started this book with Mother Cabrini in the year 1890 and now we are already in 1899. Nearly a whole decade has passed.   This writing during this voyage is very different. We only get small little snapshots about what is actually going on with the trip across the Atlantic. The rest of the time, Mother Cabrini is...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. If you ever thought Mother Cabrini was lazy (which I doubt you did), today will put those thoughts to rest.   Nearly everywhere she goes, she wants to open a school, a house for Sisters, or something to help bring the faith to people. Her energy seems endless.   Today, we will hear more about her time in Paris. Let's open to page 219.

Bonjour, Catholic Pilgrims. Bienvenue. Welcome.   At the beginning of this letter, Mother Cabrini is again telling her dear daughters about what she was doing in Europe before leaving from Liverpool. We are getting up to speed, shall we say. Today, we will briefly hear about her time in Paris. Then, we will move up to the current voyage.   Let's go ahead and open to page 216.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. It's been awhile since we've had a super short reading, so today, we get a bit of a break from a longer reading. As a reminder, this trip started on November 6th, 1899, but the date for today's reading is August 25th. The reason for this jump back in time is that Mother Cabrini is filling her daughters in on what she was doing before heading out from Liverpool. So,...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. As we've been traveling around with Mother Cabrini, you may have wondered, "Does this woman ever rest?"   Well, yes, she does. Today, we are going to hear about how she took a retreat when she was in Rome at the Mother House. She recognized that her body was wearing down and she just needed to be calm and rest for awhile. She understands how refreshing this is to the mi...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, we are starting on a new voyage with Mother Cabrini. Two years have passed since her last voyage. This time she is leaving from Liverpool, that city made famous the Beatles. As you may know, all four Beatles' members were born and raised in Liverpool.   Mother Cabrini is going to tell us that this is her seventh time leaving Europe and before she goes, she has an audience...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, and welcome back. Today, we will read the second half of the letter for this voyage. Remember this is just one long letter for the Buenos Aires trip to Barcelona.   Since we will finish this letter today, I'll be giving my reflection once we are done.   Let's open to page 199 and start where it says, "We had no sooner left."  

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to our next voyage. We are headed with Mother Cabrini from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Barcelona, Spain. We are about 8 months removed from the end of the last voyage, so the year is 1896.   This reading will be a bit different than other ones. This letter is just one long big letter and to read it all would take a good long while. So, we are going to split it up. W...

Welcome back to the end of this voyage, Catholic Pilgrims. There is so much exciting stuff going on in today's reading. We've got mule rides over foggy mountains, jumps across deep chasms, drunken men, and scant food and sleep for Mother Cabrini and Mother Chiara. We are reading an adventure tale today that could totally be a movie.   We have a lot to read, but you are really going to be amazed at...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today is a longer reading, but I invite you to sit back and just imagine Mother Cabrini traveling around off the coast of Chile. Her descriptions are really quite interesting. She's going to spend some time in Antofagasta and if you go look at the city online, you will find that, other than modern day buildings, her descriptions are very accurate.   She has some choice...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back. Today, we are going to get a major geography lesson.   I used to be horrible at geography—horrible. Once I became a military spouse, I started to get better, mostly because I was traveling a lot and I started really looking things up on a map and caring about what I was looking at.   I imagine that most of us listening to this book have not traveled down the...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We have a long reading today filled with all kinds of good information and descriptions. Even though it's a longer reading, I think you are really going to enjoy hearing about Mother being in Peru.   Since, it will take more time to get through, let's go ahead and get started by turning to page 158.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to another day at port near Peru with Mother Cabrini. You can kind of imagine the first 3/4 of today's reading a bit of a blog almost. Mother is describing what life at port in Peru in the late 1800s is like and it's a real snapshot in time for us. She even talks about seagull guano today, which I never would have thought a Saint would discuss.   In the last part of the...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims.   Today, we are with Mother Cabrini at the port of Piata in Peru. She is going to describe it as looking very desolate and it seems not much has changed. If you go look on google maps, it is a brown, dry desert. There is not much color.   The word Piata is not a Spanish word, at least not that I could find. So, I don't know exactly what it means, but there is a port of...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today.   Before we begin our reading, I think we need a bit of background. Mother Cabrini is at port in Guayaquil which is in Ecuador. She is going to mention that she doesn't want to go ashore because of the revolutions. What she is speaking about is the Liberal Revolution of 1895. The pro-Catholic, conservative president was assassinated and a...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.   Yesterday, we got kind of the pep talk before the big trip. Today, same date, we get more of the play-by-play of the trip.   In the song "A Whole New World" from the movie  Aladdin , there's a line that says, "With new horizons to pursue (every moment red letter). I always thought they were singing, "With new horizons to pursue, every moment gets better."...