Happy 34th Sunday, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe! This is the last Sunday of the Church year. We begin a new Church year with Advent next week. This week we also will celebrate Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.
The origin of Thanksgiving is attributed to 1621 when the Plymouth colonists (whom we call Pilgrims) from England and the Native American Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest feast. This reminds me, I ought to share a little about my recent pilgrimage to France and the “feast” I received there.
The pilgrimage was with the Holy Family School of Faith led by Mike Scherschligt and others. Fr. John Riley and myself were priest chaplains for the journey. We traveled 10/23 arriving in Toulouse, France and visiting a site of the relics of St. Thomas Aquinas. The next day we were off to Lourdes, France for two days to participate in the healing baths (but just a simple washing) in the waters of Lourdes, to invoke Our Lady of Lourdes, and to draw close to St. Bernadette. The message we received there was that conversion is Our Lady’s message. From Lourdes, we went to Prouihe and Fanjeaux where we had Mass and lunch with the motherhouse of the Community of the Lamb. There are little brothers and sister from this community in Kansas City, and they are such an inspiring witness. Also in that area was where St. Dominic had powerful visions and received the Rosary. From there, we traveled to St. Baume, where tradition says St. Mary Magdalene finished the last years of her life. We climbed a big slope to visit a grotto she lived and prayed in. From there, we traveled and stayed the final four days in Lyon, France where we encountered sites of St. Irenaeus, the martyrs of Lyon (177 AD), Blessed Pauline Jaricot, and day trips to Ars to visit St. Jean Vianney’s stomping grounds and to Paray-Le-Monial where St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received visions of Jesus and the Sacred Heart.
For me, I did experience conversion and renewal. It all came together at the end of my pilgrimage. At Ars, someone bought me a confession stole (St. Jean Vianney is known for doing up to even 18 hours a day in the confessional). The heart of St. Jean Vianney is on display, so I touched the stole as close as I could to it and prayed. The next day, after Mass near the Sacred Heart visions, a random Frenchman came to me, speaking great English, and talking about the Charismatic Renewal which he believed started in Topeka, KS and he heard I was from near there. The odd fact is the site of the start of that is indeed attributed to Topeka, and the exact spot is on the grounds of Most Pure Heart of Mary parish, which I was pastor of for 7 years. So we talked about that, and this charismatic Frenchman wanted to pray for me. In his prayer, he mentioned some things that really touched me, including he said there was a gift in my smile and in the confessions I hear even when I feel there is nothing special there. He didn’t know I had just got that confessional stole the day before and had prayed to St. Jean Vianney to have a heart like his in confessions. Pretty awesome!
What about French feasts? Well, mistakes were made. I made the classic blunder in Lyon of arrogantly ordering something off a menu without looking it up. I ordered andouillette which I thought was sausage. Well, sort of. They call it “coarse” sausage and it was, you guessed it, intestines, of course! It even looked like chopped up intestines and smelled a bit like that. I have an iron stomach when it comes to eating, so even though I was extremely suspicious at the time, I ate it all. I hate wasting food. I looked it up after the fact, and verified that I had eaten intestines. What a French feast! I don’t recommend it…it did not taste great.
Besides that, I am grateful for the pilgrimage. We are all pilgrims on our journey through this life to the life to come in heaven. Mistakes are often made by us all—myself foremost. But keep on the journey. The Eucharist is our Thanksgiving feast. The saints are rooting us on. Prayers for you and your families to have a blessed Thanksgiving and close of our Church year!
Peace,
Fr. Greg