three times touched your prayer

While Father Jan was preaching, I sneakily snapped this photo. I think he will like having it.

I carried your prayers with me to the altar for Mass at the Basilica of the Rosary at Lourdes. Three times they touched me, as I touched them. (1) at the beginning of Mass, when Archbishop Schnurr prayed in silence for a while after inviting, “Let us pray,” and before he prayed the Collect, I instinctively reached into my pocket and touched mom’s bag that held all your prayers that I had “collected” before I set out on this pilgrimage. (2) during the prayer of the faithful, I faithfully reached again into my pocket to faithfully pray your prayers. (3) as we offered ourselves, together with Jesus as he offered himself to the Father in that great “Through him, with him …,” I felt for mom’s prayer purse and I offered you and your prayers to God again. Three times in one Mass at Lourdes.

After a day in Lourdes, on the second day in Lourdes, I was beginning to feel more like a pilgrim. The first day I was a tourist in the midst of crowds, sightseeing. The second day I was a pilgrim, paying less attention to what was going around me and more attention to what was going on within me.