May 2014 pilgrimage to Fresno to visit the Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux
The traditions of pilgrimages go back according to many to the beginning of time. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "the custom arises spontaneously from the heart. It is found in all religions." The ancient Jews, recalled where the prophets were buried and made pilgrimages to the tombs. There are multiple paths across Europe that lead to a variety of different sites: to the Holy Land, to Santiago de Compostela, to Lourdes, to Fatima, to Assisi, etc. This movement towards holy sites is reminiscent of our journey through life toward our eternal home in heaven and can bring us joy, while at the same time focusing our attention on what should be more important in life, our quest towards sanctity. I have found, over the past approximately 18 months, that it is not necessary to go to the Holy Land, as Pope Francis is currently doing, but you can get a lot out of day trip pilgrimages within California. I have striven to make one pilgrimage each and every month.
This month, I headed with a group in a direction that was a very big surprise to me. Instead of heading towards one of the missions or to the Bay Area or Sacramento, we headed towards Fresno. While searching for different sites to visit, I came across a page that listed "12 not-to-miss Churches in California." It included many that I had the pleasure of visiting, and one that I had never heard of before that is located in Fresno. Who would have thought that such a beautiful place to visit was located in Fresno?
I was especially attracted to this site, the Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux, since she is a Carmelite saint and Doctor of the Church, and being married to a Third Order Carmelite, anything that has the light from Carmel tends to catch my attention. As the majority of the pilgrimages, I tend to not worry about who shows up, I let the Holy Spirit guide who needs to be there. This was no different. I knew that my friend, Tyson, would be there, but wasn't sure who else might show up. Another friend, Francesca, had shown interest, but didn't confirm until Tyson and I were already at the parish that she was going. (Both Tyson and Francesca are posing in the picture above taken at a secret location where we ate lunch on the drive to Fresno.) The biggest surprise was another young friend, Erik, with whom Tyson had spoken at the morning mass, who decided that he would join us. It would be the four of us driving south down Highway 99 in Francesca's hybrid car.
I was especially attracted to this site, the Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux, since she is a Carmelite saint and Doctor of the Church, and being married to a Third Order Carmelite, anything that has the light from Carmel tends to catch my attention. As the majority of the pilgrimages, I tend to not worry about who shows up, I let the Holy Spirit guide who needs to be there. This was no different. I knew that my friend, Tyson, would be there, but wasn't sure who else might show up. Another friend, Francesca, had shown interest, but didn't confirm until Tyson and I were already at the parish that she was going. (Both Tyson and Francesca are posing in the picture above taken at a secret location where we ate lunch on the drive to Fresno.) The biggest surprise was another young friend, Erik, with whom Tyson had spoken at the morning mass, who decided that he would join us. It would be the four of us driving south down Highway 99 in Francesca's hybrid car.
We arrived a little later than I thought originally, at about 2:30 PM, but there waiting for us with his wife was a fellow Knight of Columbus, Kevin Mills. As I usually try to do, I had sent an email to the parish to see if someone would be able to show us the parish. We don't always have that blessing, but, this time, we were multiply blessed with Kevin's presence. Not only did he show us around the parish grounds, but also took the time to describe some of the behind the scenes things (damage to walls painted while wood work was done, explanation behind holy water storage, etc.). He even ended up singing for us a song about St. Therese, a song that not even the Carmelites were aware existed. Kevin's presence was a tremendous help to us in many ways, some described further on in this blog. And, the best of all, this was the first time that he had EVER lead a tour of the parish. He had us completely fooled, since it seemed that he had many years of experience sharing about his parish.