Dear Mary,
I wanted to share how your light made Jesus visible to me today. As I walked the past 3 days on pilgrimage, when our group would string out, I would pull out my rosary to pray in solitude. With each decade, I prayed for our group's safety, for peace and comfort, for grace.
This morning I continued the practice. One of my fellow peregrinos commented that he'd seen me with my rosary and asked if I was Catholic. I responded in the affirmative and he shared he was Catholic as well. Coming from an area of the country where there aren't many Catholics, I don't often encounter others outside my parish. In fact, I'm not really used to sharing my faith beyond my circle of friends and relatives.
Imagine my surprise when the Holy Spirit prompted me to invite my walking companion to pray the rosary with me as we walked. Suddenly I was flush with more than just the exertion of walking. Asking someone I barely knew to pray was completely outside my realm of experience and comfort zone.
Thank goodness he responded by pulling his own rosary out of his pocket and smiling!
As we walked and prayed together, it struck me how our footsteps fell on the same path followed by the Franciscans over 200 years ago. My meditations created the image of Saint Junipero Serra, in his brown cassock with a walking staff in one hand and rosary in the other, walking and praying with us. Our prayers were layered over his across time and space as we prayed through the Luminous Mysteries of your son's ministry.
As Padre Serra traveled from Mission to Mission, praying for your intercession, we traveled the same steps with the same prayers.
Thank you, Holy Mother, for reflecting the light of Christ upon us and all those who walked before us on this journey.
Your daughter through Christ, Nina
The photo is of a Camino Real marker along the CA Mission Walk route between La Purisima Mission and Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
Comments