"It's a Holy Disney World!"

Can I just start off in saying that in 75 hours, I (along w/ 3 friends-the Ireland group!) traveled from Gaming, Austria to Paris and Lourdes, France and back home. I’m so impressed with Our Lord and Lady allowing it to all work out, our travel skills, the metro system in Paris, and the fact that this is my vocation for the next 2 months.. study on trains while you explore Western Europe.. yup, this is real life.

On Friday (9/24), after classes, we boarded a bus and then train around 5pm and were on and off a series of about 6 trains until we arrived in Paris, France at 9am on Saturday. (9/25) Being Catholic is so wondrous because we have Mary on our side.. numerous times our trains were late and we should have missed our connections about four times? She’s so good to us. When we arrived in Paris, we printed off our reservations for the next day and found our super duper sketch hotel beside the train station.



Jen and Chelsea wanted to go to Liseux, which was another hour or so on the train, and neither Hannah nor I had a burning desire to go there.. so they ran off to hit up the popular Paris attractions before catching another train to Liseux.. Hannah and I sat down for some coffee&tea and cheese sandwiches before learning to master the metro! :) We bought a student all day metro pass (for only 3.40 Euro! So good.) and went to Sacre-couer, which is the massive Sacred Heart Basicalla. Let’s just say this—the places I had expectations for didn’t hold up to it.. the places unexpected.. were fabulous!! The Sacred Heart Basicalla was not one I was expecting to be so amazing! Besides getting ripped off by very clever Ghanan men on the street, the experience was incredible. The view from the church was gorgeous, the outside was beautiful, the inside was STUNNING! There were about 20 side chapels, full of Marian pictures and devotionals (however, pictures were not allowed :\ Bummer!) and above the main altar was a huge mosaic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! It was amazing. (My household-a prayer groupish thing at Franciscan, Carae Domini, is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.. so it was really awesome to see such a beautiful church devoted to that. After the Basicalla, we found some really cute little French shops and went in and out of a few.. we metroed around for a bit, changing out clothes and such and then took off for the catacombs, a more frightening side of Paris. It’s like an underground tomb from the 1800’s

but to our disappointment, we were too late for the last tour group!

After that disappointment, we had a run in w/ a few more! In a book I got for my birthday, Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, we saw some pilgrimage spots in Paris we could get to, so we decided to find them! The book said to take the one metro exit, but it was actually the one after it.. so we were lost in Paris for a good 45 mins until we finally asked.. during this time, it started raining and the callous on my foot was throbbing quite a bit! But, we continued to truck on.. and found the 1st site, St. Vincent De Paul’s church/school/&body… but it was the 350th anniversary of his death I believe.. so the church was jam packed of camera men/news broadcasters.. and we were not allowed in.. so we walked for another 5 mins or so and ran into the other shrine we wanted to see—Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and Green Scapular. This is again one of the sites I wasn’t expecting to be so great.. but it was! :) Hannah and I went in and started praying in front of St. Louise’s (she received the green scapular from Our Lady) wax body (overtop her real body) and realized they were about to have mass, so we stayed and had our first mass in French! After mass we got to pray in front of the main altar, a GORGEOUS Marian altar.. I hope this blog lets me post pictures, it was just breath-taking! We also saw/prayed in front of St. Vincent De Paul’s incorrupt heart and St. Catherine Laboure’s incorrupt body. She was so perfect.. it was so cool. I wish I could be that holy.. being a Saint would be the bomb.com. Anyways, so we prayed there a little longer and were waiting in line for the bathroom when a very friendly French lady decided to take us to the fancy mall toilets the block over.. she told us about some of the miracles that occurred at the convent’s church we were just at and it was nice to speak to a local :)







We metroed to the area surrounding Notre Dame and had dinner-I had a chicken kebab and then we stopped at this place for dessert.. it was to die for! 2 hot and crispy waffles with 2 balls of ice cream and hot caramel all over! <3 yum yum yum. We toured Notre Dame and were both kind of bummed with it.. It wasn’t a place for Jesus to live in at all. I just wanted to take Him and put Him somewhere in the Sacre-Coure.. It was basically just a tourist attraction, which shut off the main part of the church to visitors, so I couldn’t even pray in front of a tabernacle.. the architecture on the outside was really neat.. but I’m a Catholic, not an architect! By this time, Hannah and I were quite cold/sleep deprived/sore and just wanted to go back to the hotel, but we promised to meet Jen and Chelsea at the Eifel Tower at 9:45.. so we went there and waited, and waited, and waited.. we wanted to go up, but we didn’t want to go up without them.. so we went in and out of the souvenir shops to stay warm and then finally huddled on a bench for the last half hour.. to our surprise/horror, 2 men came out of the exit from the Eifel Tower and saw us sitting together on the bench.. and decided to meet us and chat it up.. They were from Rwanda! Which was pretty legit and awesome.. because I really want to go to Rwanda and do mission work and so we talked about that a bit.. but then it got a little out of control and as it did, the Lord obviously took care of us again! Chelsea and Jen saw us and shouted for us.. as a very nice American/English man came up and said “There you guys are! We thought we’d never find you..” and took us with him for a couple steps to get away from the Rwandians. We were obviously exhausted, so we re-parted ways with the other 2 girls and went back to the hotel to crash for the 5 ½ hours of sleep we’d be getting!



At 5:30 AM (9/26) we were up and getting ready to train to Lourdes (a 7-8 hour train), our train took off at 6:30 and we were there by 2 PM. Lourdes, as a town, is super cute! We walked around, found the typical Catholic/Marian shops, bought some goodies, and were headed for one of the most popular Catholic shrines in the world!! As you enter there is a very large brown/black crucifixion scene before you see the beautiful church.. my big sister in household, Tricia, told me all about this before I went.. and the way she explained it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.. So I’ll try my best to quote her! (Sorry if I biff it, Tricia.) “When I went to Lourdes, I was a little confused by this huge unattractive cross to start off/be the first thing you see at this shrine and not the beautiful basicalla .. but later on I realized that it represented the way that we often suffer, experience trials, have to go through the unattractive times before we see the glory of God, His forgiveness, His love for us..” I loved the way she described this just by looking at a picture, but when I saw it in person, it was hard to hold the tears back. So, thank you Tricia. :) As you passed the cross, it looked like a holy Disney World.. The church was MASSIVE. And truly looked like Cinderella’s castle.. but better!! We went straight to the baths, but they weren’t taking any more women because they were closing at 4.. however the very nice French man said, “It’s okay, St. Bernadette was never fully submersed in the waters. She just washed her face.. and you can do that!” Which was very nice to hear! We then toured the different churches/side altars in the massive church and then we split up. Since H and I went to mass the day before we went into town and visited Bernadette’s home after the apparitions. It was awesome to see her bed, letters she wrote to her family from the convent, and other miscellaneous items of her family’s. We met up around 5 and went to the grotto where Mary appeared.. Beautiful just doesn’t describe it.. As I ran my hand and rosary on the rocks of the grotto, I could just feel Our Blessed Mother in every part of me, encasing my heart with her hands. Mary is no longer dragging to me pray about my vocation, I am willingly going with her.. trusting that she is leading me directly to her Son. It is the best feeling EVER! I saw the hole where St. Bernadette dug w/ her hand, where Mary created the stream/flowing water from. (that which now heals everyone today) We bought intention candles and placed them by the grotto and then as a group (we met up with some other students from FUS!) prayed a rosary in front of the apparition. We filled up our holy water containers, washed our faces( and those body parts that needed healing) and prayed in a couple more chapels before walking to the train station.. Across the street from the train station we got Crème Brule! It was pretty darn good, if I say so myself!





Well, I wrote all of this on one of our long train rides back home.. this week will be pretty darn hectic for me (and the next), midterms are next week and I don’t really feel too prepared.. so I’ll really have to crack down this week.. I am also physically spent from constantly running the past couple days (and a football game the day before we left) and I just can’t wait to curl all up in my room at the Kartause! Thanks for reading about my amazing time in France! It was so amazing and I am just awestruck at all we did in such a short amount of time. Thank you for prayers, Mary most definitely heard them! Your intentions were with me all weekend.

PS (this is random just so you know)- When Hannah and I were freezing we decided to play with our imaginations, and we expressed (w/ great detail) exactly where and what we’d rather be doing.. most all of mine involved delicious American food.. so just appreciate your T-bell (and Taco the Town for Altoona folk!) tacos, Chuck E Cheese(Little Ceasars&Olive Garden) breadsticks, normal dill pickles, and chicken breast.. mom and dad, I promise to NEVER EVER EVER complain about having chicken for dinner. From the moment I get home to the moment I leave again.. I want chicken every single meal except Christmas when I can have Uncle Jerry’s turkey and heart-attack gravy. (I miss that, too)



“I am not worthy of Your Body and Your Blood, only say the word and I shall be healed.. Oh My Lord, if You are willing, I can be, if you are willing, I can see the face of God, it’s looking lovingly on me and I am healed. How I love you, Lord.”

to Jesus through Mary,

Erin.