Journeying With The Saints

CONGRATULATIONS, Catholic Pilgrims! You finished Season Five with St. Frances Cabrini.

Thank you so much for joining along with me. It has been such a wonderful season and I couldn't do it unless people like you listened.

Today, I give my final thoughts and share with you who I will be reading for Season Six.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we will read the Epilogue which happens to be the Catholic News report on Mother Cabrini's death, life, and funeral.

We will simply read this news article about her today and just sit with the words and all that we have read this year. I won't offer any reflection now, but will so in our final episode.

Please grab your books and open to page 347.

Well, Catholic Pilgrims, today we will finish the last letter. This has been a long one as we heard about Mother Cabrini's travels around the western United States. It's been interesting, at least for me, to hear about all the places she's visited, because I've been to quite a lot of the same places. Currently, I live in California, not too far from Los Angeles. She's, also, going to talk about Catalina Island in our readings today and my family went there awhile back to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

But, after this reading, I'm going to give my reflection and I can't ignore the elephant in the room anymore. Mother Cabrini is the patron saint of immigrants. Immigration is a highly controversial issue right now in America and in Europe. So, we need to talk about it and we will at the end.

So, let's go ahead and open our books to page 335 and start at the bottom paragraph.

TRENT HORN'S VIDEO

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. So, today we will read Part Two of our last letter. Mother Cabrini is filling in the students at the Teacher's College in Rome about all that she has been up to and, man, was she traveling a lot.

This is a really interesting read and, for most of us, we will know a lot of the places she's talking about. That is, if we've traveled much around the US.

Without saying much more, let's go ahead and get started. We will begin on page 328 at the first full paragraph and end on page 335 at the end of the second paragraph. Let's begin.

Alright, Catholic Pilgrims, this is the last letter. Since it's longer, we are going to break it up into three parts. So, don't worry, we still have five more episodes to go, including this one.

This letter to the Teacher's College in Rome is twelve years before her death and three years before she is a naturalized citizen of the US. In what we read today, she's going to talk a lot about her fellow Italian immigrants and you are going to hear some longing in her voice for her mother country—Italy. No matter where you roam, home is home.

What stands out to me about her writings today is that, oftentimes, we think the grass will be greener on the other side, and that obviously isn't always the case. Sometimes it is, but not always.

We will begin Part One on page 321 and end for the day on page 328 at the first full paragraph. Grab your books and we'll begin.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, Mother Cabrini will finish telling the students in Rome about the opening of the hospital in Chicago. If you remember, last time, there was some worry it wouldn't open on time, but it does. Lots of hard work went into making sure it opened on time, within regulations, and with everything being done well.

We will start on page 315 at the second paragraph. Let's go ahead and begin.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we begin reading the second letter in the book to the Teacher's College in Rome. This is written approximately one year after the last letter that we just read.

We are going to hear her describe the work being done on the hospital she founded in Chicago—Columbus Hospital. One of my followers on Facebook shared with us that he was born in that hospital. Sadly, it hospital no longer stands. Reading from online, "It closed in 2001 and was later demolished to make way for a high-rise condominium development called Park Michigan. The National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, which was originally part of the hospital, was preserved and refurbished during the redevelopment and remains open to the public."

So, if you are ever in Chicago, you can go visit the National Shrine of Saint Frances Cabrini. We've got three shrines dedicated to Mother Cabrini in the States—one in Colorado, one in New York, and one in Chicago. And, I'm sure there are numerous churches named after her.

Today, we will read Part One of this letter beginning on page 311 and ending on page 315 at the first full paragraph. Let's go ahead and begin.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we will be finishing up this first letter to the Teacher's College in Rome, which means that I will have a short reflection when we are done.

Let's go ahead and jump right in by opening to page 302 and starting on the second paragraph.

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