Journeying With The Saints

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today.

Before we begin our reading, I think we need a bit of background. Mother Cabrini is at port in Guayaquil which is in Ecuador. She is going to mention that she doesn't want to go ashore because of the revolutions. What she is speaking about is the Liberal Revolution of 1895. The pro-Catholic, conservative president was assassinated and a liberal, anti-clerical man named Eloy Alfaro came into power.

So, I wanted you to be a bit more informed before we started. Let's go ahead now and open to page 152.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.

Yesterday, we got kind of the pep talk before the big trip. Today, same date, we get more of the play-by-play of the trip.

In the song "A Whole New World" from the movie Aladdin, there's a line that says, "With new horizons to pursue (every moment red letter). I always thought they were singing, "With new horizons to pursue, every moment gets better." When my girls were singing about the moment being red letter, I was confused. What the heck does that mean?

Well, a red-letter day is a very pleasantly memorable day and that is what Mother Cabrini is going to describe for us.

Welcome to another voyage, Catholic Pilgrims. So, Mother Cabrini got to Panama at the start of June of 1895 and she is already leaving in October of 1895.

Where is she headed? Over the Andes mountains and on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. That sounds like some serious traveling and, consequently, this voyage has a lot of information in the writings. She's not just out on the open ocean waiting to get to a port.

So, I think we are going to get a real deep dive into some very interesting experiences. Today's reading is like a pep talk to missionaries. Are there difficult parts? Yes. Are their scary times? Yes. But, all that a missionary does is worth it. Bringing souls to Christ is worth the difficulty and scary times.

Let's start this voyage by turning to page 145.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, the final day of our voyage to Panama. As this is the last day, I will offer my reflection after our readings.

One thing to note: Mother Cabrini arrives at the port of Colon, which is in Panama. However, even though she's there, she keeps talking about how she needs to get to Panama to see the house where the Sisters stay. Just to be clear, she is talking about Panama City in Panama, not in Florida where I used to live. So, Colon is on east side of the isthmus and Panama City is on the western side. Actually, though, if you look at a map, because of the shape of Panama, Colon sits in the north and Panama City in the south.

Without further ado, let's turn to page 140.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome. We have a long reading today, but a very interesting one.

Mother Cabrini is finally on the steamer and she has time to write. A couple of voyages back we went to Nicaragua with her and learned about how she was setting up a school.

Today, she is going to tell us about how the Sisters in Nicaragua were banished because of a rebellion. It's called the Nicaragua Crisis of 1894-1895. So, I just wanted you to give you some context for today's reading. A lot of her writings today will be explaining that whole fallout.

Since it's a longer reading, let's get started by opening to page 134.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Mother Cabrini is still in Costa Rica and the locals are trying very hard to make up for the distasteful way she was treated because of the Freemason.

While Mother appreciates their kind offers, she is anxious to be on to Panama and must decline their offer to stay longer in their country.

You know, something I learned living in Turkey was to meet each opportunity that is not quite going my way by being helpless and kind. Helpless in that I asked others to help me and, generally, people want to be helpful, especially to kind people. Every time I approached a difficult situation with the attitude of helpless and kind, I was always given special favors. Much like what we see here with Mother Cabrini.

Let's see what is going on in Costa Rica by turning to page 132.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back.

Today is not a day that Mother Cabrini is interested in talking about her travels. Today is June 1, 1895 and she is interested in talking about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

What could be better to hear about? So, let's open our books to page 128.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. In our reading today, Mother Cabrini is still in Costa Rica waiting to go to Panama. She spends time explaining the weather, the views, Mass, and the people to her daughters.

She is trying to be patient, as she very much wants to get to Panama.

Let's hear about her day as we turn to page 126.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. I think you are really going to like today's reading. Mother and the Sisters reach port in Costa Rica. At first, everything seems to be going well, but then…

A sneaky and cunning Freemason tries to sabotage Mother's short visit. She handles it like a champ, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I'll link to some information on Port Limon in the show notes, so you can read about it if interested.

So, let's hear all about this as we open to page 123.

Port Limon: https://www.govisitcostarica.com/region/city.asp?cID=168

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we hear a lot about what it was like to travel around the Caribbean Sea. It's very pretty, but it can be tough to navigate the sometimes shallow waters. Can you imagine how many things are at the bottom of the Caribbean?

I have this daydream that I often draw to mind of draining certain seas and parts of different oceans. After they are drained, I imagine myself walking on the bottom looking at all the interesting treasures and pieces of history. I think that would be wildly cool to do.

Mother Cabrini is getting close to Port Limon and she is anxious to get to shore to find someone to help her understand her swelling problem.

Let's turn to page 120 to hear.