Notre Dame- the real one.

The second weekend of free travel 3 of my friends and I decided to take a crazy adventure to France. It included spending more time on trains than in the actual places we visited, and a lot of stress, but in the end it was totally worth it. In the span of 72 hours we saw 2 Marian apparition sites, 3 incorrupt bodies of saints, and a certain tower in Paris that sparkles at night :)

Our adventure started with taking our first overnight train to Paris on Thursday afternoon right after our last class ended. By train I mean 5. After a long night of uncomfortable seats and no sleep, we arrived in Paris later that we expected. It gave us barely enough time to go to the ticket counter, reserve the rest of our tickets, and then catch our train to Lisieux. The French train system is very annoying and demands that you have a reservation for each train, even if you already have a Eurail pass. By the time we got our tickets, we only had 15 minutes to catch our train to Lisieux that left from a train station on the opposite side of the city. We ran down to the metro, but my debit card didn't work in the machine and we didn't have the right amount of cash. Time was ticking at an incredibly fast pace, when from behind us we hear a man ask in English if we need help. He was like an angel sent from above. I told him our situation, and asked if he could put our tickets on his credit card and we would give him the cash for it. He hesitated for a minute, but I think the panicked look on our faces moved something in him to help us. He got our tickets, and after thanking him over and over we ran down to the subway. We got to the train station with minutes to spare, and ran from track to track looking for our train. When I say ran, I mean it. Sprinting through the train station with our big backpacks. We finally found our train just as it was about to leave and hopped on at the last second.

As I flung my stuff down on a seat and caught my breath, I thanked Mary and St. Therese for helping us. I had been frantically praying to them the whole time, asking for their intercession. We were going to see St. Therese of Lisieux, one of my favorite saints, and I kept asking her to help us get on the train. The man who helped us at the subway ticket machine came back into my mind. I have no doubt that St. Therese put him in our path for a reason. She was all about finding holiness in the little things, and showing charity to every single person that you meet. He gained more holiness, whether he knew it or not, through his act of charity. Without us being there, that opportunity wouldn't have happened. So, although it was stressful, I thanked God for everything.

It was a quick train ride to Lisieux, and when we got there the sun had broken through the clouds to greet us. We could see the big basilica from the train station, and walked right over to it. It was built to honor St. Therese, and is massive in size. It's very beautiful, but I wonder if she's looking down from heaven and shaking her head, asking if we learned anything from her. She loved everything small and simple, and here was this grandiose basilica built in her honor. Hmm. We then walked over to the Carmel convent chapel, where her body is. I was so excited and nervous at the same time- she was going to be the first incorrupt body I have ever seen. We walked in, and a feeling of peace washed over me instantly. She lies in this glass case, sort of like Snow White, except much more beautiful. She is wearing her habit, and all of her skin is covered in a wax covering. This means that her body isn't completely preserved but that the process of decay is slowed down to a miraculous pace. Many of the other incorrupt saints are like this as well. I just knelt in front of her body, completely in awe. I had read her Story of a Soul only a year or so ago, so it was fresh in my mind. Everything that she talks about was sitting right in front of me- the convent, the garden, even the statue of Mary that miraculously healed her as a child. I felt her presence in such a powerful way. The sisters even started singing midday prayer in the chapel while we were there. I wish I could have stayed there for hours, but we had to catch our train back. The way the schedules were, we could only stay in Lisieux for about 2 hours in order to make our next train to Lourdes. While 2 hours is an incredibly short time to be in Lisieux, it was enough for us to see St. Therese and have her bless us with peace and love. I could feel the love pouring out of her body still, radiating like a warm lamp. Everything she did was out of love, for love.

The next leg of our journey was to travel back to Paris to catch a train to Lourdes. This train left out of the southern part of the city, so we decided to walk there in order to see some of Paris. It was a beautiful walk, but we didn't give ourselves enough time and ended up having to run again. This time we ran the last mile to the train station. Running on the sidewalks, maneuvering around people, on a gradual uphill. It was brutal. I started praying to Mary again. We made it to the train station with about 5 minutes until our train left. However, there were two different buildings, one on each side of the street. We went into one and it ended up being the wrong one. By this time we only had about 2 minutes, so we sprinted across the street, down the stairs, and into the huge train station. We eventually found our train, but realized that it was two different trains linked together, each going in separate ways once we left the train station. Apparently they do that a lot in Europe. So, we had to sprint down the length of the train (it was a very long train) to get to the right car. The train should have left already, but the conductors must have seen us and held the train (something they don't usually do). As we were sprinting, people were looking out the windows and standing in the doorways, some yelling "go, go, go!" It was sort of embarassing, but hilarious at the same time. We jumped on the right train just in time. I thanked Mary again, in disbelief that we actually made it. There was no way that we should have. The French trains are very particular about leaving on time, and this one had left about 5 minutes late, just enough time for us to get there. I knew it was through Mary's intercession, since if we missed this one there was no way we would make it to Lourdes at all that weekend.

We got to Lourdes around 11:30pm on Friday, February 11th- the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes :) I thanked her that we at least got to spend a half hour of her feast day in the actual place where she appeared. It was a miracle we had made it, after two days of travelling and no sleep. We walked straight from the train to the grotto, and knelt down in exhaustion and complete peace. It was like all of the stress from the last two days completely melted at her feet. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen- there were candles everywhere from the procession they had had that night, which lit up the face of her statue with a warm glow. The grotto is so peaceful and natural, which I liked so much better than being in a big, loud distracting church. We prayed there for a while, and then walked back to our hostel around 1am to get a few hours of precious sleep before we had to wake up early again. We got up early to beat the crowds to the baths, since we had to leave that afternoon to take the train back to Paris. As with everything in life, the women's line was much longer than the men's line even at 8am in the morning. Katherine and I waited for a good 2 hours to make it into the baths, while Jose and Nathan were in and out before we even made it inside.

The baths at Lourdes are an incredible and life-changing experience. For those who don't know, the water in Lourdes comes from an underground spring that Our Lady revealed to St. Bernadette during her apparitions. It has special healing graces in it, and many people have been miraculously healed at Lourdes through Our Lady's intercession. They have indoor baths, called the piscines, where you can be dunked into the water and pray for any type of healing (physical, emotional, psychological, etc.) It's not magical water- healings don't happen 100% of the time. It's more the prayer that's in the heart of the pilgrim that brings about the healing, and their openness to God's work in their lives. There is so much respect for the dignity of each person who comes into the piscenes. I felt Mary's presence more in the women who helped me than in the water itself. They are so motherly, so tender, so caring to people who are complete strangers to them. They help you by holding up a sheet while you take off your clothes and put on a big robe made out of thin cloth. There are then more women inside the bath itself, who pray with you and help you into the water. There is one women who leads the prayer, and the woman I had happened to speak English. She was probably in her late 30s and very soothing. She asked me to pray to Mary for my intention, and wrapped her arms around me from behind like a mother and held her hands on my heart while I prayed. I felt like it was Mary herself holding me. They then led me into the water, which is FREEZING cold, especially in the middle of winter! I was kind of in shock from the cold as they helped me up, but I managed a smile through my blue chattering lips and thanked them from the bottom of my heart. I changed back into my clothes and went right back outside to the grotto. I prayed a Rosary and thanked Mary for her intercession at the feet of Jesus. Although Lourdes seems to be all about Mary, it really is all about Jesus because all of her graces come from Him. I felt His peace through her. We eventually had to leave to catch our train- but Mary gave us a special grace by not having to run this time! We all didn't want to leave, but got on the train back to Paris.

We arrived in Paris late Saturday night and walked to our hostel. It was right near the Eiffel tower, so we stopped there on the way to look at it. It sparkles at night!! It was beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as the peace we had just experienced in Lourdes. However, we took our funny tourist pictures by the tower and then called it a night. We were planning on spending the entire day in Paris on Sunday, since we hadn't really explored the city yet, but found out in the morning that the only train we could get a reservation on was leaving at 11am. It took a lot to surrender this to God, but it ended up working out for His glory. We were able to go to Mass in the morning before we left, at the shrine of the Miraculous Medal. It's the place where Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboray and gave her the miraculous medal and its promises. St. Catherine's body is there, along with St. Louise. It's a very pretty church, and Mass in French was beautiful. I'm almost positive that the priest we had was Haitian, because he was black and his French was very choppy, not smooth and flowy like a native French speaker. He could have been African as well, but something in my gut told me that he was Haitian and that this was another sign from God that my vocation is in Haiti. We spent some time after Mass praying in front of St. Catherine Laboray's body, which I'm pretty sure didn't have any wax covering. She looked like she was just sleeping peacefully.

We then went to the train station and started our long journey back to Austria. Because of the train situation, we had a 5 hour layover in Munich on Sunday night. Luckily, anywhere in the world a McDonalds is always open, so we hung out there for most of it. We had an actual sleeper car on the way back, meaning real beds! It was so nice, after pretty much not sleeping for the last 3 days. We got back to Gaming at 8:15 in the morning on Monday, right in time for class. I'm not really sure how I made it through the day since I was so tired, but it was totally worth everything. Mama helped us on each step of the way and gave us the graces we needed to make it through. I learned how long a human body can survive without a real meal. We ate bread and Nutella for most of the trip, having one dinner at McDonalds in Paris and a crepe in Lourdes. I decided I wasn't leaving France without having a croissant, so luckily I found one in the train station just before we left.

The trip was the most stressful one during the whole semester, but we got the fame back on campus of being one of the only group of students ever to do that trip in just a weekend. It was challenging, but it strengthened my trust in God and my complete surrender to Him in every situation. We never got to see the church of Notre Dame in Paris, but we definitely spent time with the real Notre Dame, both in Lourdes and along every step of our journey.