We came here, the destination, the REASON for our Jubilee 2025 Pilgrimage, of the USA, that my…read morehusband gave ourselves for our 51st Wedding Anniversary, was to be HERE! We made it, finally! I am jumping up and down with joy. We're privileged to complete this dream.
We took the tour. We were hoping to attend mass inside the shrine, but it happened, downstairs at the Crypt Church, where Mother Angelica was buried (along with the other Poor Clare Nuns. The shrine was probably like walking in Heaven. We get to join the sisters (on tape) pray the Rosary, and we sat in the front. Attending the Mass there, would have made my trip 1,000% satisfied.
So, I'm mostly reviewing of our tour of the shrine. Brother Leo, a Lifetime Brother, gave us the tour. He was also the Altar Server, of the Live ETWN Mass we were at earlier. He was so informative, and answered all the questions I've been wanting to know about the shrine, indoors and outdoors, upper and lower churches, and St. Joseph's Garden, and the surrounding acreage, who lives there, who farms there, who were buried in the crypt, etc. It was something I would come back and explore more of the other tours they have.
Maybe, even come back just to attend the mass, at the shrine. That's something to think about, in our next Road Trip.
I LOVE THIS PLACE! It reminds me what going to church was like in my youth.
If I wasn't married, that was what I wanted to do, live in a convent and be a nun.
No joke! I walked and dressed and veiled like a nun, and walked around the garden, carrying my Rosary, and did just that, with a towel pinned to my head.