Pilgrimage--Day Three

I woke early, Saturday, June 2, 2012, showered, took my camera and went for a walk.  Roche d'Or is beautiful.  There are gardens galore.  There were also an awful lot of slugs around.  We have those in the USA but not the amount that I saw in France.

After Morning Prayer, we were picked up and brought to the Diocesan Center for lunch.  We were guests of the Archbishop of Besancon.  There were people giving speeches, so I guess we were late.  Here is a picture that we sat under.  It is a depiction of the Apostle, John.  The title of the picture is "John's First Mass."  Unfortunately, I don't know the artist, but I love that painting.

Something very distressing happened to me personally.  There I was all dressed up: high heels, jewelry, skirt, scarf and matching top.  Less than a second, my clothes were ruined--at least my top.  The first thing I did was stick my fork in the knockwurst, and the largest splat you ever saw, shot out from that satanic sausage and blasted me, dead center of my chest.  I didn't believe it: so fast...so obvious a place.

It's a good thing that I was wearing a scarf on my hair, because I took it off my head and wrapped it around my neck.  I arranged it so that no one could see the huge stain.  I tried to lessen the damage by dabbing the grease spot with water.  That didn't work.  I had a water stain surrounding a grease stain.

The wine was very good.  Some of the Lataste family own a vineyard, and they donated the wine for the night.

The rest of the meal was a salad of lettuce and beets. Lamb and cauliflower were the main dish.  Different kinds of cheeses.   Dessert was coffee with ice cream.  Then there were speeches from the Vice-Postulator of the cause for the Lataste Beatification and the Master General of the Order of Preachers.

Afterwards, we were brought by van to the Vigil before the Beatification.  The van parked and we walked the rest of the way.  It seemed funny to see all these pilgrims walking to the Cathedral of St. Jean.  All along the way were signs in store front windows, advertising the Beatification.  Here are some pictures:

The cathedral itself is being renovated.  Personally, I think that's a lost cause.  It would cost a fortune to fix it up, never mind maintain it.  It's a money pit!

Famous Clock in St. Jean Cathedral

The inside of the cathedral has many side altars and statuary.  Sister Pauline took a picture of a statue of a bishop, reclining.  She plans to send it to a bishop and say "Stop lying down on the job!"

z-z-z-z-z

The church was full of people.  The way the people dressed reminded me of home.  You would have thought the people were going to the beach: shorts, tank tops.  No one wore a hat.  The men wore the shortest shorts!  And it was noisy.  It was a nice ceremony.  All the bells and whistles.  Readings were from Pere Lataste's sermons.  The homily was given by the Vice-Postulator.  And the ceremony closed with the singing of the Dominican Salve.  Here are some pictures: