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:

Pilgrimage--Day Two

The Dominican Sisters of Bethany were to meet us at the train station on Friday, June 1, 2012.  But the road to the train station is under construction--a car could not get through.  So we had to take this little train; it was so cute--a mini bullet train.  It was very crowded and when we got in the train, many of the male passengers stood up and gave us their seats.  The French are so polite!  Sister Renata was explaining in French, to a man who had given up his seat, why our group was traveling.  I could visibly see everyone in the train turn their heads to listen to her.

Sister Sara carries letters.  Sister Pia Elizabeth carries paper roses.

After a short ride we arrived at our stop.  The first sight, and a very welcome one at that, was a Dominican sister, in habit, welcoming us with open arms.  Deo Gratias!  It was Sister Sara Bohmer,op, the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in Venlo.  Imagine, a Prioress General meeting us!

We all hugged and kissed and followed Sister Sara to an awaiting van.  As we approached, another Prioress General pops out of the van!  It was Sister Pia Elizabeth,op, the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in Mont.  God is too good!

Now, we all traveled to Foyer de Charite Roche D'Or. Pilgrimage-Day One has some pix.

The place is beautiful.  We all had our own rooms with a bath.  The one thing that surprised me was that they don't have any screens on the windows.  I guess in Europe they don't.  Don't they have mosquitoes?  The supper and all the meals were so exquisitely delicious!  It's part of their charism to be hospitable.  That's how they show Christian love.

All their food and flowers were from their own gardens.  Each table had a bouquet of beautiful cut flowers.  There was one other group with us.  They were from Catholic French TV.  They were there to film the beatification.  You can watch what they did on You Tube.

Flower Bouquet

Annunciation

Sister Pauline smelling the flowers.

I did not sleep well that first night.  The pillows were strange: one was a bolster pillow and the other was in the shape of a large square--it took up half the bed.  I read and journaled and napped now and again and again, for the rest of the night.  I guess I was just too excited to sleep.

Pilgrimage--Day One

Gate Entrance

 Fourteen of us are on this pilgrimage to the beatification of Pere Marie Jean Joseph Lataste, op.  Today, May 31--June 1 was spent traveling.  We left Boston Thursday night via Icelandair to Reykjavik--approx. 5-6 hours.  Somewhere there, the day changed to Friday.  From Reykjavik we flew to Paris--approx. 3 hours.

Anybody who told you that everybody in Europe speaks English, is a liar.  They must stay in the tourist areas.  It's just like in the US.  99% only speak their native tongue.  For example, the bus driver going from the airport to the train station didn't speak English.  Don't you think that someone who drives people around trains and planes would speak English?

We had a couple of hours to kill before we caught the train to Besancon, so we went to a restaurant in Paris.  Again no one spoke English.  There was one waiter who spoke a little--very little, but he helped us.  The food was delicious.  I had an omelet--very light and cheesy.  I wish I remembered the name of the restaurant, but I don't; but it's across the street from the train station in Paris.

Annunciation by Joseph Pyrz

I don't know how many trains it took to get to where we were staying in Besancon, but we finally got there.  I do remember that the train ride was for two hours.  We stayed at this retreat center called Foyer de Charite de la Roche D'Or.  It's a Lay Catholic Community.  It was founded in 1950 by Pere Florin Callerand.  The community follows the spirituality of Marthe Robbins.

Tabernacle

Dining Room

Here is a picture of their chapel.  The place is beautiful!  Here are some pictures.