Fourth of July: Bl. Pier Giorgio, TOP

Today is the optional memorial of Bl. Pier Giorgio, TOP. There’s a cool episode of EWTN’s My Catholic Family about him (let’s face it: every episode of My Catholic Family is cool.

Anyway, we took a bit of a pilgrimage to the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN. Mary has a very close friend from college who is one of their Sisters.

The kids got to see a lot of nuns in habits. I got to pray Vespers with a bunch of nuns in habits. We sat in one of their community areas (formerly an auditorium when the convent and school were one building), while the kids played on the stage. As it happens, it was a “fun day” at the convent, so some nuns were just finishing up a game of ping pong, and they left the table and balls out for the kids.

They have a Sr. Alexandra, who took her name for St. Catherine of Alexandria, so that was cool.

Back in late March, 2003, Mary got a letter out of the blue from her friend. It was a belated response to an earlier letter from Mary. She thanked Mary for her letter, saying it was so nice to hear good news, and how most of their letters were people asking for prayers because of miscarriages and other problems, and it was so nice to hear of her pregnancy. She said she felt inspired to write to Mary and pray for her that day, March 3. And since it was the feast of St. Katherine Drexel, she sent Mary a prayer card.

Well, March 3, 2003, the date of that letter, was the day Little Lew was miscarried. When that letter came a week later, we knew it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Ironically, Sister spent a whole year teaching at St. Thomas Aquinas in Woodbridge, while we were still in Fredericksburg, but we only saw her for one brief visit when she stopped at our house during the summer while she was moving to Woodbridge.