A simple basket sits inside the altar rail at the Shrine. As the week goes by it fills with prayers in many languages. Gauging from our conversations with visitors, we can guess the contents: they are prayers of thanksgiving, grief, concern for others, yearning for safe transit for a family…
A four-year old named Adam stopped in at the Shrine the other day. He was with his grandmother. They dashed in because of a sudden downpour and stayed until it was time to pick up Adam’s sisters from school. Adam had a million questions. What did Mother Cabrini die of?…
A gentleman named Julio Guzmán came to the Feast Mass last week and lingered afterward to tell us a remarkable story. He’d moved recently, and in the process of packing up came across a memento of his maternal grandfather’s funeral. On the front was a picture of Mother Cabrini. Mr….
Last week Ms. Marion Higgins stopped by the Shrine. As a young girl her arms and hands were completely covered with warts, and other children refused to touch her or hold her hand. When she was seven her father brought her to a specialist, who documented the condition and then…
A few weeks ago I discovered a nondescript 3-ring binder in a corner of my office closet. As I opened it my heart skipped a beat: inside were pages and pages of yellowed newspaper clippings. Some were from 1938, describing Mother Cabrini’s beatification. Others were from 1946, covering her canonization….