On The road--STILL?

BLOGGED SUNDAY NIGHT:

Today is Sunday, Mass at 10:30 in a place named St Michael. I need to pray to St Mickey about one of his namesakes. Attending another church in another town is to me as much FUN as hitting a new AA meeting on the road (again).

Tonight we will be in a hotel at the shrine 'Our Lady of the Snows', near St Louis. We've been there twice before, so you can bet that it is good for us to spend two days there.

Ah! Peace. Tranquility. I can stop every activity except blogging. Is that good or bad? Oh, and I'll be practicing my violin there. I use the "workout" room, with all that equipment--nobody ever interrupts me there -grin! And the food is excellent, but no DQ with that awful (full of awe!!) "Turtle Sundae", mmm!

SUNDAY NIGHT:

At the Shrine is a replica of the grotto at Lourdes France, where the Blessed Mother appeared to Bernadette, quite a few times. (My father was taken to Lourdes by his mother two times--a blog story?--and was cured, not of his blindness, but of related and horrible ailments.)

This shrine area of several hundred acres is SO beautiful and conducive to peace and serenity, healing, and seems to expell great doses of spirituality. The grotto scene is awesome, about an eighth-size of the real thing, otherwise a duplicate.

We went there tonight. I saw those eyes, looking right through me, as if saying, "Time to change, Steve". I got to pray the way I like--not asking for something, or telling something. Praying in the manner of just loving, just "Being", just loving to be in the presence of...can anyone understand that? Several happenings occurred within me--it would not be fair to publicly blog them.

Mass is daily at 7:30 and 11:30 AM and lots of in-between services...always something going on, usually more than one event at a time. So in the morning for me is mass, then rosary at the grotto, a "Walk-It or Drive-Through" mile-long Way of the Cross--lots of the happenings are in nature.

A full service hotel, and, in a separate building, a fine restaurant, all in beautiful surroundings, are part of what keep people coming back year after year. Of course, it is the continuous services, lectures, cultural activities, and spiritual encounters which set this place apart from other retreat centers.

Our Monday will also be colored with a noon AA meeting, another at 8PM. And,

if I need some "down time" I can just slip into the car, turn on the GPS, drive around the complex, and listen to the voice of Flexis (the sweetest sounds you'll ever hear) the GPS girl, who programmed 20 trillion sequences for our driving pleasure.

I have been given to understand there may be not much here on which to comment, so, if that be the case, please just say something like, "Hi Steve", so I know you were here??? That way I'll get to read your blog and comment(?) Thanks!

DAILY TRIVIA: What I have never read on the menu in a Chinese restaurant is the definition of the words: Chop Suey. It means "Odds and Ends". Now we know! (Sort of like my blogs -grin!)


Peace, and LOVE,
Steve E