Robert, Turn Left

You don't take a 40 day road trip without some planning. Before I left on my Cathedrals of the USA Tour I developed a Google Map with push pins, web addresses and Mass times for every Catholic Cathedral in the lower 48. Then I put together a sortable spreadsheet of all the cathedrals, pro-cathedrals, basilicas, minor basilicas and national shrines with city and state locations - 346 sacred places in all.

When I left Connecticut on June 24th, I thought I had my route of 40 stops pretty well decided, but 10 days into my trip, I've made a number of guided changes. Each decision to abandon the original stop in favor of an intuition turned out to be a gift from God - Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, NY, Church of the Conversion of Saint Paul Shrine, National Shrine of Saint Therese in Darien, IL and Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI. It may be a prejudice I am bringing on my own, but so far I am finding an added reverence to the Mass when celebrated at a national shrine.

While I still have my original way points programmed into my Garmin GPS unit, I'm letting the light guide me as well. There's no getting lost with either navigation system.

Print this post