I have a confession to make. I have been dreading this post because I don’t know what to say about the Mission San Rafael. This mission (the interior shown above) serves as a chapel to the parish church of Saint Raphael in…
I did promise to post pictures of my week long silent retreat at the Cistercian (Trappists) Monastery, New Clairvaux, in Northern California. I discovered this remote monastery last year when the New York Times featured an article about their Sacred…
I took these pictures on Good Friday, 2013, just weeks before I left on my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. That was the first Easter my husband and I spent away from our home parish. We have just made reservations for…
In the midst of California’s drought my husband and I make way to one of California’s great natural monuments, Yosemite National Park. It’s a traditionally quiet time of the year. Kids are back in school after the holiday, the falls are…
(previously published in The Catholic Voice) Five years ago, my family and I went on a pilgrimage through the south of France to the Grotto of Lourdes where Mary spoke the words — “I am the Immaculate Conception” — words…
