One of MySpiritualAdvisor.com's biggest fans, Joe Marmion, had longed to see the Shroud of Turin. He set out to do so last May. I asked him to journal his pilgrimage. Below is the result of his journey. Enjoy!
Pilgrimage to Italy and the Shroud of Turin May 12-20
POST SCRIPT
To see the Shroud of Turin was on my “bucket list.” It was my focus, the rest of the pilgrimage was
just icing on the cake. So, I came curious, but left convicted. My conviction is rooted in the clear call for all of us to be Christ to the world. It is a call that obligates us to radical behavior, radical behavior rooted in Jesus, Paul, Francis, Pio and Benedict. Please take the time to read the 2nd Epistle of Paul to Timothy. It is important to the understanding of the Shroud.
Jesus routinely re-presents Himself through the actions of the saints to remind us of the call to be radically holy. We see the face and wounds of Jesus in the Shroud . One thousand years later, when the world has forgotten Jesus, we see the face and wounds of Jesus in St. Francis. In another thousand years, we see Christ in St. Pio. Without the visible wounds, we see the suffering of Pope Benedict and in all holy people.
The experience of pilgrimage fulfills the words of St. Anselm, "Fides quarens intellectum." "Faith seeking understanding," is the clarion call for Christians. It is not the other way around (understanding seeking faith) as practiced in our secular society. Understanding is the fruit of faith; an understanding based more on trust than fact.
In the final analysis, it was less the relics and more the pilgrims which inspired me. All those souls gathering in a desire to grow in faith provided context to my heart! It was the Church Militant as a singular pilgrim community that cooperates for the salvation of the world. This satisfies a need of the heart that the mind can never provide.
We are not alone, the Church Militant, Church Suffering, Church Triumphant within and outside of time were, are and will be a pilgrim people traveling together and assisting each other to our promised destination.
I guess in retrospect, the process was not curious to convicted. It was more like curious, infected, convinced, convicted, witness.
I love being Catholic!
WARNING: I struggle with poetry and am sensitive to reality that exposure to more than two of my poems is best described as an “infliction.” For you English majors, my poems can be characterized as “periodic iambic pentameter with an accidental rhyme scheme.” Read them at your own risk.
Pilgrimage
The pilgrims made the pilgrimage to see so many people at the shrines was instructive of the need that people have to get their hearts aligned to strengthen their faith.
buongiorno pellegrini
who swarm at the very hint of ash
do not put a sin in cynical
by traveling without meaning.
Did you come
because you are curious
just to see the dead?
Did you come
because you have grown
and you are ready to take serious
the work to win the crown?
Did you come to fill a need
perhaps to seek the gardener
who can give to you the seed
that will grow on rocky soil.
Did you come to touch a relic
that by touching you’d be freed
from a life of aimless toil.
Fides quaerens intellectum
St. Augustine said
learn more from your heart
than the facts stored in your head.
Know by contemplating Him
in man incorporates the leaven
that gives to us the buoyancy
to rise to Him in heaven.
