Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
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We’re all<br />
‘malades’<br />
Lessons learned<br />
from a pilgrimage<br />
to Lourdes.<br />
BY JENNY GORMAN PATTON<br />
The statue of Mary at the grotto of the Shrine of<br />
Our Lady of Lourdes in southwestern<br />
France. | SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
all ‘malades.’ ” Referring<br />
to the French word<br />
“We’re<br />
for people who are sick,<br />
my cousin and godfather, Mike Smith,<br />
a Knight in the Order of Malta, spoke<br />
these words that persuaded me to say<br />
yes to his invitation to join the pilgrimage<br />
to Lourdes.<br />
Years earlier, after reviewing the<br />
pilgrimage application he’d sent, I had<br />
said no. I wasn’t sick enough. I wasn’t<br />
Catholic enough, my inner voice<br />
said. I felt that that honor should go to<br />
someone with a life-threatening illness,<br />
not someone with a chronic condition,<br />
not someone who attended Mass<br />
intermittently, not someone who questioned<br />
some of the Church’s teachings,<br />
not someone like me.<br />
I didn’t want to take the place of<br />
someone more worthy.<br />
For nearly 30 years, I’ve lived with onand-off-again<br />
pain and other symptoms<br />
triggered by a range of autoimmune<br />
conditions.<br />
When my pain level has been at its<br />
worst, I’ve felt closest to God.<br />
In 2019, when I was in a wheelchair<br />
for four months and battled pain daily,<br />
Mike called me. “Mary has asked me<br />
to ask you again,” he said.<br />
“Let’s do this,” I responded. I hadn’t<br />
expected a second chance to go to a<br />
place of healing, and I felt grateful for<br />
it.<br />
My application was accepted, but the<br />
pandemic delayed my journey for two<br />
more years. In April <strong>2022</strong>, I landed in<br />
Lourdes with the Order of Malta and<br />
my caregiver, Dori Wagner O’Donnell,<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>July</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2022</strong>
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