A Divine Encounter

A Divine Encounter

By Lisa Nicks, Night Luminaries, Lake Jackson, Texas

On Sunday, June 2nd, my dad and I decided to drive over to Galveston, Texas to witness the pilgrimage procession. My dad is elderly and participating in the actual walking wasn't an option. We arrived and parked on the street a couple of blocks down from St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica. There was a police presence as Mass was being said by Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, at the time we arrived.
 
Slowly the crowd gathered in the street as Mass ended. We decided to stand behind the car and waited for the procession to pass us by. Cardinal DiNardo was carrying the monstrance with a variety of clergy and uniformed protectors. I am not exactly sure who all the various gentlemen were surrounding the Cardinal and monstrance.
 
Behind was a gathering of people walking quietly and at times gently singing songs. They sounded angelic to us. It is very hard to explain the delicateness of the sights and sounds of the procession.
 
As we were taking it all in and I was photographing it all, a young Franciscan Brother who was part of the team traveling the whole distance with the Pilgrimage stepped out of the procession to speak to us. He noticed my dad's baseball cap with my dad's college alma mater on it that he had holding over his heart. It turned out the brother's grandfather also graduated from there, so we had a great discussion about that area and memories.
 
As the brother was about to depart to rejoin the group, he reached into his garment and pulled out a commemorative Pilgrimage rosary and gave it to my dad and asked if he could pray with us. I said it was perfect timing because my dad would be spending the next day at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for extensive testing because a new type of cancer had recently been diagnosed after being cured from Stage 4 cancer ten years ago.
 
The brother said a beautiful prayer and asked that Blessed Fr. Solanus Casey, who has been beatified and has healing powers, would be with my dad. When the prayer was finished, I said "You're not going to believe this, but my dad has carried a relic card in his wallet from Fr. Solanus Casey since he was first diagnosed in 2013." As I was saying this, my dad opened his wallet and displayed the relic card.
 
The brother was stunned, and he immediately pulled out his Fr. Solanus Casey’s relic card he carries. The three of us were speechless.
 
The brother suggested that they switch cards and carry each other's card going forward which they did.
 
The brother wrote down our names to pray for us and said he was so moved by the stories he was coming across on the Pilgrimage route.
 
We continue to keep the brother in our prayers and honestly, I don't believe we will ever forget this special encounter. As my dad said, there are no coincidences. I could see the peace it brought over my dad as we made the trip to Houston the next day. It was an amazingly beautiful experience. 

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