Day 1: Cathedral Basilica of St.Augustine
December 27, 2019 · Saint Augustine, FL
Thoughts from Day 1 of our #RelicTour was majestic with a little impartation from the “Doctor of Grace” himself #StAugustineofHippo. Hoping to feel the encouragement as I follow in his footsteps of prolific writings of faith #CityofGod#Confessions. Teaching the kiddos about the tools of our faith to help empower them to be better saints = priceless #Sacramentals#Relics#Prayer#CommunionofSaints#HolyRosary#SpiritualBattleWeapons. Pondering the beauty of all the glory God deserves by human craftsmanship at its best – He deserves ALL the treasures of the earth for what He gave us #Gold#Incense#AnnointingOils. We ought to give Him everything good about us we have #OurBestVersionofOurselves. Only a Master Artist could totally understand true beauty #Perfection. Humanity has more to offer Him than rock bands and carpet stages #Cathedrals#Basilicas#Kingdoms#Nations#Poland. Excellence is godliness. The Nativity scenes are a beautiful reminder of the WONDER of this Season, which has only just begun for those who Believe #Epiphany and I’m just in awe of God’s love. Sitting in such a holy place you can just feel the portals of Heaven open around you. At any moment they could swallow you up – I want them to, but not yet #OpenHeaven#OpenGraves. This is the pull of the saints. A constant yearning for Heaven juxtaposed against Holy obedience for God’s perfect will #PursuitofHoliness#Sanctification. I don’t want to miss a step. I wish I could soak it all in but there’s more waiting for us. Our journey has only just begun… #FirstParish
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.” 
Day 2: Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist
December 28, 2019 · Savannah, GA
DAY 2 #RelicTour: The gothic looks of Savannah’s French colonial charm are certainly more vibrant juxtaposed against the Spanish colonial flavor of Saint Augustine but #OneThing remains – #TheRealPresence. The homily on the Feast Day of St. John the Evangelist “The Beloved Disciple” a sweet confirmation this moment was brought by “the Johns.” I never realized just how many saints carry the name John, a name almost as celebrated as Jesus. #JohntheApostle#JohnTheBaptist#JohnVianney#JohnPaul#JohnFKennedy Okay the last one is a stretch but he was the first and last Catholic president and also named John so… The Spirit leads as He wills. We weren’t supposed to be in Savannah this #RelicTour but John carries a special meaning for us too in this Season. A stop over turned into a surprise invitation for Mass and encounter with the Global Faith of our Church when we ran into some Cursillistas from our hometown. What are the odds? Proof the Church can be as small or as large as you’ll let it be. No matter where we go, we have a global family always welcoming us to #ComeHome. In the Spirit of “the Johns” I felt that call. It’s here in the sacred spaces that I feel most close to our Lord. Sitting below the murals it’s not hard to imagine Heaven surrounding you. All the saints and angels and the Holy Family opening their arms wide. We Are Family. The Church is family. If you’ll let it be. Don’t be the prodigal for long. And if you’ve been the beloved big brother, don’t let your heart stay cross at your little brother too long. He was just working out his journey in the way he thought best. We each have a Father waiting confidently for the day we will all gather at Home together. We need only remember Our Father’s love and rest in His assurance that one day we’ll all be Home together for good. In the meantime, we must strive to answer that call from the Wilderness. That voice of John crying out – REPENT, COME HOME. Next stop on the #RelicTour another Jean-Baptiste- known for his special devotion for priests and his love for the Blessed Mother. We’ll be praying for a few we know and honoring her request from Medjugorje to “pray,pray,pray for the shepherds.” Can you guess who the Saint is?
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”
Day 3: St. Mary’s Church and St. John Vianney Shrine
December 29, 2019 · Charlotte Hall, MD
DAY 3 #RelicTour:Florida 
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”
Day 4: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
December 30, 2019 · Washington D.C.
DAY 4 #RelicTour: “The Seed is the Word of God.”By far our most AWE inspiring moment. Sitting under the dome for Mass celebrating the Holy Family. I get chills every time I step into a church this enormous. The feeling of smallness is for real! And yet the feeling of oneness is just as prevalent. It’s a church full of strangers and yet my spirit recognizes them immediately as family. I wondered if that’s how people felt when Joseph & Mary arrived in Egypt. The Jewish fellowship there would have welcomed them immediately as one of their own. And when they returned to Judea the same warm welcome awaited them in Nazareth. Haven’t you ever run across someone and thought, Wow, it’s like I’ve known you for years! Recognizing the fact we have a global church family just humbles me to tears at times. No matter where you go in all the world, basilica or rural parish, our language is the same when we commune together in the Mass. Our hearts are all united in one faith and our Father is the same. Just as Joseph & Mary took Jesus to Egypt we can see how this little babe from Heaven is still gathering all the flock today into one singular focus – family. The crypts, the icons, the relics, the Saints, the liturgy, and all the things we see inside the four walls of the building serve as living scrapbooks and memories of a holy family that was born that starry night. It’s been said that all the world needs to be reborn is for Catholics to example a holy marriage and holy family for one generation. Think about that 
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”
Day 4 (afternoon): Saint John Paul II National Shrine
December 30, 2019 · Washington D.C.
Arguably the BEST MUSEUM in D.C.
Day 5: Holy Rosary Church (Baltimore, Maryland)
December 31, 2019 · Baltimore, MD
DAY 5 #RelicTour: Ringing in the New Year with Polish Catholics at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy. THIS CHURCH WAS AMAZING! 
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”
Day 6: Baltimore Basilica-America’s First Cathedral
January 1, 2020 · Baltimore, MD
DAY 6 #RelicTour: There were no relics here (accept the usual ones found in altars and crypts) but we couldn’t help but stop at America’s First Catholic Cathedral for a little history tour and reminder how far our faith has come. Built in 1806, Catholics had long since settled in the New World and even founded the first Catholic Colony at St. Mary’s, Maryland but Catholicism was still very much an underground religion. Persecuted under the Protestant Reformation happening in Europe (thanks to feudal wars since the time of King Henry VIII to Martin Luther) many Catholics sought refuge in the promise of Religious Freedom in the New World. But participation in the New World Government was limited mostly to reformed protestants (Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists and even some Evangelicals) and being a Catholic politician meant keeping your faith a secret and celebrating the Holy Mass in homes (which is what a handful of those men who signed the Declaration of Independence indeed had to do). Though few parishes existed for the working class, as yet, a formal Cathedral with a Bishop had not been appointed to the America’s. That’s where JOHN CARROLL entered God’s Divine Plan (Floridians may recognize the name, a local Catholic high school bears this famous bishop’s name for a mighty reason.)Friends with many men in politics, including a man named THOMAS who had a friendship with the first schooled architect in the America’s BENJAMIN HENRY LATROBE, Carroll was able to return to France for seminary, become a priest, receive consecration through a French Bishop, and with the Pope’s blessing return to Baltimore to construct the New World’s First Catholic Cathedral. His good friend THOMAS (Thomas Jefferson, yes the president) helped Carroll raise the funds for the Basilica and Latrobe, who built the U.S. Capitol Building, graciously offered his services to construct the building. The men intentionally chose a style that was completely new to Catholic Churches. Unlike the Baroque, Byzantine and Gothic architectural designs of cathedrals in Europe, Carroll, Jefferson and Latrobe wanted a New Design for a New World. Today the basilica stands in the exact same footprint, exact same building, and exact same interior design as its 1806 founding. Unlike many of. its predecessors, no fire or war has ever marred its structure. Stepping into its dome, a double dome influenced by a cathedral in France with an inlay of the Holy Spirit as a Dove, is like stepping into a portal in history. Even the Bishop seat is the same chair made from American woodworking craftsman in the 1800s. The crypt downstairs has space for 8 bishops. The first to be buried there was Bishop John Carroll. Three things struck me most profoundly about this story. First, although most fellowships can claim a history of religious persecution, I so often forget how much the Catholic Church has suffered its share, especially being an American Catholic with much more privilege and access to worship freely than in other countries. How often I take for granted that it was because of the perseverance of early settlement saints like Carroll that I can freely express my Catholic Faith. For their perseverance I am forever grateful. Second, how beautiful to see the work of ecumenical brotherhood behind this historic monument. If it weren’t for the true hand of brotherly love extended by Jefferson and Latrobe it is foreseeable such a milestone would not have happened in extending the Catholic faith to the New World. Third, and finally, I’m in awe of God’s Divine Providence at the working of His Spirit to ensure the discipleship of men like Carroll and the priests and seminarians to follow in expanding the Gospel of Christ to the New World in the Spirit of the Apostles. Catholics may want to consider the time and what it would mean to practice our faith without even one Bishop in the land. John Carroll’s MISSION for the gospel was much more vast than meets the eye. He was endowed with a VISION for a New World and one where the Catholic faith had a part to play, not as an old structure of Europe, but one of divine grace in the spirit of renewed religious freedom. Much like today. John Paul II once said, “There is no freedom without truth.” This Cathedral is a sign from the Heavens that Freedom does ring in this country because the fullness of Truth has come to its lands. No one is a bigger supporter of Truth and Freedom than the See of Peter. “If there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power . . . . In a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and man is exposed to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and hidden. (Centesimus Annus, 46)‘You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ He added: ‘These words contain both a fundamental requirement and a warning: the requirement of an honest relationship with regard to truth as a condition for authentic freedom, and the warning to avoid every kind of illusory freedom, every superficial unilateral freedom, every freedom that fails to enter into the whole truth about man and the world.’ (Redemptor Hominis, 1979)May God Bless America 
“Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”
Day 7: Franciscan University of Steubenville
January 2, 2020 · Steubenville, OH
DAY 7 #RelicTour “Signs I Never Thought I’d See Again”All too long ago, I once stepped over the threshold into these parts, into a marriage to another man, and dreams of a life filled with things I long ago abandoned in order to follow the Lord with all my heart. I entered Ohio with hopes and dreams of mesmerized things and planted them in Columbus and Cincinnati, never knowing one day ahead they might sprout in Steubenville, a place I’d never even heard of then. Today, I’m reminded the seeds of our past are never wasted or forgotten. Though I am certain I planted many along the wayward path, God in His infinite Mercy saw to it they would appear and bloom in due season along the crooked path He would one day make straight. Now today I stand here again, having crossed the bridge and entered by a New Way, into a New Place, and I plant the seeds of hope and the FULFILLMENT OF ALL DESIRE for my children here in a place that has brought vibrancy and renewal to the Catholic faith in America through people like Scott Hahn, and many others, and the efforts of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and the Franciscan Friar Brotherhood that help to run this Catholic University in the New World. I think of all the sprouts of life that have come from these hallowed hills and I’m grateful that we even get to visit it today, even if only to enjoy the snow and take in the sites (we thought an Admissions Tour was a little “too soon” 
Come Holy Spirit
Day 8: 2020 Encounter Conference
January 3, 2020 · Toledo, OH
Walked in to pick up our daughter and someone told me she was “putting kids on the floor”
Day 9: 2020 Encounter Conference
January 4, 2020 · Toledo, OH
The Kids Track here at Encounter has been amazing! Our son got to play Jesus Christ crucified on stage the first night and partner up with his favorite Encounter Priest Patrick Gonyeau for Eucharistic Adoration, they learned how to hear the Voice of God for themselves and their small group mates, and last night he healed another boy’s mouth sore when they encountered the Holy Spirit’s power after a lesson on healing. 
Day 10: Maria Stein Shrine
January 5, 2020 · Maria Stein, OH
#RelicTour#MariaStein ‘MARY THE ROCK’ and The Communion of Saints Standing in the #HallofSaints was like entering the #HolyofHolies. The #cloud was thick with witnesses, the #crowns of elders could be heard rolling across the glistening floors and everywhere #angels lifted up one voice in one accord. So great a cloud of witnesses… Compared to the churches we’d visited thus far with only a few #relics of their mission #Saints, Maria Stein was the Hall of Saints. Over 1,500 relics were saved during the Protestant persecution of Catholics in Europe. Reformation ignorance had Catholic Churches, Holy artifacts like the #TrueCross the #SashofMary and the #HolyVeil among many others, and #SacredArt being burned by the thousands. There was no regard for preserving #ChurchHistory when a new one was being written. Catholic priests who were responding to the call of the #NewWorld were given sacred relics by the trunk load to smuggle out of Europe and keep safe for posterity. The Sisters of the #PreciousBlood were one of the lucky convents to relocate first to answer the call of German Catholic immigrants who had settled in Ohio outside Cincinnati in the 1800s and were in need of the sacraments. The sisters answered the call and with them the second largest communion of Saint relics held outside the Vatican walls in over a century. What a treasure! What a site! And all here in our back yard, in the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave – What a New World it would be. I felt suddenly attune to the creative flow behind the recent #StarWars movie that leaves our hero calling out among the stars at her most desperate moment “Be With Me.” Here in this room, I sat surrounded by the call of the saints as I uttered my own words of hope under my breath. BE WITH ME. Mother Mary. Father Joseph. Saint Michael and all the Saints. BE WITH ME. Help Guide me home. May we draw on the wisdom of those who have passed on before us. Let us surround ourselves with the cloud and enter in as often as we remember. We don’t need their relics before us to hear their answer, the call has always been answered from within. BE WITH ME…. I Am, until the end of Ages. “Enter Devoutly O’Pilgrim, for there is no place holier than this on the New Continent” – welcome message inscribed on the archway above the entrance to the Relic Chapel
Day 11: Piedmont Hospital
January 5, 2020 · Atlanta, GA
Day 10-11 #RelicTour: Isn’t it always the same MO? Have an amazingly powerful weekend for God and the devil comes after you. Spiritual Warfare is no joke. Within 24 hours me and the baby came under a severe attack that had us in the ER. Your natural mind will want to rationalize all that’s happening to you physically and justify all the details and outcomes but I take the Scriptures seriously when it says Jesus gave us the authority over all sickness and disease and every unpure spirit. Sometimes authority looks as simple as saying “Not today Satan,” a call to your amazing Catholic OB, and following his wisdom to get to the ER and, in between each of those steps, praying for the strength to overcome the Lies the enemies wants to throw at you that comes against your healing. Christianity is not a form of Voo-doo. We don’t use the Spirit as a magic eight ball. Discipleship requires BOTH wisdom and faith. It also requires acknowledging the kingdom of God is built on family. It wasn’t until we started asking for prayers from our spiritual family that the disease and sickness started to break. Like the sign over my bed reminded me, there’s no need for any of us to fall under the pressures of the enemy when we remember to call out for help through the prayers of other believers. There is safety in numbers. We cling to the Truths of prophesies given over this baby and our family and the efficacious hope of the prayers of the faithful. These are weapons of Truth. The world will always tell you the worst case scenarios, it’s the job of the spirit of cynicism to make you believe the worst. And it has many partners to work it’s nasty web of lies. But the Spirit of Hope is more powerful and it’s strength lies in those who believe. So the next time you think you have to do it all on your own, or you don’t need anyone, don’t be foolish. “STOP. Don’t Fall. Call.” You’re surrounded by a beautiful cloud of witnesses and efficacious prayer warriors ready to aid and assist you. Jeremy and I are GRATEFUL for all those who interceded for us on this journey. Mamma and baby are well, and despite all the lies otherwise, we have been discharged and we’re on our way home.
Day 12: Sacred Heart Catholic Church LW
February 3, 2020 · Lake Worth, FL
Our #RelicTour is officially concluded, well, at least until we stumble upon some more. Since our 12 Day Tour got cut short by a visit to the ER, we did our 12th Day closer to home. This time we got to bring the Mr. and share this night of Heaven Touching Earth with a few friends who were excited to catch a taste of our trip without the 3,500 miles in a car. The experience of holding in one’s hands such things as pieces of the Veil of Mary, the Holy Lance that pierced our Savior’s side, and the Cloak of his foster father Joseph is priceless. But even more of a treasure is watching two young souls see that Heaven is full of saints who are rooting for them and offering their friendship to help them get there one day too. Friends like Saint Nicholas and Joan of Arc, Saint Claire and Saint Frances, the Little Flower and Bernadette, Maria Gorretti, Faustina, the 12 Apostles and even Saint Michael the Archangel and hundreds more! It’s so much easier to make Heaven real when surrounded by a room of friends you can touch and hold. Not only is Heaven for real but so is our sanctification. The Saints remind us there is a pathway to holiness. And they offer their friendship to all who will receive it and the grace from God which allows us to become saints ourselves with each measure of forgiveness we give to others in their footsteps. Not only is Heaven for Real but it’s much bigger than we suspected and it comes down to us in its entirety through the blood of Jesus and the blood of the martyrs and saints. We not only have a cloud of witnesses but a cloud of friends who are praying for us to be strengthened by God’s Grace. Every single one of them has prayed for you to be in Heaven with them one day. There are no non-saints in Heaven. Only Holy Saints. Put down your pride and sinfulness and pick up the cross of forgiveness and mercy. We need Grace to choose to be saints. Let nothing hinder you from being full of Grace. May the grace of our Lord and the wisdom of the saints guide you Home to meet them face to face.
#LoveTheOnesYoureWith#ShowThemTheWaytoLife#ThankYouJesus#RaisingSaints
I hope you enjoyed our little tour. I highly recommend this trip for families interested in seeing another side of this beautiful country. It’s a great way to build faith, explore history, and spend time together as a family growing in faith with the saints!
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