Our journey today began at the crack of dawn! We left Nevers at 7:30 am, half asleep and most of us were either knocking back mugs of coffee or preparing to nap as soon as we boarded the bus. We were on the bus for nearly two hours before we reached our destination, the beautiful and tranquil town of Paray-le-Monial. The most striking thing about this town, on first inspection, was the overwhelming Catholicity of the place. From rosaries in the jewelry shops to a picture of John Paul the Second in the local bar, the presence of the Faith was palpable. The reason as to why quickly became clear as we stepped into the Chapel of Apparitions. Fr. Ray celebrated mass for us on the very spot where, hundreds of years ago, Jesus appeared to a young nun named Margaret Mary Alocoque. He poured out to her the longing in his Sacred Heart to be loved by those who he died for. So often, his love was rejected and even scorned, but that only caused his heart to break and burn with an ever more fervent love for us. We venerated the relics of Saint Margaret Mary and attended a presentation about her life and the love Jesus shared with her in his apparitions to her. Following this talk we had some time for prayer and lunch. Before getting on the bus to travel to our next destination, we were blessed to visit a chapel dedicated to Saint Claude Colombiere, Saint Margaret Mary's confessor and a devout Jesuit priest. Our next bus ride took us into hillier country, the heat and the wind more akin to summer than early May. It was in this weather and these hills that we found the small town called Ars. Here, we had the opportunity to draw very near to Saint John Vianney. We walked through the house in which he lived, learned about his life, and viewed all his carefully preserved possessions from his hat to his chasuble. We learned of the great love that this priest and confessor, patron of all priests, held in his heart for his Lord, his Queen, and his fellow souls suffering on earth. Lastly, we prayed before his relics-- his body was entombed in his basilica, not a minute's walk from the house in which he died, and his heart, open for all to see, exposed in the famous little Chapel of the Heart. Once collected on the bus, we headed for the breaking mountain city of Annecy, built around a sparkling blue lake in the foothills of the Alps. It's there that tomorrow's adventure will begin.
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