Like the newly sainted Father Junípero Serra whose
great faith inspired long treks, thousands of seminarians and
religious novices traveled vast distances to attend the
Franciscan friar’s canonization Mass and see Pope Francis.
Their pilgrimages to the Basilica of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception in Washington Sept. 23 varied in
length and effort, but the journeys all culminated with a
soul-moving experience.
“It was surreal, really,” said Sister Stephanie Gabriel, a
novice with the Sisters, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, who grew up a parishioner of All Saints Church in
Manassas. She is also a former editorial assistant for the
Catholic Herald. “The experience of being so close to
the pope, to Peter, was beautiful,” Sister Stephanie Gabriel
said.
Prior to the late-afternoon outdoor Mass, the pope briefly
went inside the shrine, blessed those in the pews and prayed
in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Approximately 3,600 U.S. men
and women in religious formation were inside the shrine, the
largest Roman Catholic church in North America.
“It is such an overwhelming blessing, a great privilege to be
there today,” said Sister Peter Catherine, a Dominican Sister
of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. With her fellow novices,
Sister Peter Catherine made the 11-hour drive from their
convent in Ann Arbor, Mich.
As a native Californian, she felt a special connection to the
brand-new saint, who traveled up and down the California
coast spreading the Gospel.
Though there’s been concern about how he treated native
peoples, Sister Peter Catherine said that the more she’s
learned about the Spanish saint, the more she appreciates his
approach to ministry.
“He loved those he ministered to and did all he could to
defend the native people from brutal soldiers, and he taught
them agriculture, as well as the faith.”
Seminarian Joseph Hubbard beamed before Mass as he spoke
about the experience. He’d come from Boston with a group of
seminarians from St. John’s Seminary.
Along with prayer, Hubbard had been studying the pope in
preparation for the trip to the nation’s capital. “I didn’t
want this to be just about fanfare; I wanted it to be about
encounter,” he said. “Pope Francis’ message of mercy really
resonates with the human heart.”
After leaving the motherhouse in Immaculata, Pa., at 5 a.m.
via car, riding the Metro to D.C. from Virginia and waiting
nearly four hours to get inside the shrine, Sister Stephanie
Gabriel was ready to be in the presence of the Holy Father.
Yet that dream almost dissolved into disappointment.
“When we got in, there were no seats available,” said Sister
Stephanie Gabriel. She thought she and her two fellow sisters
would have to sit outside. “It was very disheartening,” she
said.
Just as they were giving up, Sister Stephanie Gabriel saw a
novice she knew from a different order in Philadelphia, who
offered her a spot. “She was so generous and kind,” said
Sister Stephanie Gabriel. The other two sisters also
eventually found seats nearby.
When the pope finally walked up the center aisle of the
basilica, Sister Stephanie Gabriel was just feet away.
“I had this impulse to reach out (and) to be close to him,”
she said, her face glowing.
She’d been to Masses with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict
XVI, but she’d never been that near a pope. “To be so close,
you see this love that just radiates from him,” she said.
It also was the first time she’d been in the presence of the
Holy Father as a religious.
“Our mission as religious is in the heart of the church,” she
said. “We are called in a special way to make present the
light of Jesus in the world.”
Thus, seeing the leader of the church provided “an even
deeper joy this time.”
And it was that joy, along with the grace it brings, that
made the journey and wait so worth it.
