Pilgrimage Part 4: Lanciano (the Journey)

Lanciano- the Journey

We commenced our journey from Assisi by car to the station. When we got there a nice man with his granddaughter tried to help us sort out the train timetable and the time and platform of the train.
We hadn’ t had lunch and couldn’t see any place nearby to get any food. We thought we would just grab a piece of pizza or a bread roll with prosciutto – these were the only choices.

Our nice man returned and tried to tell us something. None of us understood a word of Italian. Finally he took us to the entrance and showed us a restaurant across the road. We didn’t want to leave our luggage and we still had to lug it all down a flight of stairs, through a tunnel and back up another flight of stairs to the other platform.  It was hot and it was going to be a 2 hour trip, but we didn’t investigate his advice.

'Angel' helper at AssisiAbout 15 minutes later our “angel” reappeared carrying a bag of “goodies” – cold rockmelon sliced up, bananas, cold water … He wouldn’t take any payment. We took a photo with him “Sergio” and his granddaughter.

Our dear Lord is so kind and is definitely with us! He knew that some of us had to stand in a hot train with air conditioning that was dripping water all over the seats and the floor for 2 hours. We were very grateful and it made the trip much more bearable.

Pilgrimage Part 2: Assisi

Beautiful statues and sculptures in glass cabinetWe arrived mid morning at this old, but very quaint village, with lots of little places to stock up on Rosary beads, statues, etc

First we went to the very old Church of St Peter and offered up our prayer group intentions to our Blessed Mother and the Sacred Heart of Jesus and lit candles.

Later we visited the Church of St Francis and prayed before his tomb and presented our petitions and also prayed for our church, bishops and priests. We had special handkerchiefs that had been touched to various relics by another prayer group member, so we took them with us on this trip and also touched them to the tomb of St Francis.

We also prayed in another chapel for our prayer group intentions and attended Mass there in the evening. Tomorrow morning we will attend Mass again, before we leave .

Statue of Sacred Heart JesusPhoto of Altar with Statue of Virgin Mary and Child Jesus