I recently returned from France. What a grace-filled trip! I had prayed that my trip would be something of a pilgrimage, and asked that the French saints would guide me during my stay, leading me to where I should go and what God wanted me to see. And they did!
So many unexpected graces, e.g., ascending from the metro at the stop where we rented an apartment, only to find ourselves in the square directly in front of the town's Catholic church, Église St-Pierre. I went inside to kneel and say prayers of Thanksgiving to Jesus and Mary.
Or arriving to beautiful churches in Paris to visit and pray, and finding out we were just in time for Mass! Or finding the church where St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents obtained so many graces, Notre Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories) and being able to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion there; getting the surprise privilege of a private tour of a Carmelite cloister in Beaune;
or visiting the cell of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity in Dijon, a saint near and dear to my heart; participating in adoration at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on our first day in Paris; attending the beautiful Palm Sunday Mass at St. Roch in the heart of Paris, just blocks from the Louvre; visiting the site where the Blessed Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne went to their glory; and of course, kneeling before statues of St. Joan of Arc to seek her prayers, guidance and blessings, upon me and upon Forward Boldly; and so much more ... Grace upon grace!
