Walking Where the Saints Have Trod

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a very small chapel in the Italian countryside called La Maddelena when I heard a friar say, “Francis and Clare touched these walls.” I was on a pilgrimage to Assisi, where the Franciscan order had been founded. The friar invited us to reach out and touch them ourselves, to feel their presence and know that they were real people.

In the US, a building is impressively old if it was built in the 1800s. In Europe, they have structures that were built before Christ’s birth. I am not used to being surrounded by the physical history of my faith, and in that moment I realized that I had been missing a wonderful gift.

They had never felt so real before. I was in a space where St. Francis and St. Clare had served lepers. They had seen these same stones and had stood on this same ground. In following their footsteps, I felt a call from God, a challenge. The saints were people just like me, and I have the capacity to serve like them.

I am so very glad that I went to Assisi on a Franciscan pilgrimage and not just as another tourist. I was reacquainted with the Franciscan charism of prayer and daily reflection, community through shared meals and car rides, service as I learned about the ministries of my fellow pilgrims, and love of nature as we spent time in the same woods, on the same plains, and atop the same hills as Francis and Clare.

I didn’t realize how much I needed to be in community with Franciscans again. The pilgrimage brought back so many memories of FrancisCorps—communal meals and daily prayer, serving the poor and working with friars and sisters, and exploring beautiful Central New York. That year of service was one of the most formative of my life. It led me to become an attorney, taught me how to survive in real winter, and established friendships that I will always treasure. The call I felt on the pilgrimage was stronger than any I had felt since that year, and I have decided to incorporate more of the Franciscan charism into my life.

I have walked where saints have trod, and I will carry their dedication to community, nature, prayer, and service into wherever God leads me.

Categories: Alumni Stories

← Back to Stories