What a fun weekend!I spent most of my 4th of July pool-side, but certainly got in to play a fierce game of water volleyball, which my team subsequently won. :-)
We were at my friend Doug's sister's husband's mother's house. The food and drink were abundant, the laughter was contagious, the children were numerous, and the illegal fireworks at night we an impressive conclusion to a great day spent in the sun. Indeed, we lit up the sky that night!
Then on Sunday, I made a spontaneous pilgrimage to the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
I went because I felt myself about to plummet into the depths of sadness again, even deeper than the sadness which began my weekend (and which had me unexpectedly crying in Doug's arms). I do not mean to be so fragile, but this fragility began for me exactly one year ago this month. And although that cloud of darkness was lifted from me in early February, perhaps I still retain the memory of the feeling of it all, and so by that it is easy to occasionally return to the state.I cry because so often I feel alone in this world. I am sure it is a misconception, but it is a real feeling nonetheless. For the most part, I am able to forget about it. But, every few days, my tears wash away a bit of my happiness.
But the Holy Spirit moved within me today. And so, within 5 minutes early this afternoon, just as I saw myself on the brink of a beautiful day spent indoors with my sadness, I decided to go on the road trip which had been beckoning me for several months. I grabbed the street address from the website, and off my GPS took me to the basilica.When I got close, I parked at a metro station just off of Rt. 95, then took the Greenbelt Line to the Fort Totten interchange. There, up on the platform, God had the Red Line train waiting patiently for me. Soon thereafter, the train was zipping through fields and then tunnels to the Brookland Catholic University stop, whereby I ran a half-mile to the basilica stairs and eventually found my way downstairs to the Crypt Chapel where the priests were hearing confessions.
Relief! It felt so good to have made it into confessional line in time. And I felt so proud of myself for navigating the network of highways and regional rails! Just as my panting was beginning to quiet, who should enter the chapel and stand in line behind me -- but my friend Vince!
It was comical that I should run into him because I had thought for sure that he had lived in another city altogether, this being my beloved Philadelphia. But perhaps it had been hard for me to hear him when we were talking in that noisy club all those months ago, his band Army of Me having just finished their set.
People have described him as the only guy who's worn a Brown Scapular on the set of MTV. But I would describe him as the only guy gutsy enough to stand up like a flight director and show two confessional lines how to best share 3 confessionals.His plan was efficient, and with everyone's cooperation and his continual oversight, I think we all received the sacrament and made it upstairs to Mass in the main church just before the Second Reading. Whew.
The Second Reading resonated with me the most. It was St. Paul writing about his frustration with temptations and how he had begged God to remove them from his life. And yet God responded that His grace was enough. And so St. Paul boasted of his weaknesses because, through them, God is made strong as we are left to rely on Him even more!
As Mass continued, I marveled at how a giant jellyfish was painted on the ceiling. Who would think that a jellyfish should grace the walls of a national shrine? But a jellyfish is nonetheless the creativity of God, and in this particular image, the artist was depicting the creation of all the creatures of the earth and then of man and woman. God's creativity is so neat!
When Mass was over, Vince and I said good-bye to each other. This gave me one hour to be alone in God's house before I would meet my friend Carlos for dinner. Well, I wasn't really alone, but it would feel that way, since I was among strangers.I took my time and visited each side chapel of the church, the first one I entered being one dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Beside that lovely chapel was one dedicated to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, a very special one for me, since within it was a lovely statue of my patron, St. Catherine Laboure, as well as her spiritual companions, St. Vincent DePaul and St. Louise DeMarillac.
I entered the prayer room of Our Lady of the Rosary next. When I entered the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, the pieta before me was so stunning that it brought tears to my eyes. As I made my way up to the main altar and circled around it, I searched for the Tabernacle and finally found it in what was named the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Unbeknown to me, Carlos was in prayerful adoration just a few pews in front of me with no one obstructing my view of him, and although I saw this man's form, I certainly did not realize it would be the friend I would be meeting later! How neat that we were so distracted by the presence of Almighty God that neither of us noticed each other!
After spending some time at the altar of Our Lady of the Scapular, where I found an adorable statue of St. Therese, who--instead of looking at the beholder, as most statues do--was utterly captivated by the nearby statue of Our Lady and was instead looking in her direction (which I found to be a incredibly cute and accurate portrayal of this simple saint), I went to the gift shop.Brown Scapulars were my focus, and I bought quite the handful to distribute to friends and family. After this, Carlos would spot me -- and he picked me up and twirled me around just as he said he would!
We walked around the lively DuPont Circle, a ring of wonderful restaurants, all with outdoor tables, which were perfect for a night of comfortable summertime weather like this. We previewed menus until we finally found a lovely Italian place. It was either the fake food in the window or the white grand piano in the foyer which beckoned me in, although I can't be sure which. Either way, we went in and then immediately went out, for we requested an outdoor table; and, on this, I ate tender bits of lamb which immediately qualified as The Best Meal Enjoyed by Lisa in the Last 6 to 8 Months.
On the ride back to my car at the Greenbelt Line parking lot, we had the unique opportunity to match the wits of the Garman vs. the TomTom, with the electronic ladies' voices calmly but most definitely disagreeing with one another on almost every turn. How they could disagree so vehemently yet with such smoothness in their voices was beyond us! In fact, the directions were SO CONSISTENTLY OPPOSITE that I tried to snap a picture of the screens just to prove it to you!In the end, we concluded that my Garman won hands-down. And I concluded that this was a fabulous weekend, from beginning to end. :-)
