Steve, back in Illinois and adjusting to life without breakfast salami.
The experience of pilgrimage fulfills the words of Augustine Fides quarens intellectum. Faith leads to understanding, not the other way around as practiced in our secular society. Understanding is the reward of faith; an understanding based more on trust than fact.
The Shroud was on my “bucket list.” It was my focus, the rest being just icing on the cake. So, I came curious, but left convicted.
In the final analysis, it was less the relics and more the pilgrims. All those souls gathering in a desire to grow in faith provided context to my heart — the Church Militant is a singular pilgrim community that cooperates for the salvation of the world. This satisfies a need of the heart that the mind can never provide.
I love being Catholic. ~Joe
