We made our visit to Jesus on the prairie...

Well, we did go to the Schoenstatt Shrine, near Crete NE and it turned out to be more eventlful and efficacious than we imagined. We received a plenary indulgence from that little pilgrimage! The day was simply sublime. The prairie breeze was blowing nicely and the white clouds gliding across the broad blue sky...it almost seemed to get less muggy and even somewhat cooler as the day progressed. We got to the Shrine about 3:00....Divine Mercy hour. The sign they have on the highway might be more visitor friendly if it were turned perpendicular to the road however, because we did drive by it, but happily we had the address of 340 so turned around and proceeded to follow the gravel road to the serene surroundings. There's a little nunery and another building that appeared to be a chapel, too. Upon opening the door to the shrine, we saw a sister and greeted her and she us. We knelt and prayed and on her way out, she gave us prayer cards to pray, smiled graciously and asked where we were from and so sweetly told us to enjoy it saying "This is your shrine." Being the Year of St Paul, there's a prayer on the card to St Paul, and there is also a relic of St Paul on the altar with a relic also of St Cabrini.

We prayed a rosary for our family and friends. We were so blessed to be in the stillness, listening to the hearts of Mary and Jesus. As I was praying and looking at the statue of St Michael, it dawned on me that the spear that St Michael holds goes right through the mouth of the dragon/serpent. I pondered and thought, "Yes! This is so great! St Michael is wielding his spear right through the mouth of the father of lies! He's destroying his mouth first, so that all of the lies will cease, and as saints who one day will hopefully join St Michael, we'll never ever hear those lies again! Those lies will never touch our ears to tempt us ever again to sin, to doubt, to fear!" Saint Michael, thank you! Please pray for us!

If we remain IN CHRIST, we will one day not hear the lies of Satan any more. But if we don't, we could end up hearing his evil guile for eternity! So I prayed there in that holy place to press on and will continue to pray for perseverance, to remain in Jesus as a branch that will yield much fruit and not become a branch that withers and dries up, to be gathered and thrown into the fire. That is a sobering word we recently heard at Mass.

We didn't see the sister again. We hoped she'd have come out so we could ask her some questions. I will be going back again. It's a little gem and such a blessing to have it so near!

I'll get some pictures posted later today.

JMJ