A World United

My husband and I just arrived home from a trip to Spain. We were there for his business, part of which was attending the largest pro-life event in Spain's history. It was a huge event, where our friend, Eduardo Verastegui spoke to 2 million people marching for the "derecho de vida" (right to life) in Spain. The streets of Madrid were absolutely jam packed with young, old, religious, and lay people declaring their desire for an abortion free country. It was beautiful.

I also had the blessing of making it to mass daily, and when I sat through homilies that I couldn't always understand entirely, there was still so much to meditate upon in these beautifully crafted churches, with all of the art directed towards the beauty of Christ and His saints. Yet, these gorgeous places of worship were hardly being used by the residents of the surrounding areas. The Sunday mass I attended looked like a daily mass at my home parish.

The trip gave me some great perspective as international travel usually does. One of the things that struck me was that the fight against relativism and for orthodoxy is worldwide. It is easy to focus on the terrible direction our nation is heading and the current issues with the USCCB, and our parishes, but the struggle is everywhere. It reminded me of the weakness in our humanity and how alike we are in our concupiscence. We were surrounded by many solid Catholics over there, one in particular who is Opus Dei lay consecrated, and they are all fighting the same battles we face here. They are striving for their own holiness and trying to evangelize in every way they can with those they encounter.

While it was sad to see that the same struggles exist outside our country just as much as they do within it, I felt so strongly the bond of those of us who are united throughout the world through the precious Body and Blood of Christ. What a beautiful unity we have within our Church. While we can see the same scandals across the world, within their midst are people striving to be saints, people who understand that we're made to know and love Christ. Holy Mother Church is powerful and the gates of hell will not prevail against her. Our army is strong and we've all read the book, and we know who wins in the end. We are united in our weakness, but more than anything, in the grace of our Creator, and in the blood of our Savior.