On this feast day for St. Gianna Beretta Molla, I cannot help but recall my visit to the home that bears her name.

St. Gianna’s Home in Warsaw, N.D., is a remarkable place where young women without support can come and have and raise a child in a loving, Christ-filled place.

I knew before I arrived that my trip there, where I also stayed and prayed with Father Joseph and Brother Nick in the friary across the street, that this was going to be a special week. Yet my brief time there affirmed the value of the entire endeavor and reaffirmed the Holy Spirit’s guidance along the way exceeded my already lofty expectations. It was truly a lifechanging experience, a sentiment I’m certain is true of countless women who have been blessed to be welcomed there.

St. Gianna’s home, which was once a Catholic school.

The display features relics from St. Gianna, provided to the home by her daughter, who has spent much time there.

Across the street sits St. Stanislaus, the Cathedral of the Prairie.

Bill from Catholic Table Talk invited me on again to talk about what I hoped to accomplish with the trip and my book.

I hope you give it a listen here and support Bill’s efforts.

This is St. Stanislaus in Warsaw, N.D. If the names of the town and church didn’t give away the town’s origins, the names on the adjacent headstones surely do.

The church here is known as the Cathedral on the Prairie. It sits just across the street from St. Gianna’s Maternity Home, an incredible place where pregnant women from difficult circumstances can come and give birth to and raise their children in a loving, faith-filled home.

I had an incredible, life-changing visit with the women there.

https://52masses.square.site.

Two years ago (church calendarly speaking), I was in Blythewood, S.C., to sit down with Connie Turgeon, a woman who thoroughly embodied this quote from St. Faustina. It was such a pleasure sharing her story of mercy in the book.

If you’d like to read about her story and others, you can find 52 Masses at: https://52masses.square.site

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Co-Cathedral of the Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan.

I took hundreds of photos during my trip, but none reflected the faith better than this Palm Sunday processional shot.

Holy Week is here.