The National Eucharistic Congress is taking place right now in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Juan Diego Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage to that Congress passed right through my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky (above). Part of the Juan Diego Route included, on the evening of July 9, Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of the Archdiocese of Louisville carrying the monstrance ahead of a Eucharistic procession of several hundred people across the “Big Four” walking bridge (once the “Big Four” railroad bridge), over the Ohio River.
That procession included pilgrims who were travelling the entire route from Brownsville, Texas to Indianapolis. At the Indiana state line, he was met by Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson (who spoke at the April Eclipse retreat in Indiana that several folks from here at Sacred Space Astronomy were part of) and another large group. The two bishops then led the combined group in procession to the Big Four Station Park in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where there was a prayer service, and then further procession to St. Augustine Church in Jeffersonville for Benediction and food.
My wife and I took part in the procession. There was threatening weather in the area, remnants of Hurricane Beryl. In “Kentuckiana” in the summer, such weather can include tornadoes, but the procession took place anyway. We crossed the bridge, seeing dramatic skies and obvious rain falling at different places off in the distance. This unique event was pretty cool, and I found myself thinking, “it’d be neat to write about this for Sacred Space Astronomy—too bad I can’t spin some science, or faith-and-science angle, off this!”
And then, at the prayer service, a rainbow appeared! Because, of course, it was evening, and the sun was low, and there was rain falling within sight distance, and the angle was such as to form a rainbow!
And then what was sung at the prayer service but “How Great Thou Art”, which includes, of course:
Oh Lord, my God
When I, in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed….
As the saying goes, “The Lord will provide.”
And, aside from a few drops here and there, we did not get rained on, in either direction.
