We were a family. All our waking hours were marked by tender love, profound peace, and no real sense of time. Blessed John Paul II observes in his Letter to Families that modern rationalism does not tolerate mystery. Yet surely even a skeptic entering the domaine of Lourdes will sense that something extraordinary happened there in 1858. It’s still happening today.

And wherever we were and whatever we did, we were surrounded by the splendor of the universal Church: among men and women of most races, cultures, languages, ages, and states of health and grace. . . .

I live now in the rippling echoes of Lourdes. I am mindful of the yellow roses on the bare feet of Our Lady. I live in the Way of Beauty, albeit with the thorns of those yellow roses. Eucharisteo!

Karen Goodwin with Cardinal Donald Wuerl at Lourdes in 2012

Rest in peace, Karen, from all of us at TCT