Fellow Trailblazers,

For three years I have been the editor for Trailblazers news e-letter, The Compass. Now, it is time for me to “retire” and hand the job over to someone with much more time on his hands than I. That said allow me to bid you all an (almost) fond farewell.

I have sincerely enjoyed being editor of The Compass. I have learned and experienced so much since I joined Trailblazers on their pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2006. I enjoyed my time as a volunteer with Trailblazers both for the people I have met and worked with and for the great life lessons I have learned along the way. The things that I have learned I will continue to take with me for the rest of my life.

I have been asked to include with this letter a testimony of my experiences at the March for Life. Let me first say, although I have been attending the March for several years now, each experience is a new one. For example, in previous years I have traveled with a group from my parish Sts. Cyril & Methodius. For the past two years my siblings and I have traveled with Right to Life Lifespan of Michigan. I have to admit that going on the Lifespan bus is much more fun then going with a church group. Lifespan’s itinerary includes not only the March, but also the Rally and Mass for Life at the Verizon Center in D. C. as well as visiting several different museums the day before the March.

However, my most memorable experience was not actually during the March itself. It was the day before the March when our bus visited the Franciscan Monastery of Washington D. C. The monastery boasted of having replicated the catacombs of Rome used by the early Christians during the persecutions. Many different altars had been erected under the church that where dedicated to the different martyrs who gave their lives for the Church.

While all of these altars where beautiful, none moved me more then the small altar dedicated to St. Cecelia. Underneath the plain stone altar, in a glass case, lay a statue similar to the one found in Rome. This statue portrays the young martyr with her head barely severed from her body. The story goes that the executioner was so nervous that he had to strike the saint three times and then left her to die in her smoke filled home. Yet that was not the most beautiful part about the statue. What struck me the most were her hands. They rested in front of her body her right hand holding three fingers together while from the left, one pointed up. Simply put the fingers of the saint quietly testify to “The THREE in ONE”.

I had heard stories about this saint for many years. She is the patron of music and, being a singer and musician myself, I have often considered her one of my patron saints. To see this simple, white statue of a young woman who had so gladly given her life for God was an experience that moved me deeply.

There are many more things I could say about the monastery, the museums we visited, the Rally and Mass for Life and then the March itself. Yet it was the image of this beautiful saint that stayed with me throughout the time that I was in D. C.

So now I must take the time to say goodbye  to The Compass as an editor. I will continue to write articles for The Compass . . . you have not yet heard the last from me!!!

God Bless You All!!

Virginia – (senior) Editor of The Compass