You can't see it, but it's there!

That's what my friends kept telling me throughout our snowshoe trek today up the highest mountain in Washington, Mt. Rainier. The grey clouds and snowflakes falling around us hid the majestic peak of this volcanic mountain from our sight. But beyond the veil of clouds rose the mountain peak and a panoramic view of other peaks as well, including a far off Mt. St. Helens. I reassured them of my faith. After admiring this mountain for so long from a distance, I was just happy to finally be standing on it! After all, 2 Cor. 5:7, "We walk by faith and not by sight," right?

When the four of us set out in the early morning, it was pouring rain - not a promising start to the journey. Driving up the mountain, my faith began to waiver as I did not see any snow. Were we going to end up hiking in the rain? But our hardcore leader was undaunted, so we kept hoping.

Near the very top, at the entrance called "Paradise," the rain magically turned into snow within a mile! With gusto we unpacked our gear and began cresting the mountain one hill at a time. We’d say hello to fellow passersby and ask, “How is it higher up?” or “How high did you go?” And they’d give us a report, such as “Avoid that one slope over there where the wind is real bad.”

We climbed onward. It was my first snowshoeing experience, as well as my companion Giorgio’s, but our two other companions were pros, making sure we were well outfitted and assisting us in getting our gear on correctly. They’d been up these slopes before and were our guides, while we saw it all for the first time.

“The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ,” such were words that a twenty-something Italian outdoorsman had spoken in the 1900s. Crazy about the outdoors, especially mountain climbing, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a vivacious young man who found the mountains a good place to commune with God. His famous phrase was “Verso l’alto” – or “to the top!”

I couldn’t help but think of this saint and wonder if he was with us in spirit as my companion Giorgio pointed and said, “To that tree up yonder!” – just when we were discussing heading back down. It looked a long way off. Could we make it up one last hill? We set our poles in the snow and climbed to the tree, forging our own path through the wet, heavy snow, pushing on until we finally made it up the slope and to the designated tree. 

Up here the only sound was the wind humming in the fir trees. “Where else can you go and find such silence?” asked one of my friends. Indeed. The stillness of the snow and the whispering winds quieted our souls. If I inclined my ear to listen to the wind, would I hear the voice of God?

 
Frassati, the Italian saint, once wrote to a friend: “I left my heart on the mountain peaks, and I hope to retrieve it this summer when I climb Mt. Blanc. If my studies permitted, I would spend whole days on the mountains admiring in that pure atmosphere the magnificence of God.” 

I decided that I would come back to this mountain someday - God willing, when the August sun was shining on meadows painted with wildflowers...

Going down was smooth and easy. When we came up, we were as strangers to each other. Now we descended as friends...

Steaming cups of hot cocoa in the lodge finished up the trek, and I felt the warmth of it penetrating through the layers of my soaking-wet clothing to my bones.

Eye has Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard, What God has Prepared for Those Who Love Him

“The Lord said to Christina: ‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from you mother’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make you name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.’ Christina went as the Lord directed her, and Ginger went with her.” (from Genesis 12:1-4a, modified).

Past the woods and rolling fields of Wisconsin to the plains and badlands of North Dakota, across the vast expanses of Montana and through high mountain passes in the Rockies to the misty Cascades, all the way to the ends of America,  where the ground meets the sea, she went. And an orange tabby cat, wide-eyed but trusting, went with her, as well as parents, who accompanied her on the journey westward to see where she was going before turning back for their home country. 

North Dakota, so flat and barren under a huge dome of sky. Just earth and sky, touching each other.

Train rolling through North Dakota plains.

Big clouds in a North Dakota sky.

The patron saint of travelers, St. Raphael the Archangel, meets us in Fargo in the Healing Shrine at Sts. Joachim & Ann Catholic Church. "Take courage, the Lord has healing in store for you, so take courage!"

My first glimpse of the Rockies in Montana

Heading for the mountains.

"Climb every mountain / Search high and low,
Follow every highway / Every path you know.
Climb every mountain / Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow / Till you find your dream!" - The Sound of Music

Our Lady of the Rockies

In Butte, Montana, a 90-foot statue of Our Lady of the Rockies, stands on the Continental Divide, hovering over the valley below and where we stayed the night. Our Lady’s hands are outstretched as it to pour out God's graces upon all who travel across this wild but beautiful country.

Before departure, as I sifted through my stuff, making piles of what to leave behind and what to give away and what to take with me, I found a bookmark. The picture on it drew my eye because it looked like Washington – tall, evergreen pines pointing their treetops into the sky, mirrored in a crystal lake below. 

The verse on the card read: “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Book of Ecclesiastes). On the back of the card was written a note to my dad in my grandmother’s handwriting, “Happy 27^th Birthday, Gene!” 

Sometimes God gives us obvious directional signs and this was one of them. I knew this had floated down from heaven from my own father. What did his 27th year hold for him? I wondered. Was it also a time of taking leaps of faith? He'd kept the bookmark until he died and it had ended up in my box of cards to speak to me on this day in my 27th year.

As I said goodbyes to home and family, one of my friends told me he likes to think of the world as having two suns – one always setting, the other always rising. Somehow that mystery got captured in a photograph I took of the sun setting over Lake Washington just after my arrival.

One thing is certain; when we leave it all behind to journey with the Lord, He opens our hearts to new heights of experience, to grace, and to oceans of opportunity. 

Standing on the edge of cliffs, sloping down to the Puget Sound, she peered out across the expansive water and stared as far as she could over the tops of sails in the marine harbor and out towards the far islands and mountains and prayed, “I have given up over half of belongings, and I have left family and friends behind. You have called me, Lord, and I am here. Your servant is listening.”