Madrid 8 Years Later (by Brian)

"chaperoning" in Rome's Borghese Gardens
                                     days before heading to Madrid.                                         
With fashion like this,
it's a wonder I stayed single as long as I did.

In August 2011, I was chaperoning a group of students in Madrid for World Youth Day. My prayer intention for the pilgrimage was to seek God’s will in my relationship with Courtney. I was fairly certain that I wanted to marry her, but I also knew that my heart wasn’t always the most reliable barometer for good decisions. One morning in Madrid, I woke up with a newfound confidence that I wanted to propose to Courtney. A huge group of high school students, chaperones, and families waited outside a parish church to be let in for a catechesis session led by Francis Cardinal George, OMI, and there was a commotion as a van approached the crowded church’s entrance. We learned that the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, were to be brought in to the church for veneration that day.

That's me on the left. Not the ponytailed individual, the other one

The back of my unmistakable head

A few of us were asked to help carry the relics into the church, and I made a deal with St. Therese as we walked in. I didn't know much about St. Therese other than the fact that she was really into flowers and that her feast day is October 1, so I decided that I'd propose to Courtney on October 1st. That gave God, St. Therese, and Courtney almost two months to end the relationship if it wasn't meant to be. Once we sat down, Cardinal George preached to a mostly teenage congregation about marriage, commitment, and love. He spoke so clearly about the necessity to make a commitment with one’s life when we’ve found a love worth living for. I don’t know how many of the 15-year-olds in the church that day could relate to what Cardinal George was saying, but I heard it loud and clear.

On October 1st, the feast of St. Therese, I proposed to Courtney. The whole story, read aloud by my sweet voice, can be found here. It's a chapter from my non-selling (free!) Audiobook via podcast about God the Father, "Best Dad Ever."

Fast forward to December 23, 2019. Our family was visiting Madrid for a few days, on pilgrimage to see the tombs of Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. On the last full day of our trip, I wanted to bring the family to the Madrid church where I had made my deal with Saint Therese of Lisieux. The only problems were my lack of planning (see 1982-2020 for additional documentation of this shortcoming) and my ignorance of the church’s name / location within Madrid. Shortly before our trip to Madrid, I had contacted two of the former teens who had attended World Youth Day in 2011 with me. One was able to find photos of us carrying the relics of Saint Therese (thanks, Rachel Pat!), And the second (thanks, Ellie B!) Used a reverse image search to determine the church’s name and location.

"Brian, you're welcome"
"Courtney, really? Him?"
-St. Therese of Lisieux

As we approached the entrance to the Carmelite church of Saint Teresa and Saint Joseph, I retold the story to Courtney and the kids of how we waited outside in 2011 as the van carrying St. Therese’s relics pulled up. We went inside the church and I couldn’t help but think of how overwhelmingly faithful God had been to me in the past 8 years. The church even had a side altar dedicated to St. Therese of Lisieux, so Courtney and I renewed our wedding vows at the side altar. I left the World Youth Day pilgrimage in 2011 wanting to return to Madrid again, but without chaperoning teenagers. Instead I found myself back in the same church, now fully responsible for the lives and well-being of our 4 children. There’s no way I could’ve imagined in 2011 what the future would bring, or how incredibly full my life would be 8 years later.

Shortly after graduating from college, I went through a frustrating period where I questioned/doubted whether or not God had a plan, specifically a good one, for my life. My spiritual director at the time suggested I pray with a specific Scripture passage each day for a month. This is the passage I was told to pray with:

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”  Jeremiah 29: 10-14 (RSV translation)

A brief overview of the last 8 years of my life

Fifteen years after that penance I was given in college, I’m in awe of God’s plan and His perfect timing. Of course His timing has often seemed less than perfect, but in hindsight I’m convinced that He is even more concerned about my welfare than I am. I’ve been given more than I had ever even hoped for, and the trip to this church in Madrid was yet another reminder of the Lord’s goodness in my life.