Here's a peek at what our family did in St. Louis!
We visited the Cathedral Basilica three times during our visit. Twice for Mass and once for a guided tour. We were absolutely blown away by the beauty and could never even begin to capture it with pictures. There are 41,000,000 mosaic tiles! Here area few of our pictures!
Door of Mercy
When we went to daily Mass I was a little disappointed that the tabernacle was not in the sanctuary. However, when we took our tour, and I thought about the fact that tours like that take place all day long, everyday, I thought the beautiful chapel, next to the sanctuary, was the perfect place for Jesus. I have never seen a chapel so beautiful, but for obvious reasons, there were no pictures allowed.
We got to see so many of our favorite familiar stories, friends, and role models upon the walls.
Drawing our eyes, upward, to heaven!
This was used for Sunday Mass!
The tour guide did a fantastic job of giving the boys "jobs" throughout the tour! In the picture above they needed to investigate whether the picture of Jesus was a painting or something else. It was a mosaic. Below they are identifying the animals on the bottom of the baptismal font. They each represented evil being crushed by the waters of baptism.
Mass was ultra reverent and full of all the smells and bells. It was absolutely beautiful. We were asked to carry up the gifts and I thought I was going to die of bliss. However, Our Lord had other plans. We waited a moment too long and some lovely sisters beat us to it! I was disappointed to the max, but I'll admit I needed a little humbling. I had been highly distracted throughout the whole Mass thinking about how special it was going to be!!! It was a minor miracle that no screams were released from our five year old who had been prepping the entire Mass for his role in that moment. To my surprise, he simply whispered, "Hey, I thought we were supposed to do that!" After Mass, we ran into the sisters (in full habits) on our way to the parking lot and I got a picture of them with the kids. I'm sure it was kind of weird for them to be treated a bit like celebrities. However, it WAS Vocation Sunday, and it's just not often we get to see holy sisters dressed in their habits! To us, they are celebrities!
St. Cecilia and St. Agnes
St. John Berchmans, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and St. Stanislaus Kostka
St. Joseph, patron of a happy death, pray for us!
Relics of St. Peter Claver
St. Peter Claver: One of the miracles required for his canonization is linked this this church!
St. Padre Pio
St. Francis Cabrini
Looking out from the top!
View to the west: Old Courthouse in the center
View to the Southeast
Busch Stadium
View to the Northwest: Shrine of St. Joseph slightly behind the Edward Jones Dome at America's Center
Hard to believe were just up there!
The Old Courthouse
Inside: You are able to walk upstairs
One of the Courtrooms
Dred Scott Exhibit: Excellent
Touring the Old Courthouse is free and we were very impressed with the exhibits!
The Polar Bear Exhibit was like nothing I have ever seen! Amazingly close!
This place was super cool!
We did not have a guided tour, nor did we stay for very long. However, we did get to pray our morning prayers somewhere new, somewhere historic, and with Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament!
Springfield, IL
This is located in Springfield, IL, and we only toured the museum, because we were short on time and exhausted. This museum was fantastic! I wish we could have spent an entire afternoon there! Check out the website. There is so much to share and learn about this museum. We only tapped into a tiny bit on our visit! Loved, loved, loved!
The trip was full and exhausting, but I am grateful we had the opportunity to go and explore!
