Viewing St. Therese's Relics

In 2000 I had the opportunity to view St. Therese's relics at the cathedral in Newark, NJ since it was only an hour and half drive from our home in Hatfield Pa. At that time we were living near Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Doylestown and Fr. Marian really wanted me to go see St. Therese's relics as they were touring the country and he knew I had great devotion to her. Fr. Marian and Fr. Simon were driving in their car and we were following behind thinking they knew the way. They took the longest way possible, the traffic was unbelievable, and the hour and half trip that it was supposed to be turned into three hours! How crazy is that! It was good though and great fun to get so close to St. Therese. My dream has always been to go to Lisieux to see her there so I felt that my dream came true because she brought herself to me knowing how impossible it is for me to fly to France. The cathedral was packed to the brim with people waiting to view and touch St. Therese's reliquary. We were expecting to be one of the crowd in the line but Fr. Marian had different plans for me. He was a total extrovert. While the line was in the center aisle with no room to squeeze through, he took us up the side aisle to avoid the crowd. (He had no problems bypassing the huge line!). It was like following the Pope or something because Fr. Marian was dressed in his habit as a Pauline Father which is a white floor length monk's cassock with a fifteen decade rosary draped down the side and he wore a white beanie on his head. With us following in toe he led us right up to the altar and up the steps so I could have a front row view of St. Therese. What an awesome experience (even though a little embarrassing)! We took pictures of us on the steps of the altar in front of the reliquary of St. Therese with Fr. Marian while millions waited in line. That was the embarrassing part! Being on center stage is not really my thing so it was awkward. It was a grace-filled time and so one has to take the bad with the good! There was a beautiful Mass which was the bishop of Newark celebrated. It went for a couple hours and I think we left a teeny bit early because we were worried about getting home too late with me and all. What a great grace-filled time! I LOVED it!