Wrapping up: An end to an epic and long journey

Going from where I left of last, we were on the road for the last part of our journey. We parked the camper right opposite the shrine of St. Anne. What a privledge! Getting to visit such a beautiful church with such a large relic of st. Anne's (her arm) was such a treat! I volunteered to do the night shift for the very last week of the walk. We set out to walk one side of the St. Lawrence, only to realize that it would be better to walk the other side of it . We counted our kilometeres and set out on the side that had the shrine of St. Anne. We really pushed it. One of the hills was what seemed to be a 70 degree incline. It took me 20 minutes to cross that short stretch, which would have normally taken me 5 minutes on a straight road! The hills in Quebec have really sharp inclines but they don't go up for very far, unlike the rockies which don't have so much of an incline but go on for many many kilometers. Quebec also seemed to have some great city and lake views, ski runs and mountains. It was starting to look a whole lot like BC again.

The next day felt miserable after being up all night. I kept looking for an opportunity to sleep. We went for mass at the shrine of St. Anne's again. Just when I thought I was going to catch a wink, I was told that we were set to do the day walk too. Since this would be our very last walk, I accepted the offer. I reached a point where I did not sleep for so long (over 30 hours) that I almost did not feel sleepy again. We did one 6 man relay and because we aimed to catch the evening ferry from St. Simione to Rivere de loop, we did not do any more. So, we officially ended our walk in Bay St Paul in Quebec (about 100 km east of Quebec city). There you have it, a trek from Vancouver, BC to Bay St. Paul, QC about 6200 km. I sure was ready to rest those feet! We made it through the cold windy waters of the St. Lawrence in a ferry that lasted an hour. We found a campground almost right away. I was put up in a tent outside in colder conditions. That did not seem to matter. I slept like a rock after being awake for more than 40 hours straight! Our highway walking was officially over!

We drove the next day from Riviere de Loop to Ottawa. I drove for most of the way, a trip (with stops) of about 9 hours. The next day was our big official finish at parliament hill. We did a 10 km trek through the city of Ottawa. We initally got a lot of pro life reaction, but once we got in town we got a mix of both. Our finish line experience was quite something! About 40 people clapping for us with a welcome sign. Among the distinguished guests included Archbishop Pendergrast of Ottawa and MP Pierre Lemieux's wife.

They had a little reception for us and we were all given "congratulations" helium baloons. We were made to answer questions. We were served lunch and we had a bit of socializing. Here we got to meet up with Pierre Lemieux.

The crazy rush of Crossroads was not over yet. We rushed back to drop people of at the various parishes in Ottawa. I had a challenging time changing the speach for my parish. Now that the walk was over, we had to change our speach to the past tense and speak of future walks. The response at the walks was moderately generous despite my terrible attempt at changing tenses! When we came home, we had way too much fun with the helium baloons by sucking them and speaking in our funny helium voices. What else do you expect when you give a group of grown up men helium baloons?

The next day I spoke at St. Clements, the traditional parish. It was my first time experiencing a first class high traditional latin mass. So reverent, beautiful and slow. I loved every minute of it. I gave my last speach of the walk at a reception in the basement of St. Clements. I attempted not using my script for the first time. Instead, I added as much personal touch to my speach as I could. The young people at the parish were indifferent. However, we did get some faithful pro-lifers that were curious about our walk.

It's hard to believe that this walk is over. 80 days on the road. 100's of cities. 6200 km. So many arguments. So much of love. First, I just want to thank first of all my fellow walkers. You guys thought me so much about myself. I feel that I have come out of this a different person. Molded in the fire through all the experiences and grown sharp and strong mentally, physically and spiritually. Exactly the reasons why I decided to do this walk. I want to thank all the wondeful pro-life people that hosted us throughout Canada. You guys truly provided a little Oasis for us as we persevered in this hard journey. I want to thank my parents, family, relatives and friends who were there for moral support. Though they could not walk with us phyically, they walked with us spiritually by praying for us. Finally I want to thank the hundreds and thousands of parishoners we met along the way. You prayed for us. You trusted us with your intentions. You supported us financially. Together with your support we can win this war and put an end to this legal holocaust.

Jesus promised us that "the gates of hades (hell) will not overcome it" (church) (Matthew 16). We know that abortion will end. This inhumane killing cannot continue. Until then we will march for life.

Yes, life is a gift and every minute of it is worth living!

Bonjour from Quebec

Hard to believe, but we have almost made it to Quebec city! A

distance of over 5300 km and a plane ride of over 6 hours, we have walked it in less than 3 months and this walk ain't over yet! I'm going to try something different this blog. I'm going to let one of my fellow walkers, Frances Platt write my blog. So here it is......

Hello Everyone, I am here typing as three of the Crossroads group... including Michael... are valiantly walking the night shift in this last week.

Yesterday was one of the most challenging and inspiring city walks, for we walked right into downtown Montreal, visiting 3 magnificient churches - Our Lady Queen of the World, St. Patrick's and Notre Dame. For the first stage we were joined by a man and his son, and a friend of Jon, Mike and Frances joined us for the whole afternoon.

We began our walk with Mass at Our Lady Queen of the World, a large Church modeled after St. Peter's in Rome (though only about 1/4 the size). It was majestically

beautiful and awe inspiring... pictures cannot capture it properly. Sadly there was a pro-abortion message spray painted onto the sidewalk right beside the church steps... in

direct contrast to the lasting call of the Catholic Church to uphold the sanctity of life.

Next we went to St. Patrick's Church, which was also stunning. It had one of the largest high altars I have ever seen. Around the inner

walls of the Church were a few hundred iconic pictures of the saints.

The third Church that we visited was Notre Dame, one of the most beautiful Churches I have ever seen... breathtaking! However, it was really very sad since people have to pay to go inside

unless you are going to visit the small Chapel to

the side where they have the Tabernacle. We

visited both, but it is really hard to pray with all the cameras and tours going on. I hope and pray

that the Church will be able to become what it was built to be.... a temple for God.

To finish off in the city we went to visit Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception church, close by, to stop in for some quiet prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. It was so peaceful, a quiet refuge in

the midst of the busy city.

Afterwards, we left the city and went to visit

the tomb of St. Kateri, just outside of Montreal. Her body was in a small mission Church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier. It was very special to be able to visit the resting place of this humble and gentle saint.

To end the day, we made a final visit to St. Joseph's Oratory to see the museum and Br. Andre's heart. It was a fitting end to our time in Montreal.

I got back to the RV first, and there a woman complained about the RV, but also attacked the pro-life message... stating "Abortion is legal in Canada." In many ways her statement was that of many of the people we met throughout the day. There were some very openly supportive people, but most were incredulous that anyone would be speaking out for the sanctity and dignity of life..... they gave little response, but when they did it was to basically state that abortion was not an issue. Montreal needs our prayers.... this city used to be vibrantly Catholic, as is evidenced by the magnificent and plentiful

Churches, but most of the people seemed to have lost their faith.

We stayed in a lovely RV park for the night, and the day crew began walking about 10:00 am. It was an interesting day to walk... the weather kept changing. I walked in overcast weather, drizzle, rain and sun. The best part about the walk, was that each of the small towns that we went through had a lovely Church on the main road. We often took a small moment to stop for a short visit and prayer.

The day ended with a delicious dinner prepared by the night crew. Then we went to a evening Mass at the shrine of St. Ann.... there was also a lovely Candlelight procession around the church at the end of the Mass.

Tomorrow we will be going for a longer visit to the shrine... which you will hear about...

God Bless.

From Country to City

Instead of doing my regular essay style blog, I`m going to try a different style. I`m just going to be captioning on pictures, since I have not blogged for a while. Pictures speak a 1000 words and I`m sure you could appreciate them versus a long blog with all sorts of details.

The following picture shows our drop in at John Henry Westen`s place. He took in various details about our blog and posted an article about us here
















The following shows our march through Sudbury. We were surprised to learn that at the Sudbury hospital 40 abortions happen there every week. We were also interviewed by the local news there shortly after the walk you see in this picture below. The `Sudbury Star` also published a great article about us here















The following pictures show our walk through Barry`s Bay. We were surprised by how Catholic this little town of 1200 was! One Catholic school and 2 Catholic churches, not to mention people on the road that we met that were on the way to adoration just amazed us by how faithful the people of Barry`s Bay are! Three of our group members were from Barry`s Bay and they set up amazing contacts with us which included a stay with one of the professors of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom and a photograph with the local Barry`s Bay paper. The article can be found in the Aug 11th issue here





Our next stop was Madonna House in Combermere. Below is our lady of Combermere, where I will be staying at after this walk.



















After this we walked over to Wilno, where one of our group member`s family kindly took us in for the night. Below is her family.














After more walking, we arrived close to Stitsville, Ontario, where one of our group member`s girlfriend lives. Below us is having a hearty breakfast at her family`s house.















We drove down to Hanover, from Ottawa, to do our talks for the weekend. I was surprised to meet another cross country walker here, who walked in 1992 for pro-life from East to West. She gave us a book that she wrote. Below is a picture with Therese Weiler















Below is a meal we are having at Br. Paul`s parents house who live in the area where we were talking and took us in for the weekend.















Below is me posing in front of a beautiful sunset in the Hanover area.















Below is a wonderful big family that we met along the way. I ended up climbing trees, having running races and walking cylindrical barrels to compete with those kids. Man, sometimes I think I have not matured since Grade 5!














Below is our walk through Hanover. We walked through Hanover, MildMay and Walkerton. We had our biggest attendance ever for these city walks with about 25 people joining us for one of the city walks.















As we continued our walk into and past Ottawa, it rained and we got a sight of Gandalf aka Johnathan Baker walking on yet another one of those rainy days!















We made it to Trois Rivers and we drove down to Montreal for this weekends talks. Below is a picture of a Morgenteller clinic in Montreal. It is situated to the left of the gate. About 50 abortions happen in Montreal every day.















We stayed with the president of Quebec Life Coalition. The St. Joseph Oratory is literally in his backyard. Below is a picture of an amazing dinner we had with them.














Below is a picture of us trekking up to the oratory. We went there for several masses. Today we toured the oratory and we visited the Basilica, Br. Andre`s tomb. It was an awesome sight to see the number of people that were cured by praying to St. Joseph or Br. Andre! The Basilica was monstrously huge. It had 2 organs with 40 foot pipes. Unfortunately the music they were playing was very loud and it almost seemed demonic.



















The responses in the Churches in Montreal was very generous and they do have some gigantic and wonderful churches here! Now, we just got to get some orthodox priests here!


That brings me up to date with today. Only 1 more week to go. I can`t believe it`s almost over