The Franciscan Monastery

After a long week, Hubby and I decided to go on a short road trip yesterday. We have always loved car rides, Peter sleeps, and we have plenty of time just to talk. On this particular trip we decided to head to New Hampshire. We didn't know exactly what we would do but a had a few addresses programed into the GPS. After spending a couple hours in New Hampshire we decided to make our way back north. I had wanted to go to the Tom's of Maine outlet store so we stopped in Kennebunk before heading home. On our way back to the car, we decided we really should bring Peter to the beach since he had not yet seen the ocean. After programing our handy GPS, off we went. We passed by the most beautiful houses, I joked about maybe running into the Bush family, and we found the ocean. Unfortunately, every parking space was "for permit parking only." We decided just to keep driving and forget about our ocean adventure. As soon as we finished driving by the beach we came across a sign for "The Franciscan Monastery." Nathan had just learned of this place the night before but we hadn't thought about it that day. Before we could give it a second thought we were pulling into the driveway. As we drove to the parking lot we saw a bunch of signs announcing that this very day was "Franciscan Day." What exactly this meant made no sense to us, we hadn't been there before, but we were excited to explore.

We found the chapel, an outside grotto, a beautiful path to the ocean (Peter was able to dip his feet in), and finally bumped into some Franciscans. We learned that there had been workshops all day for the participants, there were Franciscans that had come from across the area, and even some from Lithuania. Best of all, mass was starting in an hour!!

We had a wonderful evening talking with the Franciscans, discovering the monastery we never knew about, and even ran into a few people that we knew. We left there wondering what God's plan was in all of this? It was only by His doing that we were there, but why? I'm sure He'll show us in His time.