Pilgrim Tales: God of the Unexpected: A Pilgrim’s Romance

There was only one person who could motivate me to do something so ridiculous as to set off for a hike through the mountains before dawn: Jeremy. -“Pilgrim’s Romance”

I fell in love with Bernadette’s story the moment it popped into my head. At 9:00AM. On the morning of the anthology submissions deadline. Yikes!

I’d always been one to do things last-minute, but that was cutting it close, even for me. Truth be told, I’d written off participating in the anthology, because it was for short stories. Until that day, I’d never written a short story that hadn’t ballooned into a full-fledged novel—or a multi-book series. Brevity has never been one of my gifts. So write a short story? Me? That was a funny joke.

But God has a sense of humor.

See, over the years I’ve noticed this pattern… Maybe you’ve experienced it too? How God likes to look at our lists of “Things I Will Never Do Because (fill in the blank with our insecurities),” and then proceed to ask us to do them. It seems He takes great delight in calling us to things that we are only capable of accomplishing with His help. When we write ourselves off, He holds out His hand, smiles a somewhat mischievous smile, and says, “Trust Me.”

Translation: Watch this.

When Pope John Paul II said that “Life with Christ is a wonderful adventure,” he wasn’t kidding! Some of the best—and hardest—things God has ever called me to have been things that I would never have been capable of doing without His constant provision. It’s an exciting way to live, though honestly, it isn’t easy. Still, it has always been worth it.

Bernadette has a chance to step forward into her own adventure in “A Pilgrim’s Romance,” trusting God in unexpected ways. No surprise, JPII has his own little part to play in her story as well. The hiking pilgrimage she and Jeremy take is named after the beloved saint, who himself often took young people on hikes up into the mountains while he was still a parish priest in Poland during the Communist regime. Then Fr. Karol Wojtyla had a deep love for youth, and a passion for calling them to greatness—something he never lost when he became Pope John Paul
II.

I was deeply inspired by him when I was a teenager and young adult, and felt that call to greatness through his words and example. I firmly believe he has been praying for me for the past twenty years, and it is no accident that my first—somewhat miraculous—short story includes a group of young people hiking with their pastor. I didn’t plan it that way, but I surrendered my “I can’ts,” and it turned out far better than I ever expected.

Isn’t that just how God works?

Read “A Pilgrim’s Romance,” and other short stories by the Catholic Writers Guild in Pilgrim Tales: a Catholic Writers Guild Short Story Anthology available now on Amazon in print and e-book.