Adventure with Intention: A Catholic Woman’s Travel Guide

“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.”

– St. André Bessette

Here’s to too many spring break trips that didn’t make it out of the group chat!

Luckily for me AND for you, this year it did, and I ended up in Tennessee with two of my best friends for spring break.

And LET ME TELL YOU, when I say it was an endless series of unexpected gifts from God, I’m not kidding.

Here’s the thing: what if we let our plans unravel a little? What if, instead of mapping out every moment, we actually leave room for God to surprise us? As Catholic women, we’re called to trust Him with the big stuff—our vocations, our futures, our coffee orders (Hehe….okay, maybe not that one). So why not let Him lead our travels too?  Let’s talk about how to make this spring break not just a joy filled experience, but one that brings as much glory to God!

My spring break ended up consisting of a ten-hour road trip to Tennessee to stay at a KOA (super cool campsites, highly recommended ) with two of my favorite Catholic friends. We had a general idea of what we wanted to do, but we wanted to keep it low-key and let God take the lead. Afterall who else would be a better guide than the good Lord Himself. So here is what I learned on spring break: 7 ways to travel the Catholic girl way.

1) Entrusting the Day and Drive to God

We did not start a single drive without a prayer asking for safe travels and for the Lord to take us where He wanted us. Honestly with the amount of driving we did, this a) kept us safe and b) brought so many surprises along the way. After our prayer, we asked Our Lady of the Highway to intercede for us.

2) Stop at Pretty Cathedrals

Stopping at a Catholic Church or two (especially if there are any Cathedrals on your way) for some prayer is a great way to ensure you still get your prayer time in. Especially with early mornings and long drives, it’s so easy to throw a daily routine of prayer right out the window. We last minute stopped at a church with Polish roots on our way down. It ended up being slightly awkward as the church was being prepped for a funeral, but we had some time to pray and then on our way out, this Polish nun came out of nowhere.

We ended up talking to her for about 20ish minutes and she told us her whole life story and showed us the little chapel inside with about 50 relics. She shared how she grew up in Poland, and as all her friends were going to college, she told them she was going to Jesus school, how she went to Uganda and revolutionized the printing press there, and met JP2 multiple times (and he remembered her name!). Her English was a bit broken, but she excitedly went into a back room to give us a few handouts including an interesting translation of the Polish Church’s history, 23 things to give up for Lent and a book. She also gave us some castor oil seeds saying they were good for wrinkles and hair to look pretty, BUT that beauty is in the soul. She was super sweet, and our interaction with her provided us good conversation points for the next hour or two of the drive.

3) Be Curious

We stopped in Kentucky for gas (Illinois gas is SO DANG EXPENSIVE), to make sandwiches (saved us so much money) and we saw two men carrying a cross to the gas station. We watched them resting against the wall of the gas station and eventually I told Izzy she should ask what they were up to (she’s good at talking to strangers). It turns out the one guy had already walked across nine states in the last two years carrying the cross in order to raise awareness for poverty in the U.S. His goal is to eventually leave the cross in Washington. He used to be a pastor and felt like God was calling him out of his comfort zone. We talked to him for about fifteen minutes, and you could see people listening in on the conversation. He asked how he could pray for us, so we asked for the conversion of all the souls on the Platteville campus (our college). We ended up huddling in a circle for a solid four minutes as both men offered up a beautiful prayer. Seriously, Catholics need to get better at spontaneous prayer. We ended up giving them a few cuties for the road and he gave us a woven cross his wife made as well as two little Jesus’s. It was such a neat experience, that wouldn’t have happened without a little boldness on our part.

4) Stop at Newman Centers for Mass

Stopping at Newman Centers for Mass was such a life hack and very inspiring. Most large state schools have Newman Centers with a 5pm Mass that you can hit on the way. Especially if you’re not a morning person, this is a nice way to have slow mornings, while still attending Mass. It’s also so fun to talk to students at different colleges and see what their Newman Centers are like. One of the Newman Centers we stopped at was University of Tennessee (worst parking I’ve ever seen). While talking to a few of their missionaries, we discovered one of them did mission work with one of our Focus missionaries (crazy coincidence).

5) Look for Opportunities to Talk about Christ

We took a walk around the University of Tennessee as we had 45 minutes to kill before Mass (IT WAS SO NICE OUTSIDE!). As we were walking, we overheard two college men interview another guy with the question, “If you could ask God anything, what would you ask Him?” Of course, we decided to take the same route back and approach the interviewers. It turns out they were with Vols for Christ (I got so confused because I didn’t realize that was UT’s mascot lol), asking people questions to make them think about God. It was one of their first few weeks doing this and they told us they were super impressed with our answers, which gave them more hope and reassurance.

It was especially beautiful for us to answer these questions intentionally in a way that highlighted the beauty of the sacraments and cleared up common misconceptions about Catholicism. Conversations like this are so important for giving Catholicism a better reputation. After all, as Bishop Fulton Sheen said,

“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

Bishop Fulton Sheen

6) Keep a Basis of Prayer

Two things we did to establish a basis of prayer each day is Lectio Divina together around the campfire in the mornings (with our coffee… yum) as well as a rosary on most of our drives. These two practices provided us with solid places to prioritize Christ in our days. The other time I found integrating prayer very fruitful was on a fourteen mile hike to Mount LeConte and back. We ascended 4,000 feet in elevation and that hike honestly was one of the most challenging things I’ve done physically. It gave me the opportunity to pray for so many people and offer up the suffering in moments where 0.1 miles seemed to take a lifetime. In the last three miles, if I stood still my legs would shake, and I rolled my ankles at least thirty times (I think I nearly gave Therese a heart-attack).

7) Talk to the People Around You and Bring Up Faith

When we got back from our fourteen-mile hike around 7:30pm, all we wanted to do was sit in the hot tub at our KOA. We ended up chatting with a six-year-old girl, whose dad joined the conversation. He asked us how we met, and we told him the Catholic center at our college. It turns out he has nine kids and is a pastor at a Protestant Reformed Church that he planted about sixteen years ago. He asked us a ton of questions about what the youth is like, whether they are returning to Christ and why. He asked us what having a personal relationship with Christ looks like, what salvation looks like and if we read our Bibles. Again, it was such a neat opportunity to clear misconceptions of the Catholic Church and explain the beauty of the sacraments and how they impact our personal relationship with Christ. Honestly, we are still not sure why he isn’t Catholic yet, because most of his beliefs are very similar to those of Catholics and he’s spent a lot of time reading the early Church Fathers (I think he will become Catholic at some point). Conversations like this end up happening when we are bold and purposefully bring up Christ. If we had just said we met at college (and not at the Catholic center), our conversation would have looked much different.

So Let God Lead in Travel

And just like that, our spring break came to an end with a ten hour straight drive back to Wisconsin. Looking back, it’s clear that the best moments weren’t the ones we planned but the ones where we let God surprise us.

This trip taught me that saying “yes” to God doesn’t just apply to the big, life-changing decisions—it’s also in the small, everyday choices. It’s in choosing to pray before hitting the road, in stopping at a church just because it caught your eye, in striking up a conversation with a stranger, and in trusting that wherever you end up, He’s already there waiting for you.

So, whether your next trip takes you to the mountains, the beach, or just your hometown, I challenge you to leave space for God to move. Invite Him into your plans, be bold in sharing your faith, and don’t be afraid to take a detour or two. You never know what adventure He has in store or who He might put in your path.

And hey, if all else fails, at least remember to pack snacks and pray before you drive. May your travels be safe and filled with just as many unexpected graces!

Leave a comment below of how you keep God apart of your travels!

Praying for you always,

xoxo

Rory😊