Family makes the ultimate Catholic road trip

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

In many ways, the 838-mile eucharistic road trip to the National Eucharistic Congress from Destrehan to Indianapolis that Melanie and Jules Saunée decided to take in their 15-passenger Ford Passenger Transit with Melanie’s mom and their seven children – ages 15 years to 17 months – defied spiritual gravity.

In a crowd of 50,000 at Lucas Oil Stadium, they bumped into retired Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, the first astronaut to take the Blessed Sacrament into space 30 years ago. A few days earlier on their drive up, the Saunées had stopped at the NASA facility in Huntsville, Alabama, because their son Tommy, who turned 14 on the trip, wants to be an astronaut.

Their 5-year-old daughter, Therese, tugged at the hem of every nun she saw – even the Dominicans and the Ursulines – and asked them to regale her with stories about St. Therese
of Lisieux.

“Therese really thought that every order of sisters knew all about St. Therese, and they said, ‘Well, St. Therese isn’t one of our patronesses, but she is so beautiful.’”

Her oldest sons, Jules V and Tommy, spent every night kneeling in eucharistic adoration on the concrete floor of a silent football stadium transformed into a Midwestern cathedral.

“Every night, seeing my kids, especially my older two, on bended knee on concrete floors, worshiping our Lord, and us talking about it every evening on the way back to the hotel – that was amazing,” Melanie said.

They tried, as a family, to get to Lucas Oil Stadium for the daily 8 a.m. “Rosary Across America” broadcast, but you know how those things go sometimes. So, on the drive in each morning, the 10 family members prayed their own rosary in the van.

“We wouldn’t have done that on any regular day together, but it prompted us to pray as a family – together, on purpose, intentional about our day going into the conference,” Melanie said.

Melanie is the director of religious education at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Luling, and she said her family has a nightly practice of reviewing the “roses” and “thorns” of the day – the good and the bad. On the way back to the hotel each night, they went around the van to assess what
had happened.

“One of my oldest son’s ‘roses’ was praying the rosary every morning, just us together,” Melanie said.

This was not the Saunées’ first Catholic rodeo. In 2015, when they had just four children, they attended the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, seeing Pope Francis and meeting Catholic families from across the country.

Their experience in Indianapolis – seeing younger moms and dads pushing three-baby strollers and carrying kids in their arms – was like a time capsule into their own family
history.

“We were one of those young families with babies,” Melanie said. “These young families were great. Everyone wanted to show their children who Christ is and what the church is: You’re not in isolation. You’re part of the body – look at it and get fired up and excited about it. I watched the young families with their sandwiches – I was one of them – and the fruit they had packed. They tried really hard to make some inexpensive options. Everyone wanted to show their children who Christ is.”

The Saunées decided in April that they had to attend.

“It was the Holy Spirit, of course,” she said. “The World Meeting of Families was so beautiful for our family. It was kind of a turning point for us spiritually, and we felt if we could partake in another church gathering to lift and build up our family and give us a spiritual refreshment, that it would be so good. We wanted to give this gift to our family.

“When you work in the ministry, the highs are highs and the lows are lows. You need to be filled to bring that back to the parish. My children love the Lord, and if they could see people outside of our immediate circle loving the Lord and being joyful about it – seeing how big the faith is and seeing that they’re not alone in their faith and worship – then that’s a gift we need to give them.”

First Communion blessing

The day after the Saunées signed up for the congress, Melanie got an email out of the blue that First Communicants would be asked to lead the eucharistic procession through the streets of Indianapolis. Elaine Saunée, 8, made hers this year.

“I got a little emotional when I read the email – that my sweet Elaine, who was so excited about receiving Jesus – would be doing that,” Melanie said. “I took that as kind of an affirmation that this is what we needed to do. This is where we needed to go.”

Elaine wore her First Communion dress and her veil down the streets of Indianapolis.

“It was amazing,” Melanie said.

For Melanie, the takeaway is to give others an understanding of how Christ is true food and can satisfy the hunger the world tries to sate with things that do not satisfy.

“We talk about what the true hunger is,” Melanie said. “We are hungry people, and
we have the food. We know where the food is. Let’s simplify it. People are hungry, so let’s do our part and feed each other on the truth of who Christ is and bring them to the Eucharist.

“It’s very easy to get disheartened by the people who have walked away from the church for whatever reason – and the reasons are plenty – so we need to refocus. These people are great; let’s show them where the food is.”
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