April 23, 2024 • 33 mins
In this week's episode, we talk with Will Peterson from the Modern Catholic Pilgrim about the National Eucharist Pilgrimage. This historic Eucharistic Procession will cross the United States over nine weeks, with four different routes meeting in Indianapolis for a Eucharistic Congress. We talk to Will about the behind-the-scenes intricacies of coordinating this vast endeavor, from the careful orchestration of 65 dioceses to the pivotal roles of the young adult perpetual pilgrims.
Will our country be open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do this summer?
Find out more and how you can participate at https://www.eucharisticpilgrimage.org/
For more about Modern Catholic Pilgrim and resources for local pilgrimage, visit https://www.moderncatholicpilgrim.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joan (00:01):
Welcome to In Via, the podcast where we're navigating
the pilgrimage of life.
We are all in via on the wayand we are learning a lot as we
go.
I'm your host, joan Watson.
Join me as we listen to stories, discover travel tips and learn
more about our Catholic faith.
Along the way, we'll see thatif God seeks to meet us in
(00:21):
Jerusalem, rome or Santiago, healso wants to encounter you
right there in your car, on yourrun or in the middle of your
workday.
Welcome back, listeners.
You are listening to In Via thepodcast, where we are
navigating the daily pilgrimageof life, and we were in the
midst of a mini series of sortstalking about the history of
(00:44):
pilgrimage with Rome and theHoly Land and the Camino, and
we're going to take a break tobring you right back into the
present moment, the present day.
I'm very excited for thisepisode.
We are going to be talking allabout the National Eucharistic
Pilgrimage that is happeninghere in the United States, and
I'm just so excited to talkabout it that I'm going to
(01:04):
launch right in and welcome WillPeterson.
Will, thanks for joining ustoday.
Will (01:10):
Thanks, joan.
Always great to be with theVerso community.
Joan (01:12):
Yeah thank you.
So we were chatting about thisbefore we started recording, but
I start every episode with ifyou could only tell people three
sentences about yourself as wayof introduction, will?
What would you say aboutyourself?
Will (01:28):
First, I am a child of God , son of Ann and Ted Peterson,
brother of Jack Bo and Mike,husband to Katie and father to
John.
Second, I am a Catholic, acontrarian and a voracious
reader.
And finally, I will steal fromSt Paul with my favorite gospel
(01:49):
passage, or not gospel, sorryscripture passage.
But by the grace of God I amwhat I am and that grace in me
has not been ineffective.
Joan (01:57):
I love it.
I love it.
I can tell you.
You thought about those.
Those are some of the bestthree sentences I think we've
gotten in our intros, and I'mnot just saying that, I mean it.
So I'd love to talk more aboutGod's grace at work in your life
and about what you do for workand what your ministry is.
(02:18):
That leads into our topic.
So can you tell me a little bitabout the Modern Catholic
Pilgrim?
Will (02:24):
topic.
So can you tell me a little bitabout the Modern Catholic
Pilgrim Sure?
It's a nonprofit organizationthat aims to deepen faith and
build community across theUnited States through walked
pilgrimage and the Catholictradition.
This idea that walkedpilgrimage is such a rich
tradition of our faith as youguys you know right, I've been
talking about the history of it,but it's maybe not seen as
(02:45):
accessible to contemporary USCatholics in a way that it could
be and that might be beneficialto them.
So we work as an organizationto create that accessibility, to
promote walked pilgrimage herein our country to allow people
to encounter Christ.
Pilgrimage here in our countryto allow people to encounter
(03:07):
Christ.
We think of the Emmaus model,so that road to Emmaus gospel
passage in Luke's gospel,bringing people to encounter the
risen Christ and missioningthem back into their communities
with their hearts set on fire,as those disciples were.
Joan (03:18):
I love it.
I love that you look well.
Number one we just talked inour last episode.
We talked about the history ofthe Camino and when we were
talking to our guest, kevin, hetalked about how difficult it
was to come back to the UnitedStates when you can't just kind
of escape and walk.
And you know, he said you knowas much as he would love to go
walk on the side of a highwaysomeday and just recollect his
(03:39):
thoughts he doesn't have thatopportunity.
So I love that you are helpingthat become accessible to us
here in the United States.
And I love that you focus herein the United States, because I
think so often, especially in myown work, when I'm talking
about pilgrimage, peopleimmediately go think about Rome
or France or the Holy Land, andyou help us see that pilgrimage
is possible here, right here inthe United States.
Will (04:02):
Yeah, thank you.
Exactly, I think that we gethung up on hearing the word
pilgrim and you and I weretalking before recording about
thinking of the Mayflower or theMiddle Ages, but no, this is
something real.
And again I kind of make up thenumber of the 0.1% of US
Catholics I can't imagine it'smuch more than that who have the
capability, the opportunity, togo abroad on pilgrimage.
(04:24):
But again, if this is somethingthat, like Christ himself did
he was a pilgrim to Jerusalemevery year for the Feast of
Passover Like, why would we notdo what we can to allow all
Catholics to pray as Christprayed, as the early Christians
prayed Again to have thatencounter with Christ?
(04:45):
So it seems to me like it's agreat opportunity.
Now I would love to go abroad.
I'd love to do the Camino.
You know your friend who justcame back from the Camino, right
, we can struggle in thatthere's not quite the same
walkability here in the UnitedStates, which can be frustrating
at times.
But you know we're fortunatewhere we are, that there's a lot
of great holy sites throughoutour country.
Joan (05:04):
Yeah, and I want to talk about that walkability.
That's a huge question I haveabout this upcoming pilgrimage.
But before we talk about theNational Eucharistic Pilgrimage,
can you give us some examplesof some other pilgrimages you
all have done and what are someopportunities or some things
that might be in our backyardthat we don't even know about?
Will (05:22):
Sure.
So we were founded on the ideaof making multi-day walked
pilgrimages for young adults andhaving them stay with hosts
from parishes along the way.
So that started actually in allplaces in Kentucky, going from
Lexington and Louisville,kentucky, out to the Abbey
Gethsemane where Thomas Mertonhad been a month and who has
some great writings aboutpilgrimage and has been
(05:43):
inspiration to our work.
We've done multi-day walkpilgrimages between the missions
.
In California there's a pathcalled the Wisconsin way between
the now national shrine for OurLady of champion and Holy Hill
Basilica outside Milwaukee.
We just had a group go from anAugustinian parish in the Bronx
down to the national shrine ofSt Rita of Casha in Philadelphia
with the Augustinian parish inthe Bronx, down to the National
(06:04):
Shrine of St Rita of Cascia inPhiladelphia with the
Augustinians.
A group of young adults wentwith Augustinian friar for a
week.
And then we do one daypilgrimages, oftentimes in
association with a parish, adiocese, religious order, school
, some combination thereof, andthen we do stuff like just
empowering people to make theirown walk.
Pilgrimage for Mary, you know,in her month of May, or we're
(06:27):
excited, we're gearing up forthe Jubilee year.
You know, again, not all of uswill be able to go to Rome for
the Jubilee.
But how can we dive into thatgreat theme of Pilgrims of Hope,
you know, in our own community?
So creating resources for 2025for that, yeah, so, and then
it's also great in my work hereto learn that there are some
wonderful pilgrimages that occuryear after year.
(06:49):
There's the walk to Mary everyfirst Saturday of May to the
National Shrine of Our Lady ofChampion.
Actually, every Good Friday,over 30,000 people make
pilgrimage to the Sanctuario deChimayo outside of Santa Fe, new
Mexico, and that's beenhappening for decades and people
don't know about it, but that's, you know, like the largest one
stateside.
There's Our Lady, ofCzestochowa , Doyles Town,
(07:10):
pennsylvania.
So there's a lot of stuffthat's actually already going on
and we want to try to lift thatup too, just to help people
understand that it's happening.
Joan (07:25):
Yeah, I love that.
I love it.
My like, I want to go onpilgrimage and I want to help
people go on pilgrimage righthere, and so we're going to link
you know, modern CatholicPilgrim, we're going to link
your website and everything inthe show notes and encourage
people like, maybe this issomething your parish needs to
do, maybe there's somethingnearby, and I, yeah, I'm really
excited.
But I also want to find outmore about this massive National
Eucharistic Pilgrimage that'shappening.
Want to find out more aboutthis massive National
(07:46):
Eucharistic Pilgrimage that'shappening.
And I have to say I have somany questions and I actually
put out on Instagram do you haveany questions for Will?
Will organize this.
What are your questions?
And nobody asked any questionsand my mind I was like I have so
many questions.
I've organized one pilgrimage,one Eucharistic procession.
It involved three differentschools and I died.
I mean, it was so hard to geteverybody on the same page, to
(08:08):
get everything organized.
That was like a 20-minuteEucharistic procession.
I have so many questions foryou.
You are my hero.
I don't know how you've donethis, and so let's launch into
how does somebody tackle this.
What is the NationalEucharistic Pilgrimage?
First of all, for thoselisteners who don't know why I'm
freaking out, that you'veundertaken this crazy, crazy
(08:29):
adventure.
What is the NationalEucharistic Pilgrimage?
Will (08:32):
Sure A great question and, yeah, the answer to probably
most of your questions is justthe grace of God.
But the National EucharisticPilgrimage is an initiative of
the National EucharisticCongress, which is this
watershed moment in the midst ofwhat we find ourselves in right
now in the US Catholic Churchthe National Eucharistic
Congress, which is thiswatershed moment in the midst of
what we find ourselves in rightnow in the US Catholic Church
the National Eucharistic Revival.
So that was launched CorpusChristi June of 2022, by our US
(08:58):
Conference of Catholic Bishopswith this idea of reviving right
devotion to, and understandingof, and deepening relationship
with, our Eucharistic Christ.
So the Congress is going to bethis opportunity, over the
course of five days, for peopleto come together from across the
United States to pray together,go to mass, you know, hear
(09:19):
wonderful speakers and just talkabout the theology of the
Eucharist, the spirituality,just our practices, our
devotions.
And that will be July 17th toJuly 21st in Indianapolis,
indiana.
But prior to that, theexecutive director, tim
Glonkowski, of the Congress andthe bishop, chair of the work of
(09:40):
the revival in the Congress,bishop Andrew Cousins, had come
up with this vision that wasimpacted and informed by these
different priests who talked tothe bishop, the Knights of
Columbus, all these.
I can't take credit for thevision, but they had this vision
for four cross-countrypilgrimages to come from the
east, west, north and south andconclude at the Congress in July
(10:04):
.
And so, just again, work of theHoly Spirit, our organization,
modern Catholic Pilgrim, got incontact with Tim and Bishop
Cousins and they asked us inJuly of 2022 to put together a
proposal for what it might looklike to have these routes occur
and reach Indianapolis.
So we put together the proposal.
It was accepted.
(10:25):
So again, one of the answers toyour question would probably be
you know, it takes time, soit's going to take us about two
years to prepare for this.
But essentially, the NationalEucharistic of Pilgrimage.
One route, the Marian route,will start the headwaters of the
Mississippi River in northernMinnesota and come down from
there to Indianapolis.
The St Elizabeth Ann Setonroute, out of the east will
(10:45):
start the tomb of BlessedMichael McGivney, the founder of
the Knights of Columbus, justoutside New York City.
The St Juan Diego route willstart in Brownsville, texas, at
the cathedral there at theborder, go up the Gulf Coast
before heading north toIndianapolis.
And the St Juniperro Serraroute will start in San
Francisco at the cathedral.
There they get to processacross the Golden Gate Bridge on
day one and then just go dueeast really to reach
(11:06):
Indianapolis.
All four routes will start onPentecost Sunday.
They will have a supportvehicle with them.
It's a core group of youngadults.
The idea was always how can weengage young people in the
Congress and the revival?
So, having a core group ofyoung adults who will be
essentially stewards of ourEucharistic Lord, and they'll
always have a priest chaplainwith them.
So each day will be, you know,mass in the morning, typically a
(11:29):
Eucharistic procession of up to15 miles, maybe 20 miles in
certain cases.
Evening events, praise andworship, holy hours, confessions
, testimonies, meals, and thenagain they do have a support
vehicle.
So it'd be tough to do aEucharistic procession and reach
Indianapolis in two months fromSan Francisco.
So they'll drive certainstretches of it as well.
(11:50):
But we're just thrilled and weinvite the public to all.
You know, basically all of theabove Most days is all just how
can you come and participate insome small way, even if you
can't take two months and walkacross the country to attend the
Congress?
Joan (12:07):
Do you know why?
You know Bishop Cousins and theorganizers thought to have
pilgrimage as part of this.
Do you know why pilgrimage?
You know because you can have abig conference and we've had
lots of conferences and I'm veryexcited for the Eucharistic
Congress and we've done a lot inour parishes and in the diocese
for the revival.
Do you know why pilgrimage was,was why this came, idea came.
Will (12:32):
I know that there was a desire from some of the priests
who first brought it to BishopCousins, for, you know,
something big to commemorate,because this is our first
nationally Eucharistic Congressin, I think, 83 years.
The last one was 1941 in StPaul, Minnesota.
So I think, something torecognize that and also this
(12:53):
opportunity to say noteveryone's going to be able to
attend the Congress, but we wantpeople to have that touch point
with it.
And this is a great opportunityfor witness and there's a great
sense of that sanctification ofthe land which I think is
something I'm sure that we canspeak to ourselves in our work
in pilgrimage, of that greatgift of yes, you oftentimes
start at a holy site right andgo to another holy site, but
(13:15):
it's not like all the space inbetween is abyss.
God is present, and when we'reon pilgrimage we become so much
more aware of that, and whenwe're on pilgrimage with our
Lord and a monstrance, even moreso.
So I know that there is a deepdesire to really sanctify our
country in that way as well.
Joan (13:33):
That's beautiful.
You kind of began to talk usthrough logistically how it's
going to take place, because Idid wonder how are we going to
get from San Francisco toIndianapolis in that short time?
That's a long distance, andwe're talking about Rocky
Mountains Indianapolis in thatshort time?
That's a long distance andwe're talking about Rocky
Mountains, so it makes sensethat they're not walking the
whole way.
But logistically, how is theEucharist like?
(13:55):
Are we talking him beingpossessed in a monstrance?
Is there a tabernacle?
Can you talk a little bit moreabout, like if I was to stumble
upon this, what I would see?
Or, you know, if I was to walkit with the group, and can I
walk it with all the, with all?
Will (14:10):
you know with it and all that.
Yeah, thank you.
Well, before I dive in, I dowant to make sure I give the
appropriate thanks, again BishopCousins in a special way for
endorsing this work.
And then we have our routecoordinators, rhea Benes and
Chanel Shaw, who are on our teamoverseeing, and one wonderful
thing that Bishop Cousins didwas he sent a letter to the
ordinary of each diocese throughwhich we were likely to be
(14:32):
walking.
Ultimately, we're going through65 dioceses, which is more than
a third of the ones in theUnited States, but he asked for
their approval and then saidcould you appoint a diocesan
representative specifically forthis pilgrimage?
And so that has been a gamechanger.
So then we now have a team of65, who oftentimes have their
(14:53):
own teams in each diocese, so wemajor things couldn't do it
without them and Marie andChanel.
Joan (14:58):
That was another question I had, because I've worked in a
diocese and it's hard enough toget priests to work together.
I couldn't imagine getting 65bishops and priests and parishes
.
So that is a huge, that's ahuge advantage, because that
alone, I think, would give me aheadache.
Will (15:13):
So I'm sure it's still a headache.
Honestly, it's a great exampleof subsidiarity in the church,
this pilgrimage, I think,because we went very much so to
a local level and said here'sour general idea.
You know, mass procession,evening events, how's that look
in your diocese?
And it's been cool to haveresponse of like, well, we'd
like to do it this way, or wewant to incorporate this
(15:35):
community or that.
You know so.
And we said, great, and that'sa chance for the local diocese
to have responsibility andownership for us.
So in a lot of ways, we kind ofjust like hold the string that
gets from, you know, thebeginning point to Indianapolis
along the four routes and justmake sure that the string as it
gets all knotted and everythingremains the same string.
Joan (15:55):
But what a beautiful testament to the church and that
the Catholic church is unifiedin this way but diverse, right
that this universal church andhas many gifts, and many people
are going to be playing a partin their own way.
It's going to be such abeautiful testament to the
American Catholic Church.
That's beautiful.
Will (16:13):
God willing.
Thank you, yes, you touch on it.
You say it better than I canwhen we say one of our goals was
engaging the local anduniversal church.
But to really hammer home on it, for what we had to do was,
first off, identify the startingpoints, and it was above my pay
grade for determining it.
I know there are people who saywe wish it had started here or
(16:34):
there.
I was not the one making thosedecisions, but there was that
sense of coming across thecountry and then recognizing a
start date and knowing that we'dbe asking to young people to
commit a substantial amount oftime to this, we said, well,
it's probably college studentsor those in school, and so let's
.
And it was also just like well,it's an early Easter this year,
(16:56):
so we can start PentecostSunday, may 19th, and that
allows us to seek out collegestudents who have their summers,
you know, more or less free.
So great, we had our startingdate.
And then we said, all right,and how can we break it up week
by week and find ourselves indifferent cities along the route
, you know, over the weekendsand such, and then kind of, how
do you fill in from there?
(17:17):
So we broke it down into thatagain.
A typical week we're in a cityon a Sunday and we go to the
local cathedral for mass.
We're then part of aEucharistic procession that's
maybe more akin to like a CorpusChristi procession that Sunday,
where you might have streetsshut down, inviting the whole
diocese and neighboring diocesesto come in and take part.
(17:39):
You know, do a short processionthere, conclude and then the
pilgrims go into their weekwhere, again, like monday
morning, you've got mass at alocal parish and then we do
oftentimes like a we call it amajor procession for a mile.
So that's canopy, processionalcross, torches, uh, you know,
thurible, all kind of everything.
(18:01):
And then we do benediction at amobile altar or back at the
parish of the loop, but justsomething where we come together
, we pray and that's a nice wayagain to make this accessible.
Someone who can go to an eighto'clock mass and then still get
to work by nine, you know whocan take part and say I did, you
know a portion of theEucharistic pilgrimage.
And then we transition to minorprocession where we maybe just
(18:25):
processional cross a singleumbralino over the monstrance,
but the idea is, priest withmonstrance as we're walking
again, and that might be up to10, 15 miles.
We did a pilot pilgrimageactually in the diocese of Fort
Wayne, south Bend, in June oflast year where we did eight
days, 110 miles and all 110miles.
We had Christ exposed in themonstrance as we walked, and so
(18:49):
we know it can be done.
You get to the next parishright Again evening, have a
potluck.
I do think this is the onlypilgrimage of its scale that the
pilgrims will likely gainweight, just based on what we
saw in Indiana in June and whatwe're hearing from our different
diocesan representatives whoare like we don't want the Sarah
out of the West to be thinkingthey've got the best food, the
(19:10):
fresh seafood.
In San Francisco In New York wegot the pasta, we're doing
crawfish.
It's so good, I'm so excitedfor that.
Meals, evening events.
Like I said, there'll be someportions to drive, to knock down
a few miles, get to the nextstop, but and then we get to our
next major city stop for thecoming weekend, saturday,
(19:31):
they're going to do a serviceproject, uh, and you know, to
make explicit that connectionbetween our eucharistic lord and
the um, you know the poor andvulnerable, and then oftentimes
we try to give them saturdayafternoon evening off the
pilgrims and their chaplains tojust kind of unwind, and then
that next Sunday you kick backinto what I just described for a
week.
So we'll do that, for aboutit's like nine weeks on the four
(19:55):
routes.
Joan (19:55):
That's beautiful.
So if I, if I know that theprocession is coming through,
that the procession is going tobe coming through my city, am I
welcome to join, kind of that,even that 10 mile um stretch, if
I can, is that is theinvitation open.
Will (20:13):
Yeah, so we, uh, we're blessed.
Now there's a website,eucharisticpilgrimageorg that
hasa cool interactive map thatshows you where we're stopping
along the four routes and so youcan even say, like, oh, on June
21st they're going to be, youknow, at this parish in, like
Steubenville, ohio, you know,and this is what they're doing,
and we have all the publicevents that are open to any to
(20:35):
participate available forregistration now.
So there are certain timeswhere that 10 miles is not open
to the public, just for roadsafety and that type of stuff.
But we've really tried to workwith dioceses and they've done a
great job of identifyingwalking trails and, good, you
know, bike path, walking pathsand the such where, yes, as many
people as possible, hopefully,can come out and join us for a
(20:56):
full day at 10, 15 miles ofdoing procession.
And, again, if you can only doa mile or two or just a block
with us, you know, feel free.
But yes, so it's available nowPeople can register for a
diocese to participate in, youknow, the public events of that
diocese.
Joan (21:12):
That's really exciting.
What did you learn?
Did you learn anything fromkind of the trial pilgrimage,
because I could imagine it wasimportant to do it once and make
sure it could work?
What are some of the things youlearned from that little mini
pilgrimage?
Will (21:28):
Well, the big thing was learning that it can be done.
We weren't quite sure when westarted this and actually the
credit goes to our advisoryboard for the pilgrimage who,
early on, said before you try todo this massive thing in 2024,
you should probably try doing itat a slightly smaller scale.
We were blessed to have thesupport of Bishop Kevin Rhodes
there in the Diocese of FortWayne, south Bend.
Gosh, I mean, we learned somuch.
(21:50):
We learned that you need to beadaptable, gosh, I mean you know
we learned so much we learnedthat you need to be adaptable
that we actually one of thegreat gifts was learning that
this truly is like a grassrootsexperience where the parishes
were just so thrilled, you know,to be there and to demonstrate
the richness of the parish lifeand it didn't feel like a
(22:10):
top-down thing, you know, andjust the welcome that we
received again, the food that wereceived, the people showing up
, like people are just going toshow up.
You know it's great to have theregistration.
You know it's important to have, but we saw people, just like
people would Facebook Live whenwe were walking.
Their friends would see it andthey'd know the cross streets
and they'd come and join us andso the group would increase and
(22:34):
we saw great gifts of thepriests and deacons who were
able to join us and actuallyprocess with the monstrance we
had.
Basically every day we had achaplain with us for those full
eight days, but then we also hadpriests and deacons who just
came for again a half day orfull day and the gifts they
received from it, and and againthe young adults.
(22:55):
So we had a core group of youngadults who are our perpetual
pilgrims for just those eightdays, and to hear their
testimonies afterwards just getsme so excited for what it's
going to mean for the 24, six oneach route, plus seminarians
who will be walking for twomonths with our Eucharistic Lord
.
So, yeah, learned a lot there.
And just to coordinate, as youmentioned, joan, in coordinating
(23:18):
with those different schoolsfor your procession, making
abundantly clear do you havevolunteers to carry the canopy?
You know who's doing what,making sure we have the contact
information, it's all there.
And then, yeah, we're doing alot to train our pilgrims to be
adaptable.
Hey, this parish said that theyhad four volunteers to carry
the canopy, but they've all got,you know the flu.
(23:40):
You step in or you find youknow like.
So just making sure that andand trusting in the grace of God
.
But that that was veryimportant.
Yeah, a lot of great lessonsfrom that.
Joan (23:51):
What a gift for these 20, these 24 young people.
How did they did they apply to,to be these perpetual pilgrims?
This is, this is going to be asummer to remember for them.
Will (24:02):
Yeah, yeah, certainly will be.
Hopefully that you know they'rethey're very thankful,
hopefully at the end that they Iknow the blisters might impact
their decisions, but we so.
So, yes, we had an applicationthat we went live with back in
the fall of 2023 and justadvertised it into young adult
communities.
You know newman centers justyou know the rent ran the gambit
(24:25):
and gave a couple months forpeople to apply and we received
over 100 applications and it itwas not an insubstantial
application process.
So from those over 100, we wentto interview about 40.
And then another, and then wedid a second round of interviews
, cutting that down a little bitand ultimately, out of that
process, selected the 24.
(24:46):
So they really had to run thegambit to give of themselves.
But they come from across thecountry, from actually even
internationally.
They come from differentbackgrounds.
Again, there are a number ofstudents, both undergrad and
graduate, but then there's, youknow, an engineer, there's
people who are already inministry or just, you know,
(25:06):
studying the hard sciences.
I was an English major incollege.
I thought you know somethingromantic like this would be
humanities, people, A lot ofgreat hard sciences, and they're
just, they've got such a joy.
We did a retreat with them tokick off their formation over
President's Day and we got to bein person with them and it was
just phenomenal.
And we've been doing weeklyZoom since then with different
(25:32):
formation topics to prepare themfor this, and each Monday night
is just a highlight to preparethem for this, and each Monday
night is just a highlight.
Can't wait for them to get tobe with our Lord and to
encounter and help facilitateothers' encounters with our Lord
.
Joan (25:40):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
What do you think is going tobe the hardest part of these two
months?
You?
Will (25:47):
know, I think well, for those perpetual pilgrims, it'll
be making sure that they remaincharitable with one another as
the miles increase.
And, um, you know, just justbeing open to and recognizing
that, even though we've goteverything now you can register
for on the website, like it'snot going to look exactly like
that, uh, we'll have weatherissues, we'll have, uh, you know
(26:11):
, road closures or what you knowlike different things that will
come up, and so, um, stayinggrounded in that and recognizing
where the lord is moving, uh,to call us to.
You know, maybe now it's just atime of a holy hour, it's not a
time to actually walk.
We're just going to stay atthis parish while the storm
subsides and then drive to thenext one.
So I think, having to let go alittle bit there, um, and then
(26:34):
just making sure that we'redoing a good job of facilitating
public participation across thefour routes.
Joan (26:40):
Yeah, and what do you hope is the fruit of the next two
months?
Will (26:46):
Oh man.
So the story that always comesto mind for me is from that
pilot pilgrimage we did up inIndiana in June where we were on
our second to last day.
We had about 100 people walkingwith us and we had a number of
priests and deacons from thediocese.
So our chaplain priest was notcarrying the monstrous at the
(27:07):
time, he was walking toward theback and a young girl must have
been seven or eight apparentlysaw us coming up the road, you
know, just out front of herhouse, and she ran into her
house and came back out wearingher first communion dress and
she had must just received firstcommunion, you know early,
right in April or whatever andshe ran out and she took our
(27:30):
priest chaplain's hand andwalked with us for a couple of
hundred yards.
And so like that, thatopportunity, like just knowing
that that's something that willbe happening in that encounter,
I just am so thankful for that.
I'm hopeful that these youngadults, that their lives are
transformed, that they becometremendous leaders, I'm hopeful
(27:53):
that that experience ofhospitality.
So we've asked in the diocesesthat the young adults be hosted
either in host family homes andparish halls and retreat centers
, you know, monasteries whathave you, but that biblical
hospitality that's such anintegral part of pilgrimage as
we know, like on the Camino,santiago, and such that that is
something that really openshearts and minds here in the
(28:15):
United States.
Again, of course, I'm hopefulthat a fruit is that people
learn through this nationalpilgrimage about great holy
sites here, about holy men andwomen.
I mean, we have saints who are,you know, live their saintly
lives in our country and again,aren't all buried in Rome, you
know and so understanding thatwe have these holy men and women
(28:39):
to whom we can seek, you know,seek out for intercession, and
so again, that this might besomething where people become
more open to pilgrimage locallyand again, that local
communities are transformed bythese encounters with our risen
Christ.
Joan (28:54):
Yeah, I just the encounter piece I think is so important
and you're giving people theopportunity to encounter the
Eucharistic Lord as he crossesour country.
Thinking of that road to Emmausimagery that he is like are we
ready to walk with him?
Are we ready to open our homesup to him?
You know, somebody opened theirhome up to him at the road to
(29:15):
Emmaus, right, they left prettyquickly and just that beauty
that I'm really struck by, thebeauty of a Catholic culture
which we don't live in aCatholic country.
We haven't grown up in aCatholic culture the way people
in Italy or France have, even ifthey're not practicing today.
(29:36):
It's still a culture imbuedwith Catholicism in a way that
the American culture is not.
But you're bringing this pieceof Catholic culture and allowing
people to encounter the risenChrist walking down their
streets.
I can't wait to see whathappens to people who have never
experiencing anything like thisand the questions that are
(29:57):
going to be asked in theencounter with Christ.
It's going to happen in such atangible way.
It's.
I think we have to be ready forthis to really transform the
United States.
Will (30:06):
Yeah, god willing.
And again, I think you touch onit and you all know the
wonderful work that you're doingand we know that there's a
great gift to geographicpilgrimage.
You mentioned the concrete.
You know to actually, you know,take those physical steps.
You know we're on the spiritualjourney, which is great but
better understood when we'veactually gotten out and walked.
So, yes, we're thrilled to givepeople that opportunity.
(30:29):
I go back.
You know I mentioned ThomasMerton earlier.
He has a great line in an essayhe wrote about pilgrimage where
he says the geographicpilgrimage is the symbolic
acting out of the inner journey.
You can have the one withoutthe other, but it's best to have
both.
And so.
I know you I'm sure have seenthe fruits of it yourself, just
with the wonderful work thatVerso does.
But giving people theopportunity to truly make
(30:50):
geographic pilgrimage, I thinkthat yeah, we'll see great leaps
and bounds on that spiritualjourney as well.
Joan (31:00):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for all your work, thank you
for everything you all aredoing to make this a success.
I know I encourage ourlisteners to pray for the
success of this.
You know this doesn't happenwithout your hard work and it
also doesn't happen without ourlisteners' prayers.
Like you said, so much of it'shappening because of the grace
of God, and so I think to havethe courage to pray for the Holy
Spirit to really come down uponour country during this time,
(31:20):
not to take that thisopportunity for granted, but to
ask a great anointing upon ourcountry during this time of
revival, but especially in thesenext two months, from Pentecost
, you know, to the EucharisticCongress, is such an opportunity
for our country.
So I'm asking our listeners topray for that, to pray for the
(31:41):
heroic pilgrims that are goingto be walking.
And could you tell us one moretime, if a listener wants to
participate, where they findthat information?
Will (31:47):
Yeah, sure, yeah, thank you.
And again, participation can bein a broad way.
As you say, prayer.
You know, walking with us walkon your own.
So EucharisticPilgrimageorg isthe website.
It has an interactive map.
It also has resources for thosewho don't.
You know, maybe don't live neara route to make your own
self-led Eucharistic pilgrimageRight.
(32:08):
Thinking about again, ourorganization is all about
helping people understand gosh.
My own parish church can be asite of pilgrimage.
You know how could I walk thereand spend some time in
adoration or walk there andconclude with the mass.
You know, make it a veryEucharistic pilgrimage
experience and do that insolidarity with the National
Eucharistic Pilgrimage and youknow my brothers and sisters in
(32:28):
Christ.
So there are resources therefor people and for families to
do that as well.
But that's onEucharisticPilgrimageorg.
Joan (32:35):
I love it.
Well, thank you Will.
Thanks for joining us today,thanks for sharing all of this,
and, listeners, be sure to keepit in your prayers, but join, if
you can, in any way that youcan join this beautiful effort.
So thanks again, will.
Will (32:49):
Thanks, joan, appreciate it.
Joan (32:51):
Okay, god bless.
Listeners, stay tuned.
We are continuing to talk aboutpilgrimage, the history of
pilgrimage, but I think it's sobeautiful today to really look
at pilgrimage not just assomething in history, but
something happening today in ourown country, and so really, I
encourage you to find out moreabout this Eucharistic
pilgrimage and join it howeveryou can.
So, god bless.
Welcome to In Via, the podcast where we're navigating
the pilgrimage of life.
We are all in via on the wayand we are learning a lot as we
go.
I'm your host, joan Watson.
Join me as we listen to stories, discover travel tips and learn
more about our Catholic faith.
Along the way, we'll see thatif God seeks to meet us in
(00:21):
Jerusalem, rome or Santiago, healso wants to encounter you
right there in your car, on yourrun or in the middle of your
workday.
Welcome back, listeners.
You are listening to In Via thepodcast, where we are
navigating the daily pilgrimageof life, and we were in the
midst of a mini series of sortstalking about the history of
(00:44):
pilgrimage with Rome and theHoly Land and the Camino, and
we're going to take a break tobring you right back into the
present moment, the present day.
I'm very excited for thisepisode.
We are going to be talking allabout the National Eucharistic
Pilgrimage that is happeninghere in the United States, and
I'm just so excited to talkabout it that I'm going to
(01:04):
launch right in and welcome WillPeterson.
Will, thanks for joining ustoday.
Will (01:10):
Thanks, joan.
Always great to be with theVerso community.
Joan (01:12):
Yeah thank you.
So we were chatting about thisbefore we started recording, but
I start every episode with ifyou could only tell people three
sentences about yourself as wayof introduction, will?
What would you say aboutyourself?
Will (01:28):
First, I am a child of God , son of Ann and Ted Peterson,
brother of Jack Bo and Mike,husband to Katie and father to
John.
Second, I am a Catholic, acontrarian and a voracious
reader.
And finally, I will steal fromSt Paul with my favorite gospel
(01:49):
passage, or not gospel, sorryscripture passage.
But by the grace of God I amwhat I am and that grace in me
has not been ineffective.
Joan (01:57):
I love it.
I love it.
I can tell you.
You thought about those.
Those are some of the bestthree sentences I think we've
gotten in our intros, and I'mnot just saying that, I mean it.
So I'd love to talk more aboutGod's grace at work in your life
and about what you do for workand what your ministry is.
(02:18):
That leads into our topic.
So can you tell me a little bitabout the Modern Catholic
Pilgrim?
Will (02:24):
topic.
So can you tell me a little bitabout the Modern Catholic
Pilgrim Sure?
It's a nonprofit organizationthat aims to deepen faith and
build community across theUnited States through walked
pilgrimage and the Catholictradition.
This idea that walkedpilgrimage is such a rich
tradition of our faith as youguys you know right, I've been
talking about the history of it,but it's maybe not seen as
(02:45):
accessible to contemporary USCatholics in a way that it could
be and that might be beneficialto them.
So we work as an organizationto create that accessibility, to
promote walked pilgrimage herein our country to allow people
to encounter Christ.
Pilgrimage here in our countryto allow people to encounter
(03:07):
Christ.
We think of the Emmaus model,so that road to Emmaus gospel
passage in Luke's gospel,bringing people to encounter the
risen Christ and missioningthem back into their communities
with their hearts set on fire,as those disciples were.
Joan (03:18):
I love it.
I love that you look well.
Number one we just talked inour last episode.
We talked about the history ofthe Camino and when we were
talking to our guest, kevin, hetalked about how difficult it
was to come back to the UnitedStates when you can't just kind
of escape and walk.
And you know, he said you knowas much as he would love to go
walk on the side of a highwaysomeday and just recollect his
(03:39):
thoughts he doesn't have thatopportunity.
So I love that you are helpingthat become accessible to us
here in the United States.
And I love that you focus herein the United States, because I
think so often, especially in myown work, when I'm talking
about pilgrimage, peopleimmediately go think about Rome
or France or the Holy Land, andyou help us see that pilgrimage
is possible here, right here inthe United States.
Will (04:02):
Yeah, thank you.
Exactly, I think that we gethung up on hearing the word
pilgrim and you and I weretalking before recording about
thinking of the Mayflower or theMiddle Ages, but no, this is
something real.
And again I kind of make up thenumber of the 0.1% of US
Catholics I can't imagine it'smuch more than that who have the
capability, the opportunity, togo abroad on pilgrimage.
(04:24):
But again, if this is somethingthat, like Christ himself did
he was a pilgrim to Jerusalemevery year for the Feast of
Passover Like, why would we notdo what we can to allow all
Catholics to pray as Christprayed, as the early Christians
prayed Again to have thatencounter with Christ?
(04:45):
So it seems to me like it's agreat opportunity.
Now I would love to go abroad.
I'd love to do the Camino.
You know your friend who justcame back from the Camino, right
, we can struggle in thatthere's not quite the same
walkability here in the UnitedStates, which can be frustrating
at times.
But you know we're fortunatewhere we are, that there's a lot
of great holy sites throughoutour country.
Joan (05:04):
Yeah, and I want to talk about that walkability.
That's a huge question I haveabout this upcoming pilgrimage.
But before we talk about theNational Eucharistic Pilgrimage,
can you give us some examplesof some other pilgrimages you
all have done and what are someopportunities or some things
that might be in our backyardthat we don't even know about?
Will (05:22):
Sure.
So we were founded on the ideaof making multi-day walked
pilgrimages for young adults andhaving them stay with hosts
from parishes along the way.
So that started actually in allplaces in Kentucky, going from
Lexington and Louisville,kentucky, out to the Abbey
Gethsemane where Thomas Mertonhad been a month and who has
some great writings aboutpilgrimage and has been
(05:43):
inspiration to our work.
We've done multi-day walkpilgrimages between the missions
.
In California there's a pathcalled the Wisconsin way between
the now national shrine for OurLady of champion and Holy Hill
Basilica outside Milwaukee.
We just had a group go from anAugustinian parish in the Bronx
down to the national shrine ofSt Rita of Casha in Philadelphia
with the Augustinian parish inthe Bronx, down to the National
(06:04):
Shrine of St Rita of Cascia inPhiladelphia with the
Augustinians.
A group of young adults wentwith Augustinian friar for a
week.
And then we do one daypilgrimages, oftentimes in
association with a parish, adiocese, religious order, school
, some combination thereof, andthen we do stuff like just
empowering people to make theirown walk.
Pilgrimage for Mary, you know,in her month of May, or we're
(06:27):
excited, we're gearing up forthe Jubilee year.
You know, again, not all of uswill be able to go to Rome for
the Jubilee.
But how can we dive into thatgreat theme of Pilgrims of Hope,
you know, in our own community?
So creating resources for 2025for that, yeah, so, and then
it's also great in my work hereto learn that there are some
wonderful pilgrimages that occuryear after year.
(06:49):
There's the walk to Mary everyfirst Saturday of May to the
National Shrine of Our Lady ofChampion.
Actually, every Good Friday,over 30,000 people make
pilgrimage to the Sanctuario deChimayo outside of Santa Fe, new
Mexico, and that's beenhappening for decades and people
don't know about it, but that's, you know, like the largest one
stateside.
There's Our Lady, ofCzestochowa , Doyles Town,
(07:10):
pennsylvania.
So there's a lot of stuffthat's actually already going on
and we want to try to lift thatup too, just to help people
understand that it's happening.
Joan (07:25):
Yeah, I love that.
I love it.
My like, I want to go onpilgrimage and I want to help
people go on pilgrimage righthere, and so we're going to link
you know, modern CatholicPilgrim, we're going to link
your website and everything inthe show notes and encourage
people like, maybe this issomething your parish needs to
do, maybe there's somethingnearby, and I, yeah, I'm really
excited.
But I also want to find outmore about this massive National
Eucharistic Pilgrimage that'shappening.
Want to find out more aboutthis massive National
(07:46):
Eucharistic Pilgrimage that'shappening.
And I have to say I have somany questions and I actually
put out on Instagram do you haveany questions for Will?
Will organize this.
What are your questions?
And nobody asked any questionsand my mind I was like I have so
many questions.
I've organized one pilgrimage,one Eucharistic procession.
It involved three differentschools and I died.
I mean, it was so hard to geteverybody on the same page, to
(08:08):
get everything organized.
That was like a 20-minuteEucharistic procession.
I have so many questions foryou.
You are my hero.
I don't know how you've donethis, and so let's launch into
how does somebody tackle this.
What is the NationalEucharistic Pilgrimage?
First of all, for thoselisteners who don't know why I'm
freaking out, that you'veundertaken this crazy, crazy
(08:29):
adventure.
What is the NationalEucharistic Pilgrimage?
Will (08:32):
Sure A great question and, yeah, the answer to probably
most of your questions is justthe grace of God.
But the National EucharisticPilgrimage is an initiative of
the National EucharisticCongress, which is this
watershed moment in the midst ofwhat we find ourselves in right
now in the US Catholic Churchthe National Eucharistic
Congress, which is thiswatershed moment in the midst of
what we find ourselves in rightnow in the US Catholic Church
the National Eucharistic Revival.
So that was launched CorpusChristi June of 2022, by our US
(08:58):
Conference of Catholic Bishopswith this idea of reviving right
devotion to, and understandingof, and deepening relationship
with, our Eucharistic Christ.
So the Congress is going to bethis opportunity, over the
course of five days, for peopleto come together from across the
United States to pray together,go to mass, you know, hear
(09:19):
wonderful speakers and just talkabout the theology of the
Eucharist, the spirituality,just our practices, our
devotions.
And that will be July 17th toJuly 21st in Indianapolis,
indiana.
But prior to that, theexecutive director, tim
Glonkowski, of the Congress andthe bishop, chair of the work of
(09:40):
the revival in the Congress,bishop Andrew Cousins, had come
up with this vision that wasimpacted and informed by these
different priests who talked tothe bishop, the Knights of
Columbus, all these.
I can't take credit for thevision, but they had this vision
for four cross-countrypilgrimages to come from the
east, west, north and south andconclude at the Congress in July
(10:04):
.
And so, just again, work of theHoly Spirit, our organization,
modern Catholic Pilgrim, got incontact with Tim and Bishop
Cousins and they asked us inJuly of 2022 to put together a
proposal for what it might looklike to have these routes occur
and reach Indianapolis.
So we put together the proposal.
It was accepted.
(10:25):
So again, one of the answers toyour question would probably be
you know, it takes time, soit's going to take us about two
years to prepare for this.
But essentially, the NationalEucharistic of Pilgrimage.
One route, the Marian route,will start the headwaters of the
Mississippi River in northernMinnesota and come down from
there to Indianapolis.
The St Elizabeth Ann Setonroute, out of the east will
(10:45):
start the tomb of BlessedMichael McGivney, the founder of
the Knights of Columbus, justoutside New York City.
The St Juan Diego route willstart in Brownsville, texas, at
the cathedral there at theborder, go up the Gulf Coast
before heading north toIndianapolis.
And the St Juniperro Serraroute will start in San
Francisco at the cathedral.
There they get to processacross the Golden Gate Bridge on
day one and then just go dueeast really to reach
(11:06):
Indianapolis.
All four routes will start onPentecost Sunday.
They will have a supportvehicle with them.
It's a core group of youngadults.
The idea was always how can weengage young people in the
Congress and the revival?
So, having a core group ofyoung adults who will be
essentially stewards of ourEucharistic Lord, and they'll
always have a priest chaplainwith them.
So each day will be, you know,mass in the morning, typically a
(11:29):
Eucharistic procession of up to15 miles, maybe 20 miles in
certain cases.
Evening events, praise andworship, holy hours, confessions
, testimonies, meals, and thenagain they do have a support
vehicle.
So it'd be tough to do aEucharistic procession and reach
Indianapolis in two months fromSan Francisco.
So they'll drive certainstretches of it as well.
(11:50):
But we're just thrilled and weinvite the public to all.
You know, basically all of theabove Most days is all just how
can you come and participate insome small way, even if you
can't take two months and walkacross the country to attend the
Congress?
Joan (12:07):
Do you know why?
You know Bishop Cousins and theorganizers thought to have
pilgrimage as part of this.
Do you know why pilgrimage?
You know because you can have abig conference and we've had
lots of conferences and I'm veryexcited for the Eucharistic
Congress and we've done a lot inour parishes and in the diocese
for the revival.
Do you know why pilgrimage was,was why this came, idea came.
Will (12:32):
I know that there was a desire from some of the priests
who first brought it to BishopCousins, for, you know,
something big to commemorate,because this is our first
nationally Eucharistic Congressin, I think, 83 years.
The last one was 1941 in StPaul, Minnesota.
So I think, something torecognize that and also this
(12:53):
opportunity to say noteveryone's going to be able to
attend the Congress, but we wantpeople to have that touch point
with it.
And this is a great opportunityfor witness and there's a great
sense of that sanctification ofthe land which I think is
something I'm sure that we canspeak to ourselves in our work
in pilgrimage, of that greatgift of yes, you oftentimes
start at a holy site right andgo to another holy site, but
(13:15):
it's not like all the space inbetween is abyss.
God is present, and when we'reon pilgrimage we become so much
more aware of that, and whenwe're on pilgrimage with our
Lord and a monstrance, even moreso.
So I know that there is a deepdesire to really sanctify our
country in that way as well.
Joan (13:33):
That's beautiful.
You kind of began to talk usthrough logistically how it's
going to take place, because Idid wonder how are we going to
get from San Francisco toIndianapolis in that short time?
That's a long distance, andwe're talking about Rocky
Mountains Indianapolis in thatshort time?
That's a long distance andwe're talking about Rocky
Mountains, so it makes sensethat they're not walking the
whole way.
But logistically, how is theEucharist like?
(13:55):
Are we talking him beingpossessed in a monstrance?
Is there a tabernacle?
Can you talk a little bit moreabout, like if I was to stumble
upon this, what I would see?
Or, you know, if I was to walkit with the group, and can I
walk it with all the, with all?
Will (14:10):
you know with it and all that.
Yeah, thank you.
Well, before I dive in, I dowant to make sure I give the
appropriate thanks, again BishopCousins in a special way for
endorsing this work.
And then we have our routecoordinators, rhea Benes and
Chanel Shaw, who are on our teamoverseeing, and one wonderful
thing that Bishop Cousins didwas he sent a letter to the
ordinary of each diocese throughwhich we were likely to be
(14:32):
walking.
Ultimately, we're going through65 dioceses, which is more than
a third of the ones in theUnited States, but he asked for
their approval and then saidcould you appoint a diocesan
representative specifically forthis pilgrimage?
And so that has been a gamechanger.
So then we now have a team of65, who oftentimes have their
(14:53):
own teams in each diocese, so wemajor things couldn't do it
without them and Marie andChanel.
Joan (14:58):
That was another question I had, because I've worked in a
diocese and it's hard enough toget priests to work together.
I couldn't imagine getting 65bishops and priests and parishes
.
So that is a huge, that's ahuge advantage, because that
alone, I think, would give me aheadache.
Will (15:13):
So I'm sure it's still a headache.
Honestly, it's a great exampleof subsidiarity in the church,
this pilgrimage, I think,because we went very much so to
a local level and said here'sour general idea.
You know, mass procession,evening events, how's that look
in your diocese?
And it's been cool to haveresponse of like, well, we'd
like to do it this way, or wewant to incorporate this
(15:35):
community or that.
You know so.
And we said, great, and that'sa chance for the local diocese
to have responsibility andownership for us.
So in a lot of ways, we kind ofjust like hold the string that
gets from, you know, thebeginning point to Indianapolis
along the four routes and justmake sure that the string as it
gets all knotted and everythingremains the same string.
Joan (15:55):
But what a beautiful testament to the church and that
the Catholic church is unifiedin this way but diverse, right
that this universal church andhas many gifts, and many people
are going to be playing a partin their own way.
It's going to be such abeautiful testament to the
American Catholic Church.
That's beautiful.
Will (16:13):
God willing.
Thank you, yes, you touch on it.
You say it better than I canwhen we say one of our goals was
engaging the local anduniversal church.
But to really hammer home on it, for what we had to do was,
first off, identify the startingpoints, and it was above my pay
grade for determining it.
I know there are people who saywe wish it had started here or
(16:34):
there.
I was not the one making thosedecisions, but there was that
sense of coming across thecountry and then recognizing a
start date and knowing that we'dbe asking to young people to
commit a substantial amount oftime to this, we said, well,
it's probably college studentsor those in school, and so let's
.
And it was also just like well,it's an early Easter this year,
(16:56):
so we can start PentecostSunday, may 19th, and that
allows us to seek out collegestudents who have their summers,
you know, more or less free.
So great, we had our startingdate.
And then we said, all right,and how can we break it up week
by week and find ourselves indifferent cities along the route
, you know, over the weekendsand such, and then kind of, how
do you fill in from there?
(17:17):
So we broke it down into thatagain.
A typical week we're in a cityon a Sunday and we go to the
local cathedral for mass.
We're then part of aEucharistic procession that's
maybe more akin to like a CorpusChristi procession that Sunday,
where you might have streetsshut down, inviting the whole
diocese and neighboring diocesesto come in and take part.
(17:39):
You know, do a short processionthere, conclude and then the
pilgrims go into their weekwhere, again, like monday
morning, you've got mass at alocal parish and then we do
oftentimes like a we call it amajor procession for a mile.
So that's canopy, processionalcross, torches, uh, you know,
thurible, all kind of everything.
(18:01):
And then we do benediction at amobile altar or back at the
parish of the loop, but justsomething where we come together
, we pray and that's a nice wayagain to make this accessible.
Someone who can go to an eighto'clock mass and then still get
to work by nine, you know whocan take part and say I did, you
know a portion of theEucharistic pilgrimage.
And then we transition to minorprocession where we maybe just
(18:25):
processional cross a singleumbralino over the monstrance,
but the idea is, priest withmonstrance as we're walking
again, and that might be up to10, 15 miles.
We did a pilot pilgrimageactually in the diocese of Fort
Wayne, south Bend, in June oflast year where we did eight
days, 110 miles and all 110miles.
We had Christ exposed in themonstrance as we walked, and so
(18:49):
we know it can be done.
You get to the next parishright Again evening, have a
potluck.
I do think this is the onlypilgrimage of its scale that the
pilgrims will likely gainweight, just based on what we
saw in Indiana in June and whatwe're hearing from our different
diocesan representatives whoare like we don't want the Sarah
out of the West to be thinkingthey've got the best food, the
(19:10):
fresh seafood.
In San Francisco In New York wegot the pasta, we're doing
crawfish.
It's so good, I'm so excitedfor that.
Meals, evening events.
Like I said, there'll be someportions to drive, to knock down
a few miles, get to the nextstop, but and then we get to our
next major city stop for thecoming weekend, saturday,
(19:31):
they're going to do a serviceproject, uh, and you know, to
make explicit that connectionbetween our eucharistic lord and
the um, you know the poor andvulnerable, and then oftentimes
we try to give them saturdayafternoon evening off the
pilgrims and their chaplains tojust kind of unwind, and then
that next Sunday you kick backinto what I just described for a
week.
So we'll do that, for aboutit's like nine weeks on the four
(19:55):
routes.
Joan (19:55):
That's beautiful.
So if I, if I know that theprocession is coming through,
that the procession is going tobe coming through my city, am I
welcome to join, kind of that,even that 10 mile um stretch, if
I can, is that is theinvitation open.
Will (20:13):
Yeah, so we, uh, we're blessed.
Now there's a website,eucharisticpilgrimageorg that
hasa cool interactive map thatshows you where we're stopping
along the four routes and so youcan even say, like, oh, on June
21st they're going to be, youknow, at this parish in, like
Steubenville, ohio, you know,and this is what they're doing,
and we have all the publicevents that are open to any to
(20:35):
participate available forregistration now.
So there are certain timeswhere that 10 miles is not open
to the public, just for roadsafety and that type of stuff.
But we've really tried to workwith dioceses and they've done a
great job of identifyingwalking trails and, good, you
know, bike path, walking pathsand the such where, yes, as many
people as possible, hopefully,can come out and join us for a
(20:56):
full day at 10, 15 miles ofdoing procession.
And, again, if you can only doa mile or two or just a block
with us, you know, feel free.
But yes, so it's available nowPeople can register for a
diocese to participate in, youknow, the public events of that
diocese.
Joan (21:12):
That's really exciting.
What did you learn?
Did you learn anything fromkind of the trial pilgrimage,
because I could imagine it wasimportant to do it once and make
sure it could work?
What are some of the things youlearned from that little mini
pilgrimage?
Will (21:28):
Well, the big thing was learning that it can be done.
We weren't quite sure when westarted this and actually the
credit goes to our advisoryboard for the pilgrimage who,
early on, said before you try todo this massive thing in 2024,
you should probably try doing itat a slightly smaller scale.
We were blessed to have thesupport of Bishop Kevin Rhodes
there in the Diocese of FortWayne, south Bend.
Gosh, I mean, we learned somuch.
(21:50):
We learned that you need to beadaptable, gosh, I mean you know
we learned so much we learnedthat you need to be adaptable
that we actually one of thegreat gifts was learning that
this truly is like a grassrootsexperience where the parishes
were just so thrilled, you know,to be there and to demonstrate
the richness of the parish lifeand it didn't feel like a
(22:10):
top-down thing, you know, andjust the welcome that we
received again, the food that wereceived, the people showing up
, like people are just going toshow up.
You know it's great to have theregistration.
You know it's important to have, but we saw people, just like
people would Facebook Live whenwe were walking.
Their friends would see it andthey'd know the cross streets
and they'd come and join us andso the group would increase and
(22:34):
we saw great gifts of thepriests and deacons who were
able to join us and actuallyprocess with the monstrance we
had.
Basically every day we had achaplain with us for those full
eight days, but then we also hadpriests and deacons who just
came for again a half day orfull day and the gifts they
received from it, and and againthe young adults.
(22:55):
So we had a core group of youngadults who are our perpetual
pilgrims for just those eightdays, and to hear their
testimonies afterwards just getsme so excited for what it's
going to mean for the 24, six oneach route, plus seminarians
who will be walking for twomonths with our Eucharistic Lord
.
So, yeah, learned a lot there.
And just to coordinate, as youmentioned, joan, in coordinating
(23:18):
with those different schoolsfor your procession, making
abundantly clear do you havevolunteers to carry the canopy?
You know who's doing what,making sure we have the contact
information, it's all there.
And then, yeah, we're doing alot to train our pilgrims to be
adaptable.
Hey, this parish said that theyhad four volunteers to carry
the canopy, but they've all got,you know the flu.
(23:40):
You step in or you find youknow like.
So just making sure that andand trusting in the grace of God
.
But that that was veryimportant.
Yeah, a lot of great lessonsfrom that.
Joan (23:51):
What a gift for these 20, these 24 young people.
How did they did they apply to,to be these perpetual pilgrims?
This is, this is going to be asummer to remember for them.
Will (24:02):
Yeah, yeah, certainly will be.
Hopefully that you know they'rethey're very thankful,
hopefully at the end that they Iknow the blisters might impact
their decisions, but we so.
So, yes, we had an applicationthat we went live with back in
the fall of 2023 and justadvertised it into young adult
communities.
You know newman centers justyou know the rent ran the gambit
(24:25):
and gave a couple months forpeople to apply and we received
over 100 applications and it itwas not an insubstantial
application process.
So from those over 100, we wentto interview about 40.
And then another, and then wedid a second round of interviews
, cutting that down a little bitand ultimately, out of that
process, selected the 24.
(24:46):
So they really had to run thegambit to give of themselves.
But they come from across thecountry, from actually even
internationally.
They come from differentbackgrounds.
Again, there are a number ofstudents, both undergrad and
graduate, but then there's, youknow, an engineer, there's
people who are already inministry or just, you know,
(25:06):
studying the hard sciences.
I was an English major incollege.
I thought you know somethingromantic like this would be
humanities, people, A lot ofgreat hard sciences, and they're
just, they've got such a joy.
We did a retreat with them tokick off their formation over
President's Day and we got to bein person with them and it was
just phenomenal.
And we've been doing weeklyZoom since then with different
(25:32):
formation topics to prepare themfor this, and each Monday night
is just a highlight to preparethem for this, and each Monday
night is just a highlight.
Can't wait for them to get tobe with our Lord and to
encounter and help facilitateothers' encounters with our Lord
.
Joan (25:40):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
What do you think is going tobe the hardest part of these two
months?
You?
Will (25:47):
know, I think well, for those perpetual pilgrims, it'll
be making sure that they remaincharitable with one another as
the miles increase.
And, um, you know, just justbeing open to and recognizing
that, even though we've goteverything now you can register
for on the website, like it'snot going to look exactly like
that, uh, we'll have weatherissues, we'll have, uh, you know
(26:11):
, road closures or what you knowlike different things that will
come up, and so, um, stayinggrounded in that and recognizing
where the lord is moving, uh,to call us to.
You know, maybe now it's just atime of a holy hour, it's not a
time to actually walk.
We're just going to stay atthis parish while the storm
subsides and then drive to thenext one.
So I think, having to let go alittle bit there, um, and then
(26:34):
just making sure that we'redoing a good job of facilitating
public participation across thefour routes.
Joan (26:40):
Yeah, and what do you hope is the fruit of the next two
months?
Will (26:46):
Oh man.
So the story that always comesto mind for me is from that
pilot pilgrimage we did up inIndiana in June where we were on
our second to last day.
We had about 100 people walkingwith us and we had a number of
priests and deacons from thediocese.
So our chaplain priest was notcarrying the monstrous at the
(27:07):
time, he was walking toward theback and a young girl must have
been seven or eight apparentlysaw us coming up the road, you
know, just out front of herhouse, and she ran into her
house and came back out wearingher first communion dress and
she had must just received firstcommunion, you know early,
right in April or whatever andshe ran out and she took our
(27:30):
priest chaplain's hand andwalked with us for a couple of
hundred yards.
And so like that, thatopportunity, like just knowing
that that's something that willbe happening in that encounter,
I just am so thankful for that.
I'm hopeful that these youngadults, that their lives are
transformed, that they becometremendous leaders, I'm hopeful
(27:53):
that that experience ofhospitality.
So we've asked in the diocesesthat the young adults be hosted
either in host family homes andparish halls and retreat centers
, you know, monasteries whathave you, but that biblical
hospitality that's such anintegral part of pilgrimage as
we know, like on the Camino,santiago, and such that that is
something that really openshearts and minds here in the
(28:15):
United States.
Again, of course, I'm hopefulthat a fruit is that people
learn through this nationalpilgrimage about great holy
sites here, about holy men andwomen.
I mean, we have saints who are,you know, live their saintly
lives in our country and again,aren't all buried in Rome, you
know and so understanding thatwe have these holy men and women
(28:39):
to whom we can seek, you know,seek out for intercession, and
so again, that this might besomething where people become
more open to pilgrimage locallyand again, that local
communities are transformed bythese encounters with our risen
Christ.
Joan (28:54):
Yeah, I just the encounter piece I think is so important
and you're giving people theopportunity to encounter the
Eucharistic Lord as he crossesour country.
Thinking of that road to Emmausimagery that he is like are we
ready to walk with him?
Are we ready to open our homesup to him?
You know, somebody opened theirhome up to him at the road to
(29:15):
Emmaus, right, they left prettyquickly and just that beauty
that I'm really struck by, thebeauty of a Catholic culture
which we don't live in aCatholic country.
We haven't grown up in aCatholic culture the way people
in Italy or France have, even ifthey're not practicing today.
(29:36):
It's still a culture imbuedwith Catholicism in a way that
the American culture is not.
But you're bringing this pieceof Catholic culture and allowing
people to encounter the risenChrist walking down their
streets.
I can't wait to see whathappens to people who have never
experiencing anything like thisand the questions that are
(29:57):
going to be asked in theencounter with Christ.
It's going to happen in such atangible way.
It's.
I think we have to be ready forthis to really transform the
United States.
Will (30:06):
Yeah, god willing.
And again, I think you touch onit and you all know the
wonderful work that you're doingand we know that there's a
great gift to geographicpilgrimage.
You mentioned the concrete.
You know to actually, you know,take those physical steps.
You know we're on the spiritualjourney, which is great but
better understood when we'veactually gotten out and walked.
So, yes, we're thrilled to givepeople that opportunity.
(30:29):
I go back.
You know I mentioned ThomasMerton earlier.
He has a great line in an essayhe wrote about pilgrimage where
he says the geographicpilgrimage is the symbolic
acting out of the inner journey.
You can have the one withoutthe other, but it's best to have
both.
And so.
I know you I'm sure have seenthe fruits of it yourself, just
with the wonderful work thatVerso does.
But giving people theopportunity to truly make
(30:50):
geographic pilgrimage, I thinkthat yeah, we'll see great leaps
and bounds on that spiritualjourney as well.
Joan (31:00):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for all your work, thank you
for everything you all aredoing to make this a success.
I know I encourage ourlisteners to pray for the
success of this.
You know this doesn't happenwithout your hard work and it
also doesn't happen without ourlisteners' prayers.
Like you said, so much of it'shappening because of the grace
of God, and so I think to havethe courage to pray for the Holy
Spirit to really come down uponour country during this time,
(31:20):
not to take that thisopportunity for granted, but to
ask a great anointing upon ourcountry during this time of
revival, but especially in thesenext two months, from Pentecost
, you know, to the EucharisticCongress, is such an opportunity
for our country.
So I'm asking our listeners topray for that, to pray for the
(31:41):
heroic pilgrims that are goingto be walking.
And could you tell us one moretime, if a listener wants to
participate, where they findthat information?
Will (31:47):
Yeah, sure, yeah, thank you.
And again, participation can bein a broad way.
As you say, prayer.
You know, walking with us walkon your own.
So EucharisticPilgrimageorg isthe website.
It has an interactive map.
It also has resources for thosewho don't.
You know, maybe don't live neara route to make your own
self-led Eucharistic pilgrimageRight.
(32:08):
Thinking about again, ourorganization is all about
helping people understand gosh.
My own parish church can be asite of pilgrimage.
You know how could I walk thereand spend some time in
adoration or walk there andconclude with the mass.
You know, make it a veryEucharistic pilgrimage
experience and do that insolidarity with the National
Eucharistic Pilgrimage and youknow my brothers and sisters in
(32:28):
Christ.
So there are resources therefor people and for families to
do that as well.
But that's onEucharisticPilgrimageorg.
Joan (32:35):
I love it.
Well, thank you Will.
Thanks for joining us today,thanks for sharing all of this,
and, listeners, be sure to keepit in your prayers, but join, if
you can, in any way that youcan join this beautiful effort.
So thanks again, will.
Will (32:49):
Thanks, joan, appreciate it.
Joan (32:51):
Okay, god bless.
Listeners, stay tuned.
We are continuing to talk aboutpilgrimage, the history of
pilgrimage, but I think it's sobeautiful today to really look
at pilgrimage not just assomething in history, but
something happening today in ourown country, and so really, I
encourage you to find out moreabout this Eucharistic
pilgrimage and join it howeveryou can.
So, god bless.
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