The last days of the Eucharistic Pilgrimage have too quickly arrived.
Tucked in every corner of our country...
Living in the hearts of the people who took part in the pilgrimage along trails and city streets...
Abiding with those who witnessed our Eucharistic Lord come among them...
And treasured in the memories of the Perpetual Pilgrims...
Are amazing moments of hope, healing, and mercy.
On June 30, when the Eucharistic Pilgrimage arrived in Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Cardinal Cupich talked in his homily about how the Eucharist brings healing to our lives, “healing to the many wounds we suffer as humanity in so many different ways.” As the woman who had suffered for twelve years with a hemorrhage and Jairus whose twelve-year-old daughter was ill, we too bring our wounds and sufferings to Jesus, the Cardinal said, the memories of all we’ve lost, every need for healing that we have. There is a link, Cardinal Cupich said, between the healing that Jesus brought to people in the Gospels and the healing and hope that the Eucharist brings about in our lives.
Healing is not optimism. Cardinal Cupich explained that optimism is about things getting better tomorrow. Instead, healing brings hope. “Hope is a virtue not because we know what we are doing to bring about hope, but because we know what God is doing. That is what we celebrate in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Jesus makes present his victory and triumph from death. That is why the Eucharist sparks hope, because Jesus comes into our midst to bring us to the cross and to let us know that he died not just for those people 2,000 years ago and rose from the dead 2,000 years ago as a past event. But no, he is present and active in the world today, and we get to share in his victory and triumph over death every time that we celebrate the Eucharist. So that those moments in which we face dying, in which our lives are ripped with fear about failure, of having no exit in life, the Eucharist reminds us that we are given a share in his victory and triumph over death.”
On June 17, Karen Simpson took part in a 15-mile Eucharistic procession through Beaver County in the diocese of Pittsburgh. She recounts how it was “literally a walk through different stages of my own life. An innocent child full of hopes and dreams. An insecure teenager full of fear and loneliness. A broken young adult full of regret and shame. An older adult full of doubt and uncertainty of which path to follow. Painful times of abandonment and wondering “Where is God?” The searing heat, dehydration, pain, and fatigue nearly overwhelmed me. But each time I felt like giving up, thoughts of the Israelites’ journey through the desert to freedom urged me forward. I also thought of Jesus’ walk to Calvary and the excruciating pain he suffered. For the first time in my life, I realized deep down in my heart that Jesus suffered for me. Walking with my fellow pilgrims, I could see that Jesus had always been right there by my side. I could also see the times when he had carried me through the most difficult parts of my journey. With each new step I took, I felt the presence of my Lord and Savior and saw him in each person I encountered along the way. I am restored with a childlike faith and devotion. A true Eucharistic Revival!”
Danielle Schmitz, a Perpetual Pilgrim on the Marian Route, shared her testimony of experiencing Jesus’ love in the Eucharist. After years of searching for love in all the wrong places, she said to Jesus at Mass one day, “Jesus, I need you, and I will give all of this up if I can have you.” It was at that moment, in receiving the Eucharist, that everything changed for her. At that Mass, Jesus made it so clear to her that everything she had been looking for would be fulfilled if she just looked at him in the Eucharist. Listen to her testimony:
As the pilgrimage winds its way to its destination in Indianapolis and the Eucharistic Congress, there are many, so many, moments of grace treasured across our nation.
Sister John Marion, C.K., was blessed to be able to walk for miles with the Eucharistic Pilgrimage through the waving cornfields of Nebraska, her home state. She shares: “As I walked beside the monstrance, slowly winding our way for miles on gravel roads, I was moved by the experience of walking with Jesus. Walking has a slow rhythm that allows space for people to be present to one another. Even in the crowd of pilgrims, there was a prayerful atmosphere in which I felt him be present to me personally. Jesus has a way of gazing upon each heart individually even while walking in a crowd. His Eucharistic presence emanated peace and stillness, and the walking gave time for my heart to be still beside him. I sensed his joy and his desire to give himself in abundance to all the people in this land. And I felt a deep desire, as his spouse, to receive him on behalf of the people and bring to him all their needs. It was a gift to be able to accompany him as he made his way through my home.”
Sr. Amanda Marie, FSP, was with a group of young women discerning religious life on the Eucharistic Pilgrimage in St. Louis on July 5. “Personally, I was struck by the quietness and humility of God. While there were so many signs of devotion and joy, there were other moments too—a child distractedly playing with her rosary beads during the Divine Mercy Chaplet; a man carrying a child on his shoulders who tripped and fell during the pilgrimage (they were both okay); an insensitive remark that someone made towards another person. We were a cross-section of humanity—variously unaware, clumsy, burdened, and sinful—and Jesus chose to be with us.” Isn’t that what it is all about? Jesus has chosen to be with us, and we can trust that he will stay with us no matter what we encounter in ourselves or in the world.
As the Eucharistic Pilgrims entered into the last week of their pilgrimage, we asked them what was in their hearts. One of the pilgrims from the Juan Diego Route recalled: “On Pentecost Sunday, the Juan Diego route was truly baptized by fire in the form of extreme heat in Brownsville, TX, and the Lord continued to spread that fire in countless hearts throughout this entire summer.” Amayrani was still in wonder at how Jesus brought healing to so many, “Everywhere, Jesus, the divine physician, has brought healing, and Christ our hope has inspired hearts.” Christoph, a seminarian, agreed that “the great part about all of this is that while we ourselves are encountering the Lord, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, on this journey, we get to facilitate that encounter for every single other person that we meet on this journey as well. It's super humbling.” Natalie commented how a pilgrimage is something like an “embodied” act of faith, “The truth we profess with our mouths has now been professed with our bodies as we walked 6,500 miles with Jesus to remind the world that he is really present in the Eucharist.” Dominic’s reflection brings us back to one of the most important things we can take away from having witnessed Jesus in our midst in the Eucharistic Pilgrimage. It has not only taken place across our nation, Jesus has moved us deeply within our hearts. “We have taken Jesus through glittering skyscrapers and drug-ridden streets, open prairies and prisons. Christ has been present on the greatest exterior and interior journey I have ever made.”
Cover photo by Maegan Martin
