Pilgrims see the church ‘alive and hungry’ as National Eucharistic Pilgrimage enters final days

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OSV News) — Singing hymns and praying the rosary, hundreds of Catholics from the Archdiocese of Louisville and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis processed with the Blessed Sacrament from Waterfront Park in downtown Louisville across the Ohio River via the Big Four Bridge July 9.

Louisville Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre held the monstrance aloft as he crossed the pedestrian bridge, ceremoniously transferring it to Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis where the bridge begins its descent into Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Threats of severe weather produced by Hurricane Beryl lay in the distance, while high humidity cloaked the bridge. But the skies were clear for the procession and prayer service that followed at the base of the bridge in Jeffersonville. As the service neared its end, a rainbow arced across the sky over Louisville.

The evening gathering marked the end of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s route through the Kentucky archdiocese. Eight pilgrims traveling the St. Juan Diego Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage entered the archdiocese July 4. Processing with the Blessed Sacrament at various points, they covered about 100 miles of the Louisville Archdiocese, visiting parishes, religious communities and other sites.

Now, after eight weeks of pilgrimage, the pilgrims are nearing Indianapolis, their final destination, for the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress.

Pilgrims on the southern route were the third of the four perpetual pilgrim groups to enter Indiana. Pilgrims on the Marian Route, which began in Northern Minnesota, entered Indiana July 1, and spent July 1-5 in the Diocese of Gary and July 5-10 in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, with plans to spend July 10-14 in the nearby Diocese of Lafayette before entering the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

Pilgrims on the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Route, which began in New Haven, Conn., crossed the Ohio-Indiana border into the Indianapolis Archdiocese July 8 after spending eight days traveling through the Cincinnati Archdiocese.

Pilgrims on the St. Junipero Serra Route, which began in San Francisco, expected to enter Indiana July 12 after spending July 5-7 in the St. Louis Archdiocese; July 7-8 in the Diocese of Belleville, Ill.; and July 8-12 in the Diocese of Springfield, Ill.

The pilgrimage and the National Eucharistic Congress are highlights of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative the U.S. bishops launched in 2022 to inspire greater understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist.

Shayla Elm, one of eight pilgrims on the pilgrimage’s southern route traveling from the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, to Indiana, said their experiences in Kentucky and along the route have convinced her that “the church is alive and hungry.”

Many Catholics desire to live lives that are “on fire” rather than “lukewarm,” and they love the opportunity to publicly declare their faith by walking behind Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, she told The Record, the Archdiocese of Louisville’s newspaper.

“A Eucharistic procession makes you make an act of faith that is public,” she noted, adding that people are stepping into the opportunity and “they love it!”

During the pilgrimage, Elm was seeing Kentucky for the first time. A native of North Dakota, Elm said in a recent interview that she was struck by the Catholic roots she found in her few days in the state.

“The tradition and Catholic ownership runs deep,” she noted. The Archdiocese of Louisville was established in 1808, one of four dioceses carved from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the original see in the United States.

Although the eight pilgrims were only in the Louisville Archdiocese for six days, they experienced centuries of history in the “Kentucky Holy Land,” where the Catholic faith first took root in the late 1700s.

To begin their route through the archdiocese, the pilgrims celebrated Mass at St. Catherine Church in New Haven, and spent the night at the nearby Abbey of Gethsemani, where they joined the monks for midday prayer and a private tour of the abbey, celebrated Mass and had a Eucharistic procession. The pilgrims spent the following days with the Dominican Sisters of Peace and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, as well as several parishes in the area, including Holy Cross in Loretto, and St. Rose Priory in Springfield.

About 320 miles west of Springfield in St. Louis, Serra Route perpetual pilgrims participated in an Archdiocese of St. Louis service project to pack boxes with pantry staples, household goods and personal care items for refugee families living north of the Missouri city. After packing boxes, the pilgrims prayed over the boxes with Missionaries of Charity who regularly visit the refugees, according to the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

“It’s all about unity in the body of Christ and how the Lord is broken, blessed and given to everyone,” Jaella Mac Au told the St. Louis Review. “For a lot of places, we’ll only be there for an hour and we truly see the impact that we are able to have in just the giving of ourselves. Sometimes without even speaking — just by the giving of our muscles and our sweat, it’s showing them the face of Jesus and the love of our Lord.”

The day before, the Serra Route pilgrims participated in a short eucharistic procession in St. Charles, Missouri, that began at the Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852), a sister of the fledgling Society of the Sacred Heart who left France in 1818 to be a missionary in the American frontier of Missouri and Kansas.

The Seton Route’s week in the Cincinnati Archdiocese opened with a eucharistic celebration marking a parish’s 175th anniversary in Xenia, Ohio. It included two long eucharistic processions exceeding 10 miles and, on July 6, Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains with Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr, followed by an hourlong eucharistic procession in downtown Cincinnati culminating in a eucharistic festival called “Jesus is Here: A Day with the Eucharist.”

On the Marian Route, pilgrims spent July 5-7 at the University of Notre Dame, where a eucharistic procession drew a standing-room-only crowd to Mass at its Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Notre Dame, Ind.

At the university, the perpetual pilgrims had opportunities for both rest and community, while lodging at the presbytery on Notre Dame’s campus.

“It’s been a blessing to encounter certain spaces that just feel very holy: like you know there have been hundreds of people here — thousands of people — who have come before you and who have prayed in this spot, who have offered themselves in this spot, like the grotto especially,” perpetual pilgrim Matthew Heidenreich told Today’s Catholic, the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend’s newspaper.

“There’s just such a feeling of like you’re walking into a pocket of holiness and a pocket of heaven,” he said. “And those are very unique spaces to encounter, but whenever we can it’s a very great blessing for our team.”

They participated in service work with Catholic Charities, helping to plant a unity garden, and on July 6, they attended the world premiere of “Behold God’s Love: A Eucharistic Musical” that was held nearby at St. Mary’s College.

The musical was written in honor of the National Eucharistic Revival by Carolyn Pirtle, program director at the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, and directed by Jennifer Cimino, founder of the On Cue program in Omaha, Neb. According to promotional materials, the three-act musical “invites audiences to encounter the beauty of the Eucharist anew through imaginative portrayals of stories from Scripture.”

“I think it’s so beautiful to see how people can bring their own talents to our faith, and how every gift can be used,” Heidenreich said. “It was so encouraging for me to think, ‘What gifts do I have that maybe I haven’t used for this revival or for the Lord yet?’ It was very uplifting.”

As they prepared to leave South Bend, the realization that their pilgrimage was coming to an end caused them to consider how to live in their next phase of life.

“I think for some of us, Fort-Wayne-South Bend is like a homecoming in some ways,” Heidenreich said.

“Day by day, we’re getting closer to where we’re from,” he said. “I’m from Columbus, Ohio. And so, it’s just bringing to mind that reality that soon we will be going home from this experience. And so, it is kind of like this beautiful way to remember that even as we’re going forward to the communities that we have originated from or started at, we’re still going to be pilgrims there, and we’re going to be missionaries there especially.

“We’re pilgrims forever on our journey to heaven, and we’re missionaries now of the Eucharist, to go and share this experience that we’ve had with the places that we came from,” he added. “So, it’s a good reminder that there’s a lot more to come.”

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Authors Marnie McAllister is editor and Olivia Castlen is a staff writer for The Record, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville. Contributing to this story were Maria Wiering, senior writer for OSV News; and Paula Lent, writer for Today’s Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

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