“A pilgrimage is an outward journey that triggers something inward.”
I heard these words spoken in the homily given by Fr. Michael Fuller, the General Secretary of the USCCB, at the Mass and Eucharistic procession in Washington, D.C., as part of the Eastern Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. Fr. Fuller went on to explain that pilgrimages and processions put us in motion exteriorly (walking, kneeling, singing, praying) in order to nudge us into movement interiorly.
As I listened to those words and considered the interior journey that I was being invited to, my eyes traveled over the hundreds and thousands of people gathered there at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. My heart filled as I realized that each of us was bringing something to this pilgrimage, and each of us was also being invited to an interior journey. And my thoughts returned to when I first heard about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
It was over a year ago and I was standing in the kitchen of the convent where I am stationed. One of our Sisters who was working with the National Eucharistic Revival team was bubbling over with excitement as she explained this new idea to have a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that would bring Jesus in the Eucharist across our whole country. I couldn’t believe what a big idea this was, and what a huge project it would be. Sister agreed with me and said, “If it really happens, it will be a miracle!”
Well, the miracle happened. For almost two months, Jesus has been walking across our land in four Eucharistic pilgrimages which will meet in less than two weeks in Indianapolis for the Eucharistic Congress.
Pilgrimage and Discernment
As I watched the preparations for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage take place over the next year, I was increasingly struck by the similarities between pilgrimage and discernment. Traditionally, when a person goes on a pilgrimage, they are going with a special intention in their heart and prayers. Likewise, they are going toward a particular destination, a destination that is full of meaning and that communicates hope.
Going on pilgrimage means walking more deliberately. It means walking more closely with Jesus. With each step, the person on pilgrimage is looking for Jesus, listening for him, and seeking to encounter him. Along the way, they learn more about themselves, about others, and about God. By the end of the pilgrimage, they are changed—there is an invitation to live differently going forward.
All of these things are true of vocational discernment. Discernment is like a “little” pilgrimage in the midst of the great pilgrimage that is life. We enter into vocational discernment with a special intention—to know what God is calling us to—and we are walking toward a particular destination, that is, our vocation.
The pilgrimage of discernment calls us to walk more deliberately, more slowly, and more closely—to see God in the events of our life, and to perceive his gentle invitations and his quiet call in the ordinariness of our days. On a pilgrimage of discernment, we learn about ourselves, about others, and about God. Above all, we learn God’s love, and we learn to speak the language of God’s love.
At the end of a pilgrimage of discernment, we are changed. We are invited to live differently, to live for others, to live a life that cries out a joyful yes to God with everything that we are. And then we are called to take up the next “pilgrimage” that God sets us on.
The Small Moments of Pilgrimage Throughout Life
I think that God gives us many small, beautiful moments of pilgrimage throughout our day and throughout our life. One of these moments for me over the last two months has been our “Vocation Pilgrimage Weekends.” Our communities in Boston, Alexandria, New Orleans, and St. Louis invited young women discerning a religious vocation to spend the weekend with us and participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage alongside us.
The weekends included time with the Sisters, talks on the Eucharist and discernment, a Eucharistic mission project, and above all time spent with Jesus in the Eucharist. As one young woman told us, the weekends were “soaked in the Eucharist!” We were blessed to be able to share our life and walk with these young women in this way.
So as I sat in the National Shrine with the seven young women participating in our Alexandria Vocation Pilgrimage Weekend, praying for each of their journeys and offering my own journey to Jesus in the Eucharist, I couldn’t help but smile. God had invited me on a pilgrimage of discernment years and years ago. More recently he had started a little pilgrimage in my heart when I had first heard of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
Now, about to embark on a piece of the National Pilgrimage, alongside my Sisters and these young women in discernment, I was being given the gift of an “outward journey that triggers something inward.” A journey I couldn’t wait to go on, and a journey that I will be walking until the end of my life.
