(OSV News) — Under the star-stenciled ceiling of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Pickerington, Ohio, Father Roger Landry, a priest chaplain traveling the Eastern Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, gave thanks for his 25 years as a priest June 26.
“The pilgrimage of the Christian life is in reality a Eucharistic procession, for Christ himself accompanies us every day – on sunny days as well as on rainy days – in the holy Eucharist, as he strives, as our Good Shepherd , to lead us to green pastures where he has prepared for us an eternal banquet and wants to make our cup overflow,” declared Father Landry in the homily of the mass marking the 25th jubilee of his priestly ordination.
The Eucharistic processions he has helped lead since May are not only part of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton National Eucharistic Pilgrimage Route, he said, but “are also part of the Church's pilgrimage throughout the time, not in Indianapolis, but in eternal Jerusalem.” “.
Father Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River in Massachusetts, chaplain of Columbia University in New York, and a sought-after preacher and retreat master. He is also the only priest chaplain to complete a full pilgrimage route to Indianapolis – a journey he described in his homily as a “life-changing adventure with the Lord.”
“What great grace that, in divine providence, I can celebrate this Mass of thanksgiving as a Seton Route pilgrim here, in this beautiful church built for the Eucharist and placed under the prayers of this great Eucharistic convert , saint and intercessor, whose first-class relic my fellow pilgrims and I had the privilege of taking turns carrying during our journey,” he said.
He holds up a small brown package hanging from a rope collar.
“Today I reached the rank and I have this first-class relic with me as I pray tonight,” he said with a smile, kissing the relic before putting it away.
Father Landry and the seven Seton Route “perpetual pilgrims” — young adults traveling the entire pilgrimage route — spent their sixth week on pilgrimage in West Virginia and eastern Ohio. On Sunday, June 23, they traveled down the Ohio River with the Eucharist on a sternwheeler alongside Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who was recently appointed apostolic director and administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio. The West Virginia and Ohio Catholics gathered at designated locations along the shore to receive a Eucharistic blessing from their bishop. The next day, they entered the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, with stops at several parishes and a Catholic school as they headed to the city of Columbus for the weekend.
During the same week, the 23 continuing pilgrims on the three other pilgrimage routes passed through Georgia and Tennessee; Wisconsin and Illinois; and Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.
Since Pentecost weekend, May 18-19, perpetual pilgrims have traveled — often on foot but always with the Eucharist — accompanied by priest chaplains and members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal to Indianapolis, where the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years is taking place at Lucas Oil Stadium July 17-21.
The pilgrimage and congress are highlights of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative launched by the U.S. bishops in 2022 to inspire a deeper love and understanding of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
Pilgrims on the St. Juan Diego route stopped seven times in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, first to attend a welcoming Mass June 21 at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Newnan, Georgia. After the Mass, there was a Eucharistic procession to St. Mary Academy in Fayetteville, where the faithful knelt and prayed before the Eucharist in the monstrance.
Fr Valery Akoh, parish priest of St Matthew's Church, Tyrone, received the Blessed Sacrament and led the Eucharistic caravan around the academy's football pitch, reciting the rosary along the way.
“It’s very hot outside, but the atmosphere is warm and welcoming,” one parishioner told a friend. “That’s what it feels like: the love of God.”
Perpetual pilgrim Joshua Velasquez, an undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, testified in the academy's auditorium, speaking about his pilgrimage experience so far.
Velasquez kept his Polaroid camera by his side throughout the trip. He captured images of their travels and memories. In his testimony, Velasquez shared a thought-provoking moment when he took a photo of the monstrance in their van.
“I decided to take a photo of our Lord in the dark van, and I can safely say that the two photos I took turned out to be pitch black,” he said . “It made me think: Where is the light? Even though it was scary to see a void, I saw that there was something beautiful in it all. Because when things seem to be in total darkness, that's when the brightest light shines. »
The crowd began to understand Velasquez's story and knelt as he elaborated on the Polaroid images.
“Today I want you to reflect on the mystery of our Lord’s passion,” Velázquez said. “See how our Lord brings light into the darkness, as even darkness is light to God, because he brings good out of the deepest evils. Whatever place of darkness reigns in your hearts, hear that the place of darkness can become light. From darkness springs light.”
Pilgrims celebrated Mass at Atlanta's Cathedral of Christ the King on June 23 with Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, then a procession took place on the cathedral grounds. On June 24, they stopped for mass and worship in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, and the next day they entered the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, where they will continue their pilgrimage until June 24. June 30th. On June 28, they were to spend the day with the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia at their motherhouse in Nashville.
On the western route of the St. Junipero Serra pilgrimage, pilgrims departed Nebraska June 23 after marking the June 21 transition between the Diocese of Lincoln and the Archdiocese of Omaha with a 5-mile Eucharistic procession to the Cloisters on the Platte, an Ignatian retreat center, that ended at the iconic glass-walled Holy Family Shrine near Interstate 80.
“It was just amazing to see this chapel overlooking the highway,” said Serra Route pilgrim Jimmy Velasco, a seminarian in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, during a June 26 media call.
In the Archdiocese of Omaha, Serra's pilgrims stopped at the St. Augustine Indian Mission, a Catholic institution founded by St. Katharine Drexel that serves students from the Omaha and Winnebago tribes, Creighton University and St. Cecilia Cathedral before crossing the Missouri River into the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, where they walked in an 8-mile procession on the Wabash Trace Nature Trail.
Forty-eight hours after arriving in Iowa, they entered the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas. At Benedictine College, they joined the monks of St. Benedict Abbey for vespers and solemn blessing. On June 26, they stopped in Topeka, Kansas, where they participated in an “evening of eucharistic wonder” with a nighttime adoration at Most Pure Heart Catholic Church.
June 27 included a 1-mile procession from Assumption Church on the north side of the Kansas State Capitol campus to the former Monroe School, now the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historical Park, which commemorates the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The pilgrims planned to enter the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, June 29.
On the pilgrimage’s Northern Marian Route, pilgrims spent June 18-26 in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which included Eucharistic processions at the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians, also known as “Holy Hill,” in Hubertus, Wisconsin; the Schoenstatt Shrine in Waukesha; and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Fatima Shrine in Milwaukee.
On June 26, they entered Illinois and the Archdiocese of Chicago with a Mass, adoration and youth procession at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago's northern suburbs. Various events are planned in the Chicago area through June 30, including a Mass at Holy Name Cathedral and a Eucharistic procession with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, followed by the Holy Qurbana – the name of the Mass in the Syrian Rite -Malabar Catholic Church – and a procession to Mar Thomas Sleeha Cathedral, the Syro-Malabar cathedral in a western suburb of Chicago, with Bishop Mar Joy Alappatt.
In Ohio on June 26, Seton Pilgrims—Christoph Bernas, Dominic Carstens, Zoe Dongas, Marina Frattaroli, Natalie Garza and Amayrani Higueldo—wrote and performed a song to honor their chaplain’s jubilee at a reception hosted by the parish. They posted their video on their travel blog, setonpilgrimage.org.
They set the song to the tune of Chris Tomlin's praise song “Good Good Father.” “We call him ‘Good Good Father Landry,’” Dongas told the audience with a smile.
“Because we’re with you now / for 40 days and nights / 560 hours with the luckiest priest in the world / because you’re bringing Jesus Christ / across America…” the pilgrims sang, accompanied by Garza’s guitar and Dongas’ harmonica, capturing aspects of his ministry and personality.
“You are our spiritual father,” they repeated seriously, then added with a laugh: “And you talk, and you talk, and you talk… and he opened his mouth and he talked – for 45 minutes.”
Afterwards, Father Landry embraced each pilgrim. In his homily, he had named each one, saying: “I hope to have the privilege of continuing to accompany them not only over the next 25 days, but I hope for 25 years, into eternity.”
