CV NEWS FEED // The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is preparing with enthusiasm for the Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which will travel through many of its parishes in May, according to the online newspaper The Catholic Spirit.
The Minnesota-based archdiocese is along the northern route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. In total, there are four routes for the Pilgrimage, which all lead to the same location on July 17: Indianapolis, Indiana, where the National Eucharistic Congress will begin.
From July 17 to 21, an estimated 80,000 Catholics from across the nation will gather in Indianapolis to worship Christ in the Eucharist together at the Congress. The Pilgrimage and the Congress are a part of the larger, multi-year National Eucharistic Revival, an initiative focused on increasing devotion to the Eucharist.
From May 24 to 31, the Pilgrimage will pass through at least 30 participating parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Fr. Tim Tran, the Revival coordinator for the Archdiocese, shared with The Catholic Spirit about how the Pilgrimage demonstrates that Christ desires to reach the heart of every human person.
“It’s going through many different communities, from rural to inner city,” Fr. Tran said. “We see that as the Catholicity, the universality of the Church and how Jesus came to feed all.”
He later said, “We’re not doing anything fancy, that’s the beauty of it. We’re just walking with Jesus along the way. And that in itself will be the propulsion of this revival.”
Fr. Tran said that good ways to prepare for the pilgrimage are praying, spending time in adoration, and attending Mass.
“Start there, with your own personal revival,” Fr. Tran said, later adding that the pilgrimage helps participants to “become the agents of revival in our families, in our workplaces, in our communities, in our parishes, in our archdiocese, our country and the world.”
The last day that the pilgrimage will be in the Archdiocese is May 31, the Feast of the Visitation. Fr. Tran shared with The Catholic Spirit that this feast is an opportunity to meditate on the meaning of Eucharistic revival in a Scriptural context.
“I see [the Visitation] as the first Eucharistic procession or pilgrimage, one might say, in world history because Mother Mary was the living tabernacle and also the living monstrance,” Fr. Tran said:
Having Christ in her womb, she processed throughout the Judean hill countryside to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. And that’s precisely what we’re doing — I just see that as a spiritual reflection on how it has converged to this moment.
