MOST WELL KNOWN CATHOLIC PILGRIMAGES

MOST WELL KNOWN CATHOLIC PILGRIMAGES

What is a pilgrimage? Most people define a pilgrimage as a spiritual journey to a sacred place or shrine as an act of devotion to God. For Catholics, a pilgrimage takes the traveler to a holy site or Christian historical sites to encounter and to pray to God. As Pope Benedict once spoke about a Catholic pilgrimage, To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.

Any pilgrimage—whether at home and abroad—simply requires these three things:

1. A JOURNEY - The reason pilgrimage is such a powerful experience is because it involves leaving behind what is comfortable and known in pursuit of transformation. This might be a physical journey to another country or landscape, but it could also be one of the many journeys we experience in everyday life, whether in relationships, faith, vocation, and beyond. While these journeys happen all the time, they begin to shift when we claim them as significant and begin to approach each step of the journey with curiosity and intention, just as a pilgrim would do on a journey abroad.
   
   
2. ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TRUE SELF - Each journey is a quest, each quest begins with a question, and each question is sourced deep within the soul. For a pilgrimage to be transformative, it has to be a journey of listening deeply, following the pilgrim’s compass of intuition, and facing the obstacles of the ego, temptation, and the false self so that the True Self—who you are in God’s image—can be revealed.
   
   
3. SACRED ENCOUNTER - In the practice of pilgrimage, the pursuit of the Divine is at the beginning, middle, and end of the journey and everywhere in between. It’s what fuels any pilgrimage, and when it comes to transformation, it’s the alchemy that turns what’s rudimentary into gold. While the spiritual nature of the pilgrimage might be subtle or overt, one thing is certain for the pilgrim at home or abroad—it’s the Sacred Guide who leads the journey each step of the way. 
   
   
4. The Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago) in Spain
   The most popular pilgrimage for Western Europen Catholics from the Early Middle Ages onwards, is “The Way of St. James” (Camino de Santiago) in Spain. It is the traditional pilgrimage to the grave of Saint James.

In our Avila 2015 Pilgrimage, we twins went to Burgos, Spain to see the monastery of San Juan de Ortega. This monastery is a must see on El Camino de Santiago. We saw San Juan’s mausoleum, a wonderful example of Roman handcraft. 

2. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France
Lourdes is one of the best-known places for the power of the miracles that took place there. Here, in February 1858, the Madonna appeared to the young Bernadette Soubirous for the first time. In the following months, the apparitions continued, sometimes accompanied by miracles. It is estimated that around six million pilgrims visit Lourdes every year. Among these there are numerous sick people, who ask for the grace of healing: many are granted thanks to the mysterious action of divine grace and the intercession of Mary.

The Madonna of Lourdes is one of the most recognizable depictions of Mary, characterized by a white dress and veil, blue belt and a yellow rose at the feet. In 1862 the Church officially recognized the reality of the apparitions of Lourdes and Bernadette Soubirous was proclaimed a saint in 1933 by Pope Pius XI.

3. The Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy

The Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto is famous all over the world. The Holy House preserved in Loreto would be part of the house where the Holy Family lived in Nazareth. In the sanctuary, there is the statue of the Madonna of Loreto. Tradition has it that 

Picture of Tour group

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

4. The Sanctuary of Fatima in Portugal - 2002
The Virgin Mary appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 starting on May 13 and ending on October 13. Mary identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary. One of the events that made this place so well known in the memory of the faithful is the ” miracle of the sun”. In Fatima, the presence of Mary left a strong mark. Francisco and Jacinta Marto are now saints, buried in the Sanctuary of Fatima. Sister Angela was the postulator for the cause of canonization of Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Lucia’s cousins who were the other two seers of Fatima. They were beatified by St. John Paul II on a Fatima anniversary, May 13, 2000. The Fatima Shrine’s rector Father Cabecin says of the cause of the beatification/canonization of Venerable Lucia:

The challenge that I leave for everyone is that you all pray for the process to reach its end as fast as possible”. “We are all aware of the importance of Sister Lucia, the seer that lived more years; her fame of holiness….”

2002 

Luz was inspired to go to the  Clinic and asked to join the  sick during the mass.

5. The pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, has a great significance for Christianity. We twins consider our pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the Jubilee Year 2000 to have transformed us tremendously. We retraced the whole life of Christ: from Bethlehem, Cana, Capernaum, Sea of Galilee, Gethsemane, Via Dolorosa and in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. 

6. The Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome 

7. The Shrine of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in Pontevedra, Spain 

In 1925 eighteen-year-old Lucia joined the Dorothean Sisters. She became a postulant at the Order’s convent at Pontevedra, Spain. According to Sister Lúcia, it was here that the child Jesus and the Virgin Mary appeared to her in 1925 - 1926 and revealed to her what she promised in 1917, the first part of God’s plan for the salvation of sinners in our time of revolt against God: the reparatory Communion of the First Saturdays of the month. 

On December 10, 1925, the Most Holy Virgin Herself appeared, and beside Her, borne by a luminous cloud, the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin put Her hand on her shoulder and showed her, at the same time, a Heart surrounded by thorns which She held in the other hand. At that same moment, the Child said to her: ‘Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.’ Then the Most Holy Virgin said:

‘Look, My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me.’