Browsing Deacon Mark Ebben articles

Why go on a pilgrimage? - September 15, 2019

This weekend, September 13-15, more than 40 parishioners will either hike or bike 50 miles from Holy Cross to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin. Why do people go on a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is a journey that one undertakes to a sacred place with the intention of asking for the Lord’s blessings in one’s life, supplication for a particular petition or even to ask for physical or spiritual healing. This journey could be as immense as taking a trip to the Holy Land to walk in Christ’s footsteps or as simple as visiting a nearby shrine. Pilgrims make these trips, not as a vacation or sightseeing tour, but as a prayer and as a quest to encounter the Lord. Pilgrimages have been taking place since the earliest days of the Church. One of the longest pilgrimage routes, the Camino de Santiago, was portrayed in a movie called “The Way” starring Martin Sheen. This pilgrimage has been taking place since the 12th century and reaches the relics of St. James in the Basilica of Santiago, in northwest Spain. Some of our parishioners recently participated in this pilgrimage.

As the history of the Catholic Church continued, pilgrims journeyed to venerate the sites of the apparitions of Mary. The only officially recognized apparition site in the United States is in Champion, Wisconsin. Our Kaukauna Catholic Pilgrims’ destination is none other than an encounter with Christ through Mary. Our entire life on earth is a pilgrimage to reach Heaven. By taking this pilgrimage, we choose to recognize that the ultimate goal of our lives is union with God.

Deacon Mark

 

 

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