This summer, the 10th National Eucharistic Congress was held in Indianapolis, where more than 60,000 Catholics came together for this pivotal gathering as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a grassroots response to God’s invitation to be united around the source and summit of the Catholic faith in the celebration of the Eucharist. A key moment in this revival was the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, during which local communities were invited to walk with the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic processions all across the country and accompany Jesus along the journey towards the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
While everyone was invited to register to walk with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage for short distances, one group of two dozen young adults, called Perpetual Pilgrims, made the full journey to Indianapolis. This small group, divided into four routes, travelled full-time with the Blessed Sacrament beginning in May and finally arriving at the National Eucharistic Congress that was held July 17 – 21.
The National Eucharist Pilgrimage began with kickoff events during the weekend of Pentecost at four starting locations across the United States: Mississippi Headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota; New Haven, Connecticut; Brownsville, Texas; and San Francisco, California. Along each route, a small group of pilgrims aged 19 – 29 walked with the Blessed Sacrament for approximately two months, meeting up with members of the local parishes and dioceses along the way. The four routes, starting at the north, east, south, and west corners of the country and together covering over 6,500 miles, traced a nation-wide cross over the United States.
One of those Perpetual Pilgrims was Jaella Mac Au, a Regnum Christi member living in Georgia. Jaella’s group, which consisted of three lay men, three lay women, and two seminarians, walked the western route, named after St. Junipero Serra, and was the most challenging and longest of the four at 2,200 miles. The pilgrimage began in San Francisco with a dramatic procession across the Golden Gate Bridge with over 4,000 people in attendance. Along this unique pilgrimage, the group made stops in a variety of locations, from large city centers with massive processions to small rural towns, from a Byzantine church where they participated in the Divine Liturgy, to a cloistered convent where the nuns came out to greet the Blessed Sacrament weeping tears of joy. Some of the stops the pilgrims made included many historically predominantly Black churches where they were welcomed with Swahili choirs and Gospel music, the Brown vs. Board of Education National Park where they prayed for racial healing for the Church, and a church on a reservation where they were welcomed with Native American drums and traditional singing. The group even visited Folsom Prison and had Mass and adoration with 60 inmates.
“I got to visit a lot of diverse spaces within the Church, and it was beautiful to see the different facets in the heart of the Lord, to see what that representation means to the Church, and above all, to be so welcomed,” says Jaella. “The Church is alive, the diverse heart of the Church is alive!”
Jaella first met Regnum Christi through her parish, St. Brendan the Navigator, in Cumming, Georgia, currently served by Legionary priests, Fr. Matthew VanSmoorenburg, Fr. Michael Shannon, and most recently, Fr. Scott Reilly. Through her involvement with RC Mission Corps and Mercy Missions Atlanta, she grew in her love for mission, and was even slated to go on a summer mission to the Philippines in 2020 before the Covid pandemic hit. As a college student about to finish up her degree and facing an unknown future, Jaella saw this pilgrimage not just as an opportunity for adventure, but also as a way to pursue her passion for mission and ministry and find more security in the insecurity of life through greater trust in the Lord.
Because the Junipero Serra route was so long and challenging, crossing the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, most days along the two-month pilgrimage consisted of both driving and walking. But the pilgrims’ travel time in the vehicle was not wasted: their 15-passenger van had been modified to make room for a tabernacle onto which a monstrance was secured, turning the van into a mobile adoration chapel. There was no “typical day” along the pilgrimage, as each of the days was hosted and planned by a different parish or diocese with its own expectations, plans, and needs, but most days included Mass, a walking procession with the community, a Holy Hour and social meal with the local parish, and hours of adoration on the road.
These many hours spent in the van surprised Jaella, who had imagined herself travelling most of the pilgrimage route by foot. “I had the expectation that this was going to be a very exterior journey, that we were going to be walking 10 miles every single day, evangelizing others and spreading the love of the Lord,” shares Jaella. “I was not prepared for how interior this journey was going to be, and I worried that I wasn’t praying the way I was supposed to, that I wasn’t honoring and revering the Lord correctly. The assumption was that the pilgrimage would be sunshine and rainbows, but it wasn’t, and there were times, even being two feet from the Lord, when I was in spiritual desolation. Through the stress of this, the Lord spoke to my own heart ‘I am always with you,’ and he lavished his love upon me.”
One of the great gifts that Jaella gained through this pilgrimage was a bigger love for the whole Church, in its entirety and variety. “In my own experience with Regnum Christi, Mercy Missions, and ECyD, I’ve worked mostly with young adults, high schoolers, and middle schoolers, and in this pilgrimage, I had the privilege of seeing the diversity of the Father’s heart, from young families to the elderly, and a lot of different cultures. The Lord is recatechizing people’s hearts at every age and in every generation, and I grew in my love for the Church and her body.”
Jaella is sincerely grateful for all those who supported her along this epic two-month journey, including those who provided prayers, funding, and verbal support, and for all the fellow Regnum Christi members she met along the way. She is particularly thankful for the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who sent out friars from their order to serve as chaplains and shepherds across the country along all four routes. Jaella is entering her final semester at the University of Georgia studying human development and family sciences with a focus in child life. She hopes to hold onto the peace in the chaos and the unknowing that the Lord showed to her along the pilgrimage as she remains open to whatever God has in store for her next.
Find out more about 10th National Eucharistic Congress, the National Eucharistic Revival, and the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage by visiting their websites. You can also check out the Pilgrim’s Digest to follow the historic journey across all four routes.
