Your First Catholic Pilgrimage: Simple Steps to Prepare Heart, Mind, and Backpack

Going on a pilgrimage for the first time (even locally) is a lot like visiting extended family you haven’t met or seen in years. There’s a sense of anticipation, familiarity, and yet very much unknown. There's spiritual preparation as much as there is material preparation. 

The material preparation is easy in the sense that you pack the snacks, drinks, a picnic meal, some singles to light candles, and your rosary. It’s the spiritual preparation that takes some deeper thought. A few questions can help guide this process:

1. What area of my life am I carrying the most weight? It can be a relationship, finances, body image, illness, pain, work, children, spouse, roommate, grief, fear etc. Let this be your intention for the pilgrimage. Let this be what you bring to the shrine/church/cathedral and present it to The Lord as your offering. 
2. What do I need to ask forgiveness for? Is there something that keeps coming up that I want to hide from and maybe have been for a long time. Bring this on pilgrimage too. Confession at a new place with a new priest who you’ll never see again is a wonderful opportunity to unload.
3. Who do I need to forgive? Is there someone I’m still holding in the cage of resentment? Bring this person and situation on pilgrimage too. Present them to The Lord and tell Him that you can’t forgive them and you’ve tried, but you want to move on. 
4. Is there something I’m thankful for that I haven’t expressed gratitude to The Lord? An answered prayer or an unexpected blessing? Making a pilgrimage in thanksgiving is being like the one out of 10 lepers who returns to thank Jesus for his healing.

So now that you have some concrete intentions to bring on pilgrimage, the next step is to organize the trip. It’s very beautiful to go on pilgrimage with others. Pilgrims who have the blessing to go overseas with a group find the bonds are beautiful and go deep in a short time. The same is true for a local pilgrimage that’s a day trip or half day. In God’s mysterious ways, the people you go on pilgrimage with are part of the experience of encountering Him. One time my husband went on pilgrimage and he didn’t know who his roommate was going to be until he got there. Once they met and started talking, it turned out that both of them had been let go from their jobs the week before. God gave them this fraternal bond through their shared experience. Ten years later, they still keep in touch.

When looking for a place to travel, www.catholicgo.com offers a directory of places in the US. There’s an “Enable Location” button that will then populate pilgrimage sites closest to where you are. Choose a site that interests you. Check out the Mass and Confession times to plan your trip around those, but also look to see if there are any special events. Sometimes there’s a monthly healing Mass, procession, or festival. 

Once you have a day, timeframe, and intentions, you’re ready to go on pilgrimage! A quick prayer to St. James (patron of pilgrimages), St. Michael (for protection), and the Saint associated with the place you’re going to, you’re ready for the journey. Whether by car, bus, or train, the ride itself is part of the pilgrimage. Make it intentional. Between a rosary, chaplet, music, some silence, a Saints Alive podcast or other, you’ll be entering into the sacred time of directing your heart and thoughts toward God alone.

When you arrive, that sense of visiting extended family pops up. You’ll notice the familiar things, like the chapel, stations, statues, etc. but it’s also new. A visit to our Eucharistic Lord is a wonderful first stop (after the bathroom, of course). Find the chapel and thank Him for bringing you there. Ask Him to bless and guide your time. Present your intentions. Ask Him to be open to receive all the graces He desires to bestow on you during this pilgrimage. 

Depending where you go, you might have time to explore before Confession or maybe you arrive just in time when Confessions begin, but either way, make Confession part of your trip. If Mass is available, make that a priority too. These two sacraments are a powerhouse of grace when on pilgrimage, or anytime for that matter.

Take your time as you walk through and pray through the various holy sites. Venerate relics if they have any. Light candles for your intentions and loved ones. Think of yourself as a sponge wanting to absorb all the graces available. It’s ok to pray alot! When we think about how we can spend four hours at a sporting event and be fully engaged, why can’t we do the same for God?

Why not pray many rosaries, the Stations of the Cross, and do a Holy Hour? All after Confession and Mass? When we give our hearts and time to God, He makes good use of it!

Enjoy a picnic meal with your fellow pilgrims - many sites have a designated area to eat together. This is a special time to share your experience of being there and how The Lord is working in your life. Such conversation often reveals a thread He wants you to see. 

When you’ve wrapped up, make a final visit to Jesus in the chapel and ask Him to seal all the graces you’ve received with His precious blood. Thank Him for the gift of being able to encounter Him in this place and ask for His blessing to travel home.

The journey home is often like coming down the mountain. It’s energizing and a little tiring! Make use of this time too, but know that it also tends to be less serious than the way there. The perspective of detachment is more clear and our gaze on the eternal is strong. Enjoy the conversation and presence of The Lord in your soul.

Pilgrimage is a rich part of our Catholic heritage and even local ones can be a source of many graces. Now that the Holy Father has declared a Franciscan Jubilee year, we are encouraged to make pilgrimages to Franciscan sites. Check out the “Go Franciscan” collection on CatholicGO to find places to visit.

May The Lord bless you in all your comings and goings!