The Blessing of Pilgrimage

As some of you know, Judy and I went on a 12 day pilgrimage to Italy in October.  We visited Eucharistic shrines, Cathedrals, vineyards, a buffalo mozzarella farm, and some great restaurants. From the time we awoke on Tuesday morning in New Jersey, it was ~30 hours until we put our head on our pillow  Wednesday night in Assisi. If we had ended the pilgrimage at that point, it would have been a wonderful trip.

In that first 30 hours, we flew across the ocean, bussed from Rome to Orvieto to Assisi. We visited a beautiful winery where we sampled some delicious wines, enjoyed terrific pasta, cheeses, breads. We toured the beautiful Cathedral of Orvieto, the site of the Miracle of the Eucharist of Bolsena where we celebrated Mass. Yet miraculously we popped up early the next morning and started day two. The many holy saints we visited must have been praying for us. I think we walked some ~ 5-6 miles every day.

We became close with our fellow pilgrims who were wonderful, holy people. We also grew closer to our good saint friends- Francis and Clare, Padre Pio, Peter & Paul, the Blessed Mother. We even got to know new friends like Saints  Rita, Bartolo Longo, Sebastian, Catherine of Sienna, Carlo Acutis, and others. One of the greatest blessings of the pilgrimage is that we feel that we can call on these great saints to help us in our current challenges.

We visited Orvieto, Assisi, Cascia, Loreto, Lanciano, San Giovanni Rotondo, Pompeii, Naples, and Rome.

One bit of advice from our tour guide Fr. John Gordon was that while we experienced blessings during the trip, we will experience many more once we return home. That’s been happening. We feel that the great blessings are still happening and the grace is still flowing.

-Dave, Anchor Member