Historic Eucharistic Revival Pilgrimage: A quest to find ourselves in Jesus

Eat. Pray. Love.

If you are over forty, these words may be familiar to you.

They became somewhat famous after Elizabeth Gilbert published “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia” in 2006. The book, which went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide, is described on the author’s website as having “touched the world and changed countless lives, inspiring and empowering millions of readers to search for their own best selves.”

Just four years later, “Eat Pray Love” was made into a feature film, starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert. The film was released in 2010 and grossed $204.6 million worldwide.

Quests for “self-discovery” are nothing new, however. You have probably heard the phrase “Know Thyself,” a philosophical maxim which was inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo in the ancient Greek precinct of Delphi. While Plato may have been the first person to popularize the concept, questions about “the self” have plagued philosophers, theologians, and psychologists for thousands of years.

Of course, Catholics have attempted to answer this question, as well. It is perhaps for this reason that Gaudium et spes, or the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, was written. This document, one of the four constitutions resulting from the Second Vatican Council in 1965, was the last and longest published document from the council and is the first constitution published by an ecumenical council to address the entire world.

One of the most famous passages from this document states that:

“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (22).

As Catholics, we believe that the only way to truly know ourselves is to know Jesus, for it is Christ, and Christ alone, who “fully reveals man to himself.” To “know thyself” doesn’t require us to look inwards; it requires us to look outward, to him who created us in his image.

Bishop James F. Checchio recently reminded us that the one commandment we have consistently obeyed, as a Christian community, for the past two thousand years, is to celebrate the Eucharist, to “do this in remembrance of me.”

Unfortunately, a Pew Research Center study, published in 2019, showed that 69% of all self-identified Catholics said they believed the bread and wine used at Mass are not Jesus, but instead “symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

The Holy Eucharist is at the heart of everything that we believe as Catholics. It is for this reason that the Bishops of the United States have called together a National Eucharistic Revival to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This three-year initiative launched in 2022 on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Renewal began at the diocesan level, inviting diocesan staff, bishops, and priests to what Pope Francis has described as “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ” – particularly the transforming power and mercy of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

This year, or the Year of Parish Revival, has been marked by historic initiatives, including the first-ever National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which will consist of four cross-country Eucharistic processions, traversing the entire continental United States over a two-month period, beginning during the feast of Pentecost, May 17-19. Along the way, the pilgrims will make stops in major U.S. cities, churches, Catholic colleges, and holy sites. Parishes along the routes will host Mass, Adoration, devotions, praise and worship, lectures on the Eucharist, and more.

The Diocese of Metuchen is blessed to be a part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and we hope that you will participate. The Seton Route, which will begin in New Haven, Connecticut, will be passing through the Diocese of Metuchen on May 27-28. The four pilgrimage processions will ultimately converge in Indianapolis on July 16, where, for the first time in 83 years, Americans will gather for a National Eucharistic Congress.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is a historic event in the life of our Diocese and the life of our country. It is an opportunity to eat, pray, and walk with the eleven Perpetual Pilgrims (six lay men and women, two priests, two seminarians, and one brother) as they accompany Jesus from city to city, lighting hearts on fire along the way.

Walking through the streets of our Diocese with our Eucharistic Lord will serve as a powerful sign of God’s love for his people. We hope that you will join us this spring for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness to the world that the goal of the Christian life is not to “know thyself,” but to know and love the God of the universe, who became man, and who died for our sins.

As we look to the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, as well as the 45th anniversary of our Diocese in 2026, let us break bread with one another. Let us pray with one another by sitting before the Blessed Sacrament, and let us walk with one another, processing through the streets of our Diocese with the Most Holy Eucharist – the source and summit of our faith – so that we might remind people that a pilgrimage is not so much a journey of ”self-discovery,” but an opportunity to enter into a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.