The Benefits of a Pilgrimage

In one Beginning of the Year Convivience, a calling was made to the brothers who felt God calling him to the priesthood.  I remember that one 13 year old boy stood up.  He felt a calling from God to the priesthood.  Although he was too young to enter the seminary, he was told to continue to keep that calling in his heart.  One day, when he is older he may still feel that same calling to the priesthood.  Many youth his age would often say they want to be a doctor or a lawyer.  It is not everyday that you see a 13 year old wanting to be a priest because he felt that calling from God.  

The reason the Neocatechumenal Way has produced many priests and nuns is because we inspire the youth to different vocations, whether it be a vocation of marriage, a vocation of a single itinerant, or a religious vocation into the priesthood or convent. These inspirations come when they experience a pilgrimage such as the one we will be going to in Rome.  When rich people spend their money to go on these pilgrimages, you do not hear any complaints.  They have the money, but how many rich people do you actually see on these pilgrimages?  When the average citizen and family decides to go to the pilgrimage in Rome, we hear complaints.  They think it is a waste of time and money.  

Seeing a 13 year old boy stand up for the calling of the priesthood shows that a pilgrimage is not a waste of time and money.  It was in a pilgrimage during World Youth day that the 13 year old boy heard God's voice calling him to the priesthood.  It is the same with some of the young girls who stood up.  They also heard God calling them to be a nun.  The pilgrimage is a way to help people grow in faith as they encounter Christ.  According to an article on pilgrimage:

To experience something different from other trips, the pilgrim must be different and live differently in the simplicity of faith. Otherwise, the pilgrimage does not contribute to real change. The pilgrim moves within the geography of faith, along the path on which are scattered traces of holiness, in places where God’s grace has been shown with particular splendor and produced abundant fruits of conversion and holiness.

One goes on a pilgrimage to ask God for help needed to live more generously your own Christian vocation once back in your home, explains the Vatican’s Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy. Therefore, the pilgrimage is not, and never should be, just “a journey to a place of religious interest.” Alone or with others, it is a physical component of the path of one’s heart toward God. 

The brothers and sisters in the Neocatechumenal Way are no better than those who are not walking in the Way.  We are sinners, and we struggle with sin.  However, we participate in pilgrimages because we are different.  There are people who see this difference in us and became inspired to imitate it.  For example, Father Paul Gofigan established the Rainbows of Mercy for youth interested in traveling to the World Youth Day in Poland.  According to the Rainbows of Mercy website (the bold is mine):

Objectives for which the Association is formed:

A) To draw youth and young adults closer to God.
B) To embody and promote exercising the Corporal and Spiritual works of Mercy.
C) To raise funds the group to participate in the 2016 World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland and beyond.

I do not know how many youth Father Paul brought to the World Youth Day in Poland; nevertheless, Father Paul did not see it as a waste of time and money to bring these youth to Poland to see the Pope.