How to Make a Local Pilgrimage: Interview with the Modern Catholic Pilgrim
By Katie Zachok
The traditional pilgrimage is somewhat of a lost art. In our modern age of convenience and speedy travel, it takes discipline to walk a great distance, and even greater strength to slow down our souls and walk intentionally. Enter the Modern Catholic Pilgrim. This trailblazing apostolate helps people become pilgrims wherever they are and what better way to encounter Our Lady in the month of May than by walking to a local church or shrine in her honor?
We reached out to one of the founders of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, Will Petersen, and asked him to tell us more about this ministry and about their upcoming event for May 2021, 500 Pilgrims for Mary.
YCW: What is the mission and history behind your apostolate?
W: Our mission is to deepen faith and build community across the United States through walked pilgrimage in the Catholic tradition.
I felt the Holy Spirit like lightning running through my body while on pilgrimage in Rome for Pope Francis’s first Easter in 2013. It never left me that the experience occurred on pilgrimage, so in 2017 when I was looking to deepen my faith, I came back to the idea of pilgrimage as a prayer practice. Between 2013 and 2017, I also had delved more deeply into ideas around biblical hospitality and the need for a transformation of the idea of hospitality in the United States, inspired by the words of Henri Nouwen: “If there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality. It is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships to our fellow human beings.” It became clear to me: make a walked pilgrimage and experience true hospitality by staying with hosts from Catholic parishes along the way.
David and I made that initial pilgrimage in 2017, walking seventy-five miles over four days from Lexington, KY to the Abbey of Gethsemani. We stayed with hosts from two parishes along the way and in an interfaith homeless shelter before arriving at the Abbey to spend some days in prayer with the monks.
We couldn’t keep such a blessed experience to ourselves, so we decided to create Modern Catholic Pilgrim to put together multi-day walked pilgrimages for young adults who stay with hosts from our Hospitality Network along the way.
We hosted pilgrimages in that model in KY and CA in 2017-2018, then incorporated as a non-profit in 2019 and started hosting some one-day group pilgrimages in different cities to be more accessible to all interested pilgrims. That year, we had just over one hundred pilgrims take part in our programming in six states.
In 2020, we pivoted to empowering people to make their own walked pilgrimages right in their own communities as a response to the limits on our prayer lives imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. That May, we had 349 pilgrims walk for Mary in 80+ cities, 34 states, and 6 countries. We finished the year with over 1,000 pilgrims taking part in our programming.
We are excited to bring back multi-day pilgrimages this year and to grow the number of one-day group pilgrimages and the reach of our community of self-led pilgrimages through our Pilgrims for Mary project in May and our Walking with the Saints project in October.
YCW: Can you tell us more about your upcoming event, 500 Pilgrims for Mary?
W: It is built on the foundation of our first pilgrimages for Mary last May. Throughout May, we have pilgrims signed up to walk in their communities for Mary. Those pilgrims receive a printed pilgrimage companion booklet from us, a digital prayer guide, a blessing from our chaplain, Father Christopher Iwancio, OFM Cap., and opportunities to take part in our virtual kickoff event May 1st and our concluding Zoom prayer celebration on June 1st. St. Augustine wrote, Solvitur ambulando, which translates to “Walking, it is solved.” We’re working to give people an opportunity to put that wisdom into action.
YCW: Can you explain more about the spirituality behind "walking for Our Lady?"
W: As children, we run to our mothers for solace, comfort, and aid. Now, we have that same opportunity to go to the Blessed Mother with whatever prayers and intentions are on our hearts, that she may bring them to her son. She deserves honor, especially in her month of May, and making the commitment to come to her at one’s local parish, shrine, cathedral, or other space connected to Mary is an opportunity to give that honor to her without having to go halfway round the world to do so.
Further, Mary herself was a pilgrim as Luke tells us in his Gospel: "Each year his [Jesus'] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover..." (Luke 2:41). We get to walk for and with Our Mother, praying as she prayed.
Finally, Pope Francis said, “Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life.” We are all drawn to demonstrate our devotion to Mary, and walking for her is a beautiful way to do so.
YCW: Do you have any practical and/or faith-based tips for a first-time modern Catholic pilgrim?
The pilgrim must have prayers and intentions that she is bringing to God, Mary, and the saints at her chosen destination. That’s what matters; otherwise, the journey is not a pilgrimage, but simply a nice day’s walk. If she has that pilgrim’s mindset, that she’s on a prayerful journey to a chosen site to bring to Jesus through Mary her prayers and intentions, then it doesn’t matter if the pilgrimage is a two-block jaunt to the local parish, a two mile walk to a church dedicated to Mary, or a twenty-mile trek to the diocesan cathedral. Each of those journeys is a pilgrimage and will allow the pilgrim to challenge everyday life by stepping outside of it through the rich tradition of pilgrimage in the Catholic faith, allowing them to return to everyday life changed and renewed.
YCW: How can people join in, and where can they find more information?
People can find more information and sign up to join those walking for Mary this May at https://www.moderncatholicpilgrim.com/500-pilgrims-for-mary. They can follow along, too, on Instagram and Facebook (@moderncatholicpilgrim) to see where people are walking and to read reflections from our pilgrims throughout May.
