September pilgrimage for Pope?

The Pope is planning a pilgrimage.  Are you?

The Vatican Today (news.va) reported, "At the end of today's general audience, the Pope, addressing a group of pilgrims from the Italian island of Sardinia, announced that he would like to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria that is located in the Sardinian city of Cagliari." Oh, he would?

Pope Francis, who has gathered very little dust under his feet around Roma, will be making a pilgrimage outside of Rome "almost surely in the month of September," the Pope said.  I wonder if the head of security knew that.  With the Pope's "off-the-cuff" style my guess is he did not.  The question for Domenico Giani would be, "How 'surely' is 'almost surely' when coming from this Pontiff's mouth?"

While speaking to the pilgrims the Pope explained the reason while he felt like making the pilgrimage.  Quite interesting, actually.

At the moment of the founding of the city of Buenos Aires ifs founder wanted to name it 'City of the Most Holy Trinity', but the sailors who had brought him there were Sardinian and they wanted it to be called 'City of the Madonna of Bonaria'. There was an argument and, in the end, they arrived at a compromise. Thus the city's name turned out rather long: 'City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Our Lady of Bonaria'. Since it was so long only the last [word] remained: Bonaria, Buenos Aires, in memory of your image of the Madonna of Bonaria.”

120,000 pilgrims in one morning?!? Neanche per sogno! (Not happening!)

Writing for CNA, Estefania Aguirre reports that Pentecost at the Vatican is going to be packed.  According to CNA, over 50k people will be in attendance, in addition to the 70k that was already planned for.  Outlining the events for the weekend when Church movements will be represented by the faithful from "150 different ecclesial realities", Aguirre notes that the whole shebang will start Saturday with a pilgrimage to St. Peter's tomb.  

"Aha!" I thought.  "Begin a weekend of evangelization, worship and communion with a pilgrimage; of course!"  And so 50 - by - 50 the groups will embark upon their short but profound pilgrimage.

  
Something tells me, however, that in groups of 50, not all 120k pilgrims to Rome are going to make it.  That would be 2,400 groups at 15-30 minutes each.  Not gonna happen because that doesn't even figure in the typical Italian reposo (siesta).  But who knows, maybe this particular Pentecost the Holy Spirit will give the Scavi guides the energy they need to make it through without a reposo.  Alla como viene, viene.

Now, whether the pilgrims will simply be viewing the tomb from the traditional place or air-locking it through the Scavi is not clear.  My guess is that the fastidious, very fastidious, custodians of the Scavi Tour would have nervous breakdowns of apocolyptic proportions if the former held true.  No, seriously.  

...they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, "Alas! alas! thou great city, thou mighty city, Babylon!  In one hour has thy judgment come." (Revelation 18:10)

Our good Italian friends at times have a flare for the dramatic.  

Little story about the Scavi: My second pilgrimage to Rome saw the opening of the "new room" of the Scavi Tour.  The new room allowed pilgrims to see the bonafide bones of St. Peter from a closer locale.  It was quite moving actually.

For those who have not been on the Scavi Tour, "it's a trip!"  You move from one air-locked chamber to the next, passing through laser sensors that prevent the thick, clear, sliding doors from closing unless everyone has exited the chamber. You feel like you're in a spaceship.  

I was a little skeptical, being a realist, that the experience was going to be worth the intimidation and scowls of the Scavi officials throughout the tour.  But one look at St. Peter's bones, protected in the NASA-constructed plexiglass box was enough to bring me to my knees.  Literally.  I found my soul saying within me, "Peter.  Peter.  Peter."  And I heard my soul hearing from without, "Jesus.  Jesus.  Jesus."  St. Peter re-focusing my attention on who was most important- I'd chalk that one up to a legitimate spiritual experience of authentic and orthdox faith.  But, hey, you don't have to.  No one needs to believe in private revelations of/to the saints, right?  And I'm no saint.  

The long and short of it is... when you take a pilgrimage to Rome (hopefully with Tekton), make sure you get in on the Scavi Tour.  It's worth every "Silenzio!" that's screamed in full falsetto from our nervous custodian friends in the "excavations".

Best wishes and safe travels to our Pentocost pilgrims in Rome!  Ora pro nobis peccatoribus.

Come Holy Spirit!

This has got to be one of the best pictures of our Holy Father yet.  

Come, Holy Spirit!

Pilgrimage to Rome, tektonministries.org

La Virgencita, Patroness of the Americas

Mexico City can be an intimidating to fly into.  It’s not like San Diego when you are still flying but you’re able to see people at work through their office windows... above you.  Or like Washington D.C. when your ears pop and you transition from horizontal to vertical to horizontal within thirty seconds.  What makes Mexico City so intimidating, in fact, has nothing to do with the flight; rather, it gives you a bird’s eye view of one of the most crowded cities in the western hemisphere.  With its traffic of cars, people, apartments, houses, schools, churches and pigeons all below you, part of you doesn't want to land.

All of that goes away, however, when La Virgencita catches your eye.  And she does.  

At first it seems comical.  Then gimmicky.  Then aggravating.  But suddenly everything changes.  You no longer mind being on one of five moving sidewalks that convey pilgrims in front of the raised tilma that bears Mary’s image.  No longer does the pushing and shoving of devoted faithful pilgrims seem to matter.  The image comes into greater clarity.  The colors seem to radiate off the maguey fibers on which they appear.  You first think that she’s too far away to even see her eyes.  Then, however, she does it!  She catches your eye and from that point forward, nothing is the same.

My first pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe was in 2003.  Since then I’ve made three more.  As pilgrims who have been to many holy sites say, “There’s just something about that place.  I can’t explain it but I know that God is present there.”  And in Guadalupe’s case, so is his mother.

The new basilica itself may not be the most beautiful home for the image.  Let's be honest.  It's pretty ugly.  It looks more worthy of an episode of Star Trek in my opinion.  Nor is the inside beautifully covered in mosaics or fine stained glass.  But none of that matters once La Virgen de Guadalupe catches your eye.  Many have said they just want to sit there for hours and look at her.  

Hence, the moving sidewalks.  No tents allowed.  

Yet in any one of the 14 chapels above the main body of the church one can sit and view the ongoing miracle.  First appearing in 1531 to St. Juan Diego, the Blessed Mother continues to appear to millions of pilgrims each year, making Our Lady of Guadalupe one of the most visited Catholic sites in the world! 

Contact Tekton Ministries today for more information on this or any other pilgrimage at www.tektonministries.org .

You do the witnessing

CNS reports that Canada's Pro-Life movement is growing as 20-25k people peacefully marched to Parliment Hill in Ottawa, the nation's capitol.  Zenit reports that the same is true in Italy as 40k marched peacefully through Rome in support of life.  These pilgrims were surprised when another pilgrim, dressed in all white, drove up in his popemobile to join them and encourage them to continue to focus on life.  Good news out of Canada and Italy.

Though you never hear it in the national news, a few people participate in the March for Life in the United States.  In fact, this year for the 40th anniverary march, 650,000 people walked the Mall and ended up at the steps of the Supreme Court.  

That's a lot of people!

That's a lot of buses and flights.  And that's a lot of details.  So if you're planning to lead a pilgrimage  to D.C. for next year's Pro-Life March, or any other year, or you're planning on leading a pilgrimage to a World Youth Day or NCYC, give us a shout.  It's kinda what we do.  

Let us do the work.  You do the witnessing.

Actually, it was 802 saints canonized- the largest ever

I thought John Paul II was making a big splash when he canonized 120 Chinese martyrs.  But who in the world is going to be strong enough to carry the Martyrologium Romanum (Roman Martyrology, the book of officially canonized Catholic saints) after this past Sunday?  

Pope Francis canonized the largest number of men/women in the Church's history on May 12, 2013, when he proclaimed 802 of them witnesses to the Faith.  Two of them were women, one from Mexico and one from Columbia.  The other 800, the Martyrs of Otranto, were Italian Catholics who were beheaded by the Turks in 1480 AD.  

Rome is seeing no small series of events these days.  From pilgrims happening to be at the Vatican when the white smoke appeared announcing our new pope to the largest number of saints declared at one time, things at the Vatican aren't having any time to gather dust.  

To watch the video from the Vatican, click here.