In the dimly lit lower level of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, a group of women gathered at the Shrine of St. Peregrine, placing their hands on his tomb to pray for their friend who is ill.
This was just one stop of many on the journey the 10 women were making as part of their annual prayer gathering. The women, who pray together weekly, were inspired to make a pilgrimage this year in light of the Holy Father’s call for all people to be “Pilgrims of Hope” during the 2025 Jubilee Year and by the St. Cloud Diocese’s Jubilee Passport Project.
Initially connecting through various groups including homeschool groups, Communion and Liberation organization and a Well-Read Mom’s group, the women have formed a lasting bond.
“The first part of our time together, we pray for each other’s intentions,” said Ann Steichen, who attends St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud. “That’s a really big part of our friendship.”
When they first began to meet, their prayer intentions centered around challenges they faced while parenting, but over time, their friendships grew, some lasting up to 30 years, and their prayer intentions became deeper and more intimate.
“I feel extremely blessed to have these friends,” said Ann Jansen, a member of St. Mary Help of Christians in St. Augusta. “I know when I text them it’s going to stay with them and they are truly going to pray without judgment. It’s a gift that I wish everybody could have because we’d have a lot less stress in this world, a lot less sadness.”
Each year they plan a retreat or pilgrimage and have visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Bishop Fulton Sheen’s tomb at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois, and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin.
This year they returned to the site of their first retreat together, Simply Sisters Retreat Center in Richmond. Since this location was within the diocese, the women used the diocesan Jubilee Passport to map out their time together.
“There’s so much right in our backyard that we have to explore and that can deepen our faith without going very far at all,” said Linda Pederson, who attends Sts. Peter and Paul in Richmond. “I think this whole thing is really beautiful.”
During the three-day retreat, the group marked four stamps on their passports.In addition to visiting the Shrine of St. Peregrine, they stopped at the Abbey cemetery where they marked off another stamp in the passport by completing the Spiritual Work of Mercy to pray for the living and the dead.
They also traveled to the Divine Mercy Shrine at St. Paul Church in Sauk Centre and prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet together.
Lastly, they visited Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph where Benedictine Sister Alice Imdieke provided the group a tour of the church, the Way of the Cross and the monastery prayer chapel.
“It was great to have the passport kick off our year,” said Kathy Bushman, a member of St. Anthony in St. Anthony. “This is something that the Holy Spirit put right in front of us, and this is something we can choose to do, something we can choose to focus on.”
While the year of Hope only lasts through Jan. 6, 2026, the women look forward to many years of praying and journeying together, for hope and in hope.
“I think if we have a common prayer, it’s probably for our children and hope for them,” Pederson said. “Hope for them, for their futures.”
For more information about the Jubilee 2025 “Pilgrims of Hope” and the Jubilee Passport for the Diocese of St. Cloud, visit https://stcdio.org/jubilee-2025-pilgrims-of-hope/.