Jennifer Torres was one of the last of the pilgrims to enter St. John the Evangelist Church July 16 in Indianapolis at the end of her 60-day journey on the Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
The next night at the first session of the National Eucharistic Congress, tens of thousands of Catholics witnessed the four routes come together in Lucas Oil Stadium. Each route was introduced with a video montage of their journey with Jesus from the four areas of the country.
After an initial interview with Torres in May, Amber Walling caught up with Torres at the NEC to continue the conversation. Below are excerpts from their visit. Read about the first leg of Torres’ experience here.
Q. Can you provide a brief overview of your pilgrimage experience?
Torres: The first week was still feeling like an adjustment. There were a lot of questions on our minds, “How will we manage this logistically? How are we to handle this as a team? What are our roles in the group? How are we adjusting to being on mission?”
After that first week, the gravity of what we were doing really hit us. The Source and Summit procession in the Twin Cities was the most attended procession of anywhere in the entire country with over 7,000 people. It really sunk in. We were living the Gospel.
Later into it, we started to feel the true depth of sacrifice we were making and recognized it was a different depth of giving. With that came hardship to continue to say yes to giving so much. For example, when we were in Milwaukee we had visited 62 parishes in 7 days. We would get up at 5 a.m. and go home at 11 p.m. We started to recognize that we needed to be filled.
We had gone halfway, but we had half of our journey left, so we said, ‘OK, Lord, you know how you’re going to nourish us and receive us,’ and all of a sudden, we had the space to rest and retreat in Chicago.
When we arrived in Indiana, we were so starstruck because we had arrived in the state where we would end, but those were our longest walking days where we had the greatest heat.
By the time we got through the Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend into the Diocese of Lafayette, suddenly there was this grace of time slowing down. The days became as they were on the first couple of days of our pilgrimage. It felt like every moment was being remembered and we were so struck by the Lord’s mercy on us.
Q. Were there any instances where people were called to join in pilgrimage with you or felt called to movement witnessing the pilgrimage?
Torres: I can attest to several people. First and foremost, the Day family comes to mind. They are a family of eight from Central Illinois, and they journeyed with us every single day from Minnesota to Indiana. There were many nights where they did not have housing plans. There were many nights where they were caught in the rain camping, but they just kept coming along and they were so joy filled. Their commitment was so comforting to us.
To me, they really emulated following Jesus to a degree that I was not prepared to witness but I knew I needed to see.
We also met Danny who joined us just outside of Chicago for the last two weeks. He came on a whim and was such a solid rock for us. Seeing a young adult being open to the Lord’s providence, to being taken care of in every single way — wow! He was given a place to stay every single night and had every meal covered by parishioners or priests.
Those are the ways that God asked them to follow, so in what ways can we as a Church encourage that pursuit of going after the Lord?
Q. Witnessing all these moments of trust in the Lord, were there ever times where I thought, “Why did I agree to do this?”
Torres: Many times. Often, we were working within our human limits and our littleness. Yet still there were miracles in front of us, spiritual healings, physical healings, people coming back to the faith, people being drawn to Jesus for the first time in their life.
The whole experience was a roller coaster, but it was the most incredible 60 days because I knew that the Lord chose us to rest with him and chose us to console him. That is a privileged space.
Q. Throughout the journey, you visited many parishes. Did the beauty of any of the churches in particular stand out to you?
Torres: Based on the demographics of the origins of where we were diocese wise, many of the parishes reflected German architecture or had Polish influence, but many had this new fusion because of the increase of the Hispanic community. It was interesting because the church would have stained glass from 1841 that was made in Germany, but at the same time there was a Shrine of Our Lady Guadalupe filled with flowers. Especially in the rural places we traveled, it was it really was a melting pot of styles.
Q. How can we embrace diversity and the growing Hispanic/Latino population in our churches?
Torres: That’s a great question because in truth they are the future of the Church due to the sheer number of people who are participating. I can see such a difference between those that are coming as first generation from Central and South America with a very deep devotion and those like myself, who are second generation. It’s been difficult to find our place in the Church or even feel as though there’s a spot for all of us.
Something I would encourage is going beyond the bounds of ‘you look different than me’ or ‘your upbringing is different’ and to not be afraid to ask who they are or to be wrong about the assumptions you’re making about their life or what they’ve been through. This could create a barrier to worshiping the Lord that isn’t necessary.
We saw a lot of beautiful melodies of bilingual choirs and bilingual Masses. I encourage you to share devotions, for both ends and having celebrations for both ends. That creates community. There’s always room at the table, so start the conversation in an honest way and be curious.
Q. How can we continue to pray for you?
Torres: Something that’s been on my heart, especially the past few weeks is praying for those seeds that were planted through this pilgrimage but will not bear fruit very quickly.
There is already some tangible fruit, but please do not let this stop your intercession for those seeds that won’t bear for the next six months, next year, the next couple of years.
For those who were impacted by the pilgrimage or the Eucharistic Congress, pray that they will not be afraid to share that with everyone and to keep going out to be missionary disciples of the Eucharist because that’s what we’re called to do.
Also, ask God what you are to do with your life and how you can continue to be witnesses to those that are still needing to be pruned and nurtured for that fruit to bear on Earth.