The Diocesan Council of Catholic Women hosted the third Source and Summit Tour Aug. 1, this time highlighting churches on the far western side of the diocese.
Pilgrims gathered at St. Paul in Sauk Centre and bused to Catholic churches in Herman, Wheaton, Tintah, Kent and Elbow Lake.
The tour is part of a series of pilgrimages the DCCW has hosted as part of local efforts to observe the National Eucharistic Revival. Each tour has focused on a different part of the diocese.
“We want to help inform and encourage women on their faith journey in the Catholic Church,” said Jean Zwilling, the DCCW’s church commission chair, who coordinated the tour. “Pilgrimages can be a means to do that, and I love sharing the gems of our diocese. It just blows you away, the beautiful churches out there.”
“This group has people who have participated in the previous tours, but there are also a lot of new people,” she continued. “They are just very, very hungry for the Lord. They love the Lord.”
Cele Gamradt participated in the first tour of the eastern part of the diocese in 2022 and decided to do it again this year.
“It was just beautiful, I loved it. So here I am back again and it’s so wonderful,” she said. “When I was a child, my mom and dad used to take us on little trips to northern Iowa and western Wisconsin and southern Minnesota to see the churches, and we would always go to Mass in these churches. They were all so beautiful. This just kind of reminds me of that.”
First-time participant Joy Stich walked into St. Thomas Church in Kent — the fourth stop on the tour — and was instantly reminded of the church her mom grew up in in St. Anthony. She was impressed by the beauty of the churches on the tour.
“The churches are all different,” she said. “There’s the big one in Wheaton, and then the modern one in Tintah, and this beautiful old-fashioned one here [in Kent]. It’s pretty cool.”
She came on the tour with her 14- and 16-year-old sons It was one of them who first suggested they take the tour.
“My son thought it would be cool, and he in particular likes looking at churches,” she said. “We all do, as a family, but the boys thought it would be a really fun thing to do.”
During the stop at St. Gall in Tintah (part of the Red River Valley Area Catholic Community), the group prayed a living rosary with a 320-foot rosary on loan from the Harvest of Hope ACC. It was stretched throughout the church, with each person holding a “bead.”
At St. Thomas in Kent, Gamradt took photos of the church’s interior and stained -glass windows and was excited to find one of St. Cecilia, her patron saint.
“The churches are such a beautiful tribute to God,” she said. “Each church is so unique and so different, and yet so much alike. You can walk into any Catholic Church and you know you’re in a Catholic Church.”
