Over 200 pilgrims gathered on July 23 to walk the 35 miles between Mission Santa Barbara and Mission San Buenaventura for the second annual St. Junípero Serra Walking Pilgrimage.
The two-day pilgrimage is the brainchild of Greg Wood, a parishioner of Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, along with his wife Mary. He launched the first one last year as an “opportunity for a public witness to our faith and the goodness of our beloved… ‘father of California’.”
“In light of all the desecrations of [St. Junípero’s] statues…and the defamation of his character and his good works, I felt called to honor St Junípero Serra publicly…by organizing a walking pilgrimage that would literally walk in the saint’s footsteps,” Greg said. “This would allow us to continue the saint’s mission to evangelize California.”
The first pilgrimage drew more than 150 people. This year, their numbers were even higher. Joining the pilgrimage were a few Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, providing music for the road with guitars, drums, and violins.
Pilgrims met on Saturday morning at Santa Barbara Mission for a Mass concelebrated by several LA priests, a few from Denver, and one from Portland. Father Dan Lackie, a friar at Mission Santa Barbara, blessed the pilgrims before sending them on their way.
The pilgrimage wound through downtown Santa Barbara, past the ocean, along the boardwalk, through Montecito and Summerland, ending the first leg with a dinner at St. Joseph Church in Carpentaria. After holy hour and confessions, the pilgrims pitched tents to rest up for the second day of walking.
On Sunday, pilgrims used bike and pedestrian trails along the coastline, tracing the footsteps of St. Serra. Because this is a jubilee year in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, pilgrims had the special chance to earn a plenary indulgence by walking through the holy doors of Mission Basilica San Buenaventura.
The pilgrims ended their journey around 6 p.m. Sunday night with Mass and a dinner hosted by the Knights of Columbus. “Arriving at that final stretch, we were singing, we were dancing, walking down the main street towards the Mission, and the bells started ringing,” Brother Sean Paul Wood, CFR, who flew in from the Bronx said. Another pilgrim, Ed Gonzalez, “burst into tears” when he finally finished all 35 miles. “I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t tears because I was glad the 35 miles were over, it was tears of joy that I was able to experience [this] and offer this sacrifice with all those present, and tears from sadness that we were done.”
It was a moving journey for those who joined, but also for the people they encountered, he said. At one point, a woman stopped the friars and asked what they were doing. When Brother Sean Paul told her about the pilgrimage, he said, “she just broke down in tears….”
The above comes from a July 30 story in Angelus News.
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If you have to carry portable misters on backpacks (see the pic), you’re doing something wrong, you chose the wrong day, or the walk is not for you.
Those aren’t misters; they’re speakers. The whole pilgrimage they blared music and prayers and stuff. Watch the video on the Angelus site. No thank you. I’d want a quiet, peaceful walk.
Well, since Knott’s Berry Farm and Magic Mountain have gang bangers and Disneyland has gays and trans everywhere, might as well do this.
The video was inspiring! I think I would like to join a short, quiet pilgrimage walk– a half-day one is all I could do. I like the idea, also, of offering it for a special intention, like for someone who is very sick, or for anyone who is suffering, and needs our prayers. I could never walk the long, famous Camino de Santiago. I had a devout Catholic neighbor and her mom, who long ago, made that pilgrimage (but did not walk all the time, and stayed in hotels– they still got their pilgrimage certified) and have seen photos and videos of it all. That huge censor, that swings back and forth in the Cathedral, spewiig incense, really must be a fabulous sight to see! My neighbor and her mom just loved it all! Our Calif. Missions, founded by St. Junipero Serra, are very special, too!
I would like to find out if there are some not-too-difficult, very short, local Catholic pilgrimages, safe for elderly Catholics, where you can also obtain an indulgence for loved ones who are sick, suffering– or deceased. I will look on the website of the video provided from the Serra pilgrimage.
There are many prayers you can say every day that you can offer for your loved one who are deceased. Indulgences cannot be applied to any living person but yourself.
However, you can do anything as a sacrifice for the living, even things that are. You can walk to the mailbox or corner store or whatever applies to your situation.
Although fasting and almsgiving is the best sacrifice-giving to the poor and doing without some indulgence (do not wreck your health or take money from family necessities.)
We also can receive a Plenary Indulgence, if we pray the Rosary. But I think the Rosary must ve said in a church group, religious order, or or with family members. The Rosary is very powerful and obtains many graces
We can obtain an Indulgence for the Dead on All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2nd. I think the Vatican extended it during the Pandemic, to include the entire month of November.
Today, Aug. 2nd, is the famous Franciscan Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Porziuncola, and we can obtain a special Plenary Indulgence!
By visiting your parochial church and by reciting during the visit one Our Father and the Creed. and by receiving Communion, sacramental Confession and saying prayers for the Pope (usually the Our Father and the Hail Mary, but you are free to use others). You must also have no attachment to sin, even venial sin. You also need to be baptized and in a state of grace, not excommunicated and a subject of the one granting the indulgence. You must have the intention of gaining the indulgence.
That’s a lot
Actually, that is very little spiritual work, to obtain the Indulgence! There are a great many prayers and devotions, from which you can obtain Indulgences, as well as praying the Rosary. I want Heaven, for myself, and for my family! I bet you do, too!
To get the full Plenary Indulgence for saying the Rosary, you have to say it with others in a church, or with family members, and you must complete all of the Indulgence requirements. Otherwise, the Indulgence will only be partial.
You can also receive a Plenary Indulgence by doing Eucharistic Adoration for at least a half hour, or reading Sacred Scripture devoutly for a half hour. Or by doing the Stations of the Cross. LOVE doing all those beautiful religious devotions, lifelong! Hope to maybe get as far as Purgatory, after this life– but love all the beautiful religious devotions, anyway– and love God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Our Blessed Mother. Good enough! The rest is in God’s Hands.
Wait…what?
“Hope to maybe get as far as Purgatory?”
Are you committing mortal sins?
Oh, no! No mortal sins! Never! I learned when young, though, that only the Saints and Angels are actually in Heaven– which, by actual definition, is a blessed state of Divine Union with God– like the Saints. Very few of us are in that state– or, blessed to be close to that state, at the time of death. The term “Heaven” is also often used carelessly, to just designate a nice spiritual place in the afterlife, for most good and decent people. I think most good and decent people actually end up for awhile, in Purgatory. I think that is where I, too, will go. I would never compare myself to the great Saints, like St. Therese, the Little Flower, or any of the other very holy Saints! We all must take care, to never commit a mortal sin, confess and reform our lives, if we do– and hope to die in a State of Grace.
If you love God, and love Our Lord Jesus, and love His Blessed Mother, and try to live by Christ’s teachings, because of your love for Him– your love for Christ is what will lead you to Heaven’s door. You will naturally detest and avoid Satan and Sin, desire to live always in a State of Grace, close to God, Christ, and His Blessed Mother, and fly towards their beautiful Divine Home, in Heaven. Even if you have to spend some time first, in Purgatory. Love is the key!
And did they succeed in evangelizing California? The loudness of the pilgrimage that I saw in the video was an obnoxious turn-off.
I think the noise was unusual, on this pilgrimage. I think most pilgrimages are more prayerful. I have been on retreats in which we had quiet, prayerful walks outdoors, with reflections, and everyone was supposed to be silent. No talking.