Where next?

Our pilgrim Kathy shares her reflections on her 6 pilgrimages — and counting!

“Do you want to go to Italy?” That was a call I received from my cousin Maureen on a Saturday night back in 2016 after she saw the advertisement in her parish bulletin. The trip to Italy was a pilgrimage hosted by Fr. Zachary Navit which included the canonization of Mother Teresa. Little did I know it would be the beginning of many pilgrimages that I traveled. A total of 6 trips altogether. I went to Italy and the Holy Land twice, Fatima/Lourdes and recently my husband and I returned from a pilgrimage to Ireland.

The trips are well organized, led by guides who are hand-picked by Fr. Navit. They were all knowledgeable and well versed not only in the religious aspects but also the customs and culture of the people and places we visited. When I look back on the many churches I visited — attending Mass at the Vatican, Mass at the Cathedral in Orvieto, Lourdes France, St James in Santiago, Fatima, Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ireland, just to name a few — the experience was very moving and humbling. \

And the trips were fun! Going wine tasting in Italy, Spain, and Porto, Portugal, the tours of Guinness and Jamison in Ireland, and, of course, the Pub Crawl in Dublin. Many of the trips I did solo, but never felt alone: you start the trip with 40 strangers, but leave with 40 friends. I can’t wait for my next adventure with Fr. Navit!