For Religious Vocations

Pilgrimage for Vocations a Deeply Spiritual Experience

The 100-mile pilgrimage for vocations has begun!  On Sunday, May 30, the three Felician Sisters participating in the annual event were blessed by Rev. Ron Walters, OFM, during Mass at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Convent Chapel in Rio Rancho, NM.  SM Therese Ann Parobek, who ministers at the Spirituality Center Among the Poor in Pomona, CA, will walk the 100 miles along the southern route, beginning in Estancia, NM.  Candidate Desiré Findlay is both walking and serving as the spiritual director of the group taking the northern route.  S Paula Mary Palasz and S Margaret Marie Padilla will drive the support trucks for this northern route, beginning in Costillo, NM.  Four groups of pilgrims will converge on the town of Chimayó, NM, on Saturday morning for the closing Mass with Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Another pilgrimage has been on-going at Assumption Convent since the April house meeting.  For the sisters who are not able to walk the mountain and desert roads like the pilgrims who left on Sunday, an indoor pilgrimage route has been mapped out in the halls of Assumption Convent.  One lap along the four main corridors equals 400 steps.  Sisters who are ambulatory have been  counting their steps and marking them on a poster near the dining room.  (One sister faithfully made four laps every morning before going to chapel.  By the time she left for her home visit, she had made a total of 41,600 steps, roughly seven miles!)  Those unable to participate in walking the halls have let their fingers do the walking around their beads as they pray extra rosaries for vocations.  Sisters who will drive to Chimayó on Saturday for the closing Mass will give the total number of steps and rosaries offered for vocations to the Archbishop.

According to S Julianna Francis M Vagnozzi, the annual pilgrimage for vocations may be a demanding and sometimes grueling experience due to early morning risings, inclement weather, difficult roads, and sleeping in church halls, but it is also a deeply prayerful and spiritual experience for both the pilgrims and the people they meet along the way.  At the end of each day’s walk, the group is met at the church housing them for the night.  The guía cross that leads the pilgrims is greeted by an image of the Blessed Mother from the host church before they are let in for the night for rest and refreshment.  For the sisters at Assumption Convent in Rio Rancho, the indoor pilgrimage has given them a concrete way to participate in the annual pilgrimage.