Catholic All Week

For the Jubilee Year 2025: Pilgrims of Hope, dioceses across the world have been charged with designating local pilgrimage sites for those who can’t get to Rome. Three local sites – all listed on the National Register of Historic Places – have been designated in the Diocese of Charlotte: St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville; Mary, Help of Christians Basilica at Belmont Abbey in Belmont; and St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. Before you venture out to one of them, how should you prepare for a pilgrimage? Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, recently suggested several ways Catholics can deepen their local pilgrimage experience.

Discernment and intention

With three local sites – and more in neighboring dioceses - how do you determine where you want to go? Take the time to research – and pray over – potential sites and see where you feel called to go. Then, either individually or as a family, determine your intention for making the journey. That intention could be anything from praying for the universal Church or the diocese to a family need or one inspired by the life of the patron saint of the site. You also can ask family members and friends for their intentions, write them down and carry them with you to the site. Doing so is a wonderful way to teach children the importance of praying with and for others.

Walk the talk

Traditionally, pilgrims walked as they made a pilgrimage. While part of this stemmed from the predominant method of traveling before modern transportation, there was a spiritual component to the long and potentially challenging journey of reaching the holy site. While walking may not be an option in today’s world, you can map out a walk as part of your pilgrimage. Get the family involved and plan a walk around the Belmont Abbey campus, take a tour of St. Lawrence Basilica, or walk around St. Patrick’s campus and the neighboring park to find a quiet moment in Dilworth.

Take time to pray

Prayer is at the heart of any spiritual journey, but how do you pray in a different way on a pilgrimage? Peterson recommends reflecting on Christ as a pilgrim, beginning with Psalm 84 before you set out and praying Psalm 122 at your destination. The Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have posted Jubilee prayers on their websites. Ideally, you’d make time to go to confession and Mass as part of the pilgrimage as well.

Catholic All Week

It’s been said that everyone is at least a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), but how much do you know about the saint behind this celebration and how you can carry the luck o’ the Irish forward past the day itself?

Who was St. Patrick

Patricus – the future Saint Patrick - was born around 390 in Cambria, England, the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest. When he was 14 or 16, he was captured by pirates and enslaved as a shepherd in Ireland, where he used his time in the fields to pray. After six years he escaped or was freed and made a 200-mile journey to a port, where he convinced some sailors to take him home to England. He trained for the priesthood, was ordained a bishop and then returned to Ireland. He made many missionary journeys and played a key role in converting what had been a country of pagans into a bastion of Christianity. Because of his stand against the Druids, he is often invoked against snakes and witchcraft. He died in 461 and is buried in County Down, Ireland.

Why do we wear shamrocks?

As he worked to explain the key concepts of Christianity to Celts across Ireland, Patrick used simple examples his audience could understand. Most famously, he was said to have picked a three-leafed clover and used it to explain the idea of the Holy Trinity – that God is one being in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The leaves represent these three distinct persons while the stem visually depicts how they are united into one. You can get shamrocks at local garden centers this time of year to serve as a visual reminder that God is always with us.

What is his famous prayer?

There are many beautiful Irish blessings and prayers, but Saint Patrick’s Breastplate – or the “Lorica of St. Patrick” – is among the most enduring. Saint Patrick was said to have written it for protection on his missionary journeys, which is perhaps why its verse structure has been compared to Druid poetry. Cecil Frances Alexander translated the words into English in 1889 and set them to a traditional Irish melody. The prayer of protection includes these well-known verses along with many other memorable ones:
“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me”

Catholic All Week

Ash Wednesday – which this year falls on March 5 – marks the start of the liturgical season of Lent. While it is not a holy day of obligation, it is a special day set aside for prayer, abstinence (refraining from eating meat), fasting (reducing your caloric intake) and repentance. But what do you know about this holy day, and how can observing it help you to live into a holier Lent.

What do the ashes symbolize?

Ash Wednesday evolved from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. Ashes have long been a visible symbol of humanity’s grief that our sin caused division from God. Writings from the second-century refer to the wearing of ashes on the head as a sign of penance. They were even applied after going to confession in the early Church. The ashes also symbolize the dust from which God made us. This is recalled when a priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead and says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Yet the ashes are also a symbol of our hope that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts.

Where do the ashes come from?

The most visible sign of the Ash Wednesday service is the ashes themselves. Each parish typically makes its own from the palms that were blessed during the previous year’s Palm Sunday services. The palms are burned in a metal vessel and then broken down into a powder.

How do we carry it forward?

Ash Wednesday is just the start of the Lenten season, with its traditional pillars of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so how do you carry the spirit of the day forward? Set aside some time on this day to talk with your family – or yourself – and set manageable, tangible goals for the Lenten season. It may be attending weekly Stations of the Cross as a family, working together on a service project, making a meatless meal from another country and learning about its history, or blocking off daily time for more intense personal reflection and prayer.