ITINERARY:


Day One

  • Fly to Washington, DC.
  • Pilgrims are met at the airport by a private motor coach
  • Transfer to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, on the campus of the Catholic University of America
  • Pass through the Rotunda and receive a visitor card that will enable pilgrims to personalize their visit:
  • Choose to view exhibit areas on the Center's ground floor or proceed to one of two Orientation Theaters on the lower level where a brief film provides an overview of the Center. The video presentation introduces the Center's primary themes adapted from the teachings of Pope John Paul II.
  • Pilgrims are invited to select one of seven themes using the bar-coded visitor card to personalize their experiences in the Center's interactive galleries. The themes include:

° The Glory of God is the Human Being Fully Alive
° The Dignity of the Human Being
° The Church as Defender of Human Rights
° Persons in Community
° The Unity of Christians, The Unity of the World
° A New Evangelization
° The Third Millennium

  • Next door to the campus of the University is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where Mass can be celebrated
  • Dinner
  • Overnight near Washington, DC

Day Two

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Transfer to Baltimore, Maryland and the Mother Seton House
  • The first American-born saint lived and ran a school in Baltimore
  • Adjacent to the House is St. Mary’s Chapel, built in 1807
  • Mother Seton took her vows in the chapel in 1809
  • In 1829, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black community of nuns began in the Chapel
  • The Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary also began in the chapel
  • Continue to Philadelphia
  • Dinner
  • Overnight near Philadelphia

Day Three

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Old St. Joseph’s Church was, for 80 years, the only Catholic church for Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
  • On a plaque in the courtyard are these words, "When in 1733 St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church was founded and dedicated to the guardian of the Holy Family, it was the only place in the entire English-speaking world where public celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass was permitted by law."
  • Then visit the National Shrine of Saint John Neumann, who became bishop of Philadelphia in 1852
  • Time to visit the Historic Mile, where American Independence began
  • Overnight in a hotel in New Jersey

Day Four

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral places pilgrims in the heart of Manhattan
  • At the Metropolitan Museum of Art see Raphael’s Madonna, Botticelli’s The Last Communion of St. Jerome and Titian’s Madonna
  • Return to the story of Mother Seton with a visit to a Shrine dedicated to her at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary
  • The church is part of a townhouse where Mother Seton and her family lived from 1801 to 1803
  • The Mother Cabrini Chapel at Cabrini High School is where the remains of American’s first citizen-saint are entombed
  • Dinner
  • Overnight near Manhattan

Day Five

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Transfer to Auriesville to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs’ to attend Mass
  • After sufficient time for the Stations of the Cross or to explore the ravine in which St. Rene Goupil was buried, transfer to the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri
  • Dinner
  • Overnight in the Fonda/Auriesville area

Day Six

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
  • Visit the National Battlefield
  • Within the National Military Park is the statue of Father Corby, chaplain of the 88th New York Infantry
  • Father Corby gave general absolution to all his men on July 2, 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg, unheard of in the United States at the time, but customary in England
  • Overnight in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Day Seven
An extended continental breakfast begins the day

  • Travel to Emmitsburg, Maryland and the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to visit the grave of Mother Seton, a chapel, a museum and a reproduction of a classroom from Mother Seton’s time
  • The National Shrine was the original home of the Sisters of Charity
  • Visit the National Shrine Grotto of Lourdes, located next to the Mother Seton Shrine
  • Continue to the DC area to register at a hotel near the airport
  • Dinner
  • Overnight near DC

Day Eight

  • An extended continental breakfast begins the day
  • Transfer to the airport for your flight home

Options:

  1. Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington
  2. Franciscan Monastery and Gardens, Washington
  3. Georgetown University, America’s first Catholic College
  4. National Gallery of Art, Washington to see Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi and Ruben’s Daniel in the Lion’s Den
  5. The Smithsonian Institution

Tekton Ministries
Pilgrimage Office
9924 Cedar Ridge Dr.
Carmel, IN 46032
toll free (866) 905-3787