Take your rosary or prayer book for the long flight and as a prayer aid at the very special holy sites you will be visiting. As St. Padre Pio says, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.” The best slogan for pilgrimage travel anywhere! Dress for sacred spaces. It’s important to remember that churches in Europe and … Read More
St. Luke & St. Paul: Companions
When you visit a locale with extraordinary significance in salvation history, it’s good to have Scripture close at hand. When my family visited Rome a few years ago, it was Scripture coupled with history that really hit home the richness and depth of our Faith. On our trip, one of the places we visited was … Read More
Medjugorje and Life Coaching
For the past three years as fall approached, I found myself eagerly awaiting a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. The visits to the small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina completely changed my life. Amid the chaos and confusion going on now in the world with the pandemic, social unrest and the upcoming election, I find myself yearning for Medjugorje. … Read More
Recalling the Medieval in Montana
Along with many others in the world today, my travel plans this summer were affected by disappointing cancellations, postponements, forbidden border crossings, and destination changes. My husband and I were initially looking forward to accompanying his parents to the Holy Land this June, a first-time pilgrimage for all of us. We were counting our daily … Read More
Finding Jesus in the Wild West
In late 2019, I had booked and planned a trip to Poland and Germany for May of 2020 with a fellow coworker here at Tekton Ministries. We were going to explore the homeland of St. John Paul II and then end our pilgrimage with a quick stop in Germany, where we were going to attend … Read More
Living Life on the Mountaintop
After five too many months of being stuck in my Indianapolis home for a series of quarantines, curfews, and stay-at-home orders, I most excitedly hopped a plane and made my way to the great state of Colorado. This summer has been a rough one. I found myself surprised when I learned of kids starting school … Read More
Do you know the way (to Santiago)?
It’s a long-running joke in my family to respond to a question of how to get somewhere with “Oh, you can’t get there from here. You have to go somewhere else to start.” It seems like an odd comment – and not very helpful – but in the pilgrimage world, it is not uncommon to … Read More
Be a Living Sanctuary
“If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15 I made my first pilgrimage ever in September, 2018 to Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a place of alleged apparitions … Read More
God’s Way or the Highway
Fifteen years ago, when I was living in Germany, I learned the story of the Passion Play at Oberammergau and decided I would attend in 2020 – the year I turned 40 – as a birthday gift to myself. Last year, as soon as tickets were available, I made all my plans for a wonderful … Read More
The Renaissance Man Cave Revisited
It can be hard to reflect on an experience that you’ve never had before. Shortly after I began my employment at Tekton, I was tasked with writing a reflection on the Upper Room. Having never set foot in the same country as the Upper Room, I scoured the Internet for all the info it had … Read More
No Special Reason
In 2013 I was blessed with the opportunity to join a local church group on pilgrimage to Spain and Portugal. We began by walking the English Route of the Camino de Santiago into Santiago de Compostela, Spain, followed by a visit to the shrine at Fatima, Portugal. Though it was one pilgrimage, I had two … Read More
Walking into your Domestic Church
This article is an excerpt from our new eBook Homes, Hobbies, & Holiness: Living with the Saints in your Domestic Church. Whether we realize it or not, the home is an exciting place. It’s the place where all activity flows, the place where you welcome the stranger, the place where you feed the hungry. It’s … Read More
Baptism, the Living Water, and the Fountains of Rome
Close to three years ago, I had the blessed opportunity to visit Rome, Italy. I, along with many extended family members, flew in to give our support to a cousin of mine (now a priest) whose ordination to the diaconate was held in St. Peter’s Basilica. The trip served not only to show our love … Read More
The Best of All Holy Weeks
“Holy Week and Easter will never be the same.” This is the comment we get most abundantly from our pilgrims upon their return from the Holy Land. It comes in through our surveys so often that you would think they all copied one another’s responses – cutting and pasting the same thing over and over … Read More
My Camino to Christ
The longest journey of my life was about to begin, and I felt unworthy. Preparing to walk the Way of St. James should have filled me with excitement, but all I felt was doubt. Who was I to think I could do this? Who was I to seek the Lord, His love, and His will? … Read More
