I am finally back from my pilgrimage on the Camino, and I came to the realization that I’ve been immensely blessed in the places I’ve had the opportunity to travel in a relatively short time. I spent three months in Italy while in college, and I’ve also had visits to Ireland, Germany, Turkey, and the Holy Land. As amazing as all of these experiences have been, one of the chief takeaways from them has been the difference between a trip and a pilgrimage. Going to Dublin, Munich, and other great cities is culturally enriching, but traversing well-worn paths that pilgrims have walked for centuries in search of guidance from God is something else entirely. Most of the people walking the Camino have specific reasons for making the journey; either in gratitude for some great blessing, or perhaps asking God what the next step in their life should be.
 
As priests, we often get dragged along on these trips for the sake of being able to offer the sacraments to our fellow pilgrims, and so we don’t necessarily have a well formulated reason for going until we get there. My principal prayer intention was for the sanctification and spiritual renewal of the parishes in the region. But it wasn’t until I got there and was walking the trail everyday that I started to get a sense of how that looks on a practical level, and as with most things in my life, I found that my head is about four steps out in front of my feet, and there is more foundational work that is needed.
 
I realized two things: that I’ve been preaching on evangelization and spreading the Gospel quite a bit since I got here, and that there are several steps before anyone can effectively do that. True discipleship and evangelization is always founded on how Jesus prepared His disciples to “go forth and baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” He didn’t call Peter and the other disciples on a Monday and then on Tuesday send them out to accomplish His mission.
 
He worked and prayed with them for years, forming their hearts after His own Sacred Heart, and then filled them with the Spirit and sent them forth to set the world on fire. In order to successfully imitate the Apostles, and more importantly, Our Lord, we have to do the same. The priests, deacons, and staff will be discussing this at length over the coming months, and I pray that it bears fruit in the way that we help each other know, love, and serve Jesus in our parishes. In the meantime, there are three things that I ask of you, the parishioners:
 
 Make sacrifices in your daily lives for the good of our families and our parishes. The pastoral work of the Church has always been founded upon discipline, sacrifice, and penance. The message of Our Lady of Fatima is about salvation in Jesus through prayer and sacrifice, and that message is needed now more than ever.
 
 Endeavor to love Jesus more and more each day. Mother Theresa once told her sisters that she worried that they did not yet really know Jesus, and that their ministry and their souls suffered for it. If the Missionaries of Charity need to love Jesus more, then we certainly do as well.
 
 Pray with your family, every day. If we pray with our children every day, then they implicitly learn that this is normal, and they carry it out into the world with them. To prepare to go out and preach the Gospel, we must live it in our homes, in our lives, and in our hearts. Pray the rosary with your family and see what a difference it makes over time.
 
God bless you all, and thanks again for all your prayers for me while I was on pilgrimage. You certainly remained in mine.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough