As the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage continues along the East Coast, one of the traveling young adults shared about a moving moment of grace and fraternity during a sunrise procession on Maryland’s Ocean City boardwalk, when he struck up a conversation with two onlookers.
The sunrise procession was the earliest wakeup that the nine young adults traveling the whole pilgrimage have had so far, Eddie Gutierrez, one such “perpetual pilgrim,” explained in a blog post published by Our Sunday Visitor News. The pilgrims began the journey through dioceses up the East Coast in May, and OSV News has been publishing their short blog reflections throughout the pilgrimage, which is set to conclude over the Fourth of July weekend in Philadelphia.
Gutierrez shared that despite being “groggy” from the early wakeup, the pilgrims were “excited to bring Jesus to the boardwalk.” According to a press release from the NEP, the procession took place during Maryland’s high school “senior week,” which many local young people use to travel to Ocean City.
After the June 11 procession began at 6 a.m., Gutierrez noticed various reactions from passersby: people “were astonished at seeing Jesus walk by,” he wrote, with some seeing Him for the first time in their life, and others kneeling down at the sight of Him. Both encounters, Gutierrez added, were “beautiful in their own way.”
Gutierrez explained that while he was on the boardwalk, he met two young men, who were “perhaps still wandering from the night before,” and he explained who the pilgrims were and what they were doing: praying for people and for unity.
One of the young men replied quickly, “Can we pray for me right now please?”
Obliging supportively, Gutierrez then received prayer intentions from both of them. One said, “I pray that I don’t want to keep drinking anymore,” and the other said, “I pray that I live my own life and not do what others want me to do anymore.”
“They hugged each other and hugged me in a prayer circle,” Gutierrez related, “and we asked God to free them of any chains they had and asked Him to guide them always. After we finished the prayer, they were smiling and grateful — they truly felt like beloved sons in that moment.”
After the procession ended, the pilgrims journeyed by boat down the Delaware to the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey. Gutierrez wrote that during the journey across the water, he felt on his heart the words of the pilgrims’ chaplain, who told them earlier that day: “We are called to give our hearts, it is often difficult but when we give ourselves away to others we find our identity. We imitate Him and through service we are like Him, who didn’t come to be served but to serve.”
As he looks ahead to the final few weeks of the pilgrimage, Gutierrez shared that he hopes to continue going to God and asking Him “to fill my heart, so I may give it away on the rest of this route.”
Gutierrez also reiterated that his encounter with the two young men is his favorite kind of moment, emphasizing that onlookers may “only see Jesus walk by once in their lives, so we have to make it count for them.”
“One can only hope that the seeds planted,” he added, “sprout into a love for the Lord.”
He emphasized that people are “hungry for prayer,” and such encounters are “a perfect opportunity to let them know Who and What they are seeking is Jesus in the Eucharist.”