‘Perpetual pilgrims’ start out across U.S., walking ‘with love and truth’ to share the Gospel
May 23, 2025
Father Jude Ezuma, pastor of Holy Family Parish of Galveston and Bolivar, carries the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s stop in Galveston in 2024. The 2025 pilgrimage, which started in Indianapolis, will reach north and west Texas in early June, in total crossing 10 states, 20 dioceses and four Eastern Catholic eparchies before concluding June 22, the feast of Corpus Christi, in Los Angeles. (Photo by James Ramos/Herald)
DALLAS (OSV News) — Eight young adult Catholics, including a Texas native, set forth from St. John the Evangelist Church on May 18 in Indianapolis on a 36-day National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that will cross 10 states — Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. It will go through 20 dioceses and four Eastern Catholic eparchies before concluding on June 22 in Los Angeles.
“That’s the mission of the Church, to walk with love, walk with truth and to share the good news of the Gospel,” said Charlie McCullough, 23, a native of Austin and the team leader of the eight “perpetual pilgrims” taking part in the pilgrimage. “We’ll get to carry out that mission of the Church here in the U.S.”
This year’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage — on its St. Katharine Drexel Route from Indianapolis to Los Angeles — builds on the four routes of the pilgrimage last year that started on the feast of Corpus Christi in Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western points of the U.S. and converged on Indianapolis at the start of the National Eucharistic Congress.
A Texas Pentecost
McCullough will get to make a Texas homecoming in early June when the Drexel route will reach Texas on June 3.
For Galveston-Houston Catholics wanting to join the pilgrimage in north and west Texas, the group will make a number of stops in the Dioceses of Dallas, Fort Worth, San Angelo and El Paso. Dallas will host the pilgrimage from June 3 to 5, then it will move to Fort Worth from June 5 to 7, San Angelo welcomes the group from June 7 to 10, and finally, El Paso is at the end of the Texas road, hosting the pilgrims from June 10 to 11. Abilene and San Angelo will host the pilgrimage for Pentecost Mass celebrations.
The pilgrimage will conclude on the same feast of Corpus Christi in Los Angeles, which also marks the conclusion of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival.
Perpetual pilgrims Cheyenne Johnson and Rachel Levy grew in their faith as college students, respectively, at Butler University in Indianapolis and at Indiana University in Bloomington.
For the past two years, each has begun to give to others the gift they received, with Johnson serving as the Catholic campus minister at Butler and Levy ministering as the archdiocese’s young adult ministry coordinator.
Now, they’re going forth from the Indianapolis Archdiocese to share their love for Christ in the Eucharist with people across the country.
“I’m blown away by what God’s doing in the archdiocese,” Johnson said. “The grace from the congress last year has been so tangible. Hopefully, it will continue to spill out and help to build up the Church in the United States.”
“Being able to work for the archdiocese and pouring out what I’ve received in college in Bloomington has been a gift,” Levy added. “I’m excited to be able to continue to pour it out to people across the country.”
Levy described the pilgrimage as “a unique opportunity” to carry out Pope Leo XIV’s call “to love all the people that we’ll be encountering along the pilgrimage and be a light of Christ to them.”
At the same time, she also noted that the pilgrimage will give her and her fellow perpetual pilgrims a chance to witness to those they’ll meet along the way how “to love God alone … in all the times that we’ll have in adoration and prayer.”
“There are so many ways that we’re able to witness to people across the country,” she said, “by loving them very intentionally, but also by showing them how to love God very intentionally in the Blessed Sacrament.”
Planting seeds
Perpetual pilgrim Leslie Reyes-Hernandez grew up in a Chicago suburb not far from Pope Leo’s boyhood home. So, she was excited to begin the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage on the same day as his Mass of inauguration at the Vatican.
“This is big, not only for the Catholic Church but for our country as well,” she said.
Reyes-Hernandez, 26, also knows from experience the impact that the National Eucharistic Congress had on people across the country last year.
She attended the event last summer, which drew more than 50,000 people to Indianapolis. The changes that have happened in her life since then have amazed her.
“The seed was planted in my heart here,” she said.
Last July, she couldn’t have imagined that just 10 months later, she would be setting off on a nationwide Eucharistic pilgrimage like the perpetual pilgrims she saw process into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
“I would have been in total disbelief if someone would have told me that,” Reyes-Hernandez said in wonder.
Back then, she wanted to speak with the pilgrims and hear their stories. Now, she’s hoping to have stories to share of how people she will meet along the pilgrimage route will be drawn close to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all that God will do in my heart, as well with everyone that we encounter,” said Reyes-Hernandez, a high school teacher in Phoenix. “Maybe someone hasn’t encountered the Eucharist before. We’ll just be planting that seed.”
McCullough was one of those pilgrims that Reyes-Hernandez saw at the congress last July in Indianapolis. He took part in the pilgrimage’s St. Juan Diego Route, which started in Brownsville.
He laughed as he said coming to Indianapolis without 50,000 people gathered there was a change for him. At the same time, returning to the city brought back so many memories. “I shed a couple of tears of gratitude for all the good work that I had seen the Lord do and all the good work that he had done in my life,” McCullough said.
To view the full detailed schedule of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and where and when it will stop, visit www.eucharisticpilgrimage.org.