When Father Jonathon Meyer, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles who works at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, attended last year’s Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, he said it was a “shot in the arm” that reinvigorated his desire to share the redeeming power of Jesus with others.
But for 17 days this month, Meyer is getting a daily dose of that shot.
Meyer is one of more than 200 people participating in the Camino de California Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which began in Sonoma on June 6 and will merge with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in San Diego on June 16 before ending the weekend of June 20-22 in Los Angeles, culminating with a 3 p.m. Sunday Mass with Archbishop José H. Gomez at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
“The fruits of that week last summer have carried me this last year at the seminary, and knowing the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was heading toward LA, I was looking to participate,” said Meyer, coordinator of first-year seminarians at St. John’s.
Seven seminarians will join him on the Camino de California pilgrimage, whose stops include all of the state’s 21 missions.
Along the way, the pilgrims will evangelize and conduct spiritual and corporal works of mercy — including visits to a prison and fire victims in Altadena.
The journey features a Eucharistic van shepherded by priests, brothers, and seminarians of the Franciscan Friars of Renewal order.
“This pilgrimage beautifully invites these discerning men to walk in the footsteps of their spiritual fathers who first announced the redeeming love of Jesus to California,” Meyer said. “We will be participating in the dioceses that formed them, encountering the communities from which they originate and to which they may, one day, serve.
“I hope our time exposes them to the rich diversity and aliveness of the Church and helps them experience their belonging to the Body of Christ as the beloved children of God.”
Last year’s National Eucharistic Congress was the finale after four simultaneous Eucharistic pilgrimages in different parts of the country converged. The congress was part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a multi-year plan launched by the U.S. bishops to strengthen faith in Jesus Christ and the Eucharist.
This year’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is a continuation of that effort.
Greg Wood, a Catholic psychotherapist in Ventura and counselor at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula and St. John’s Seminary, helped create the Camino de California pilgrimage after launching the St. Junípero Serra Walking Pilgrimage in 2021 in response to the desecration of Serra statues in the state, a few years after Pope Francis declared him a saint.
Wood said being able to merge the Camino de California with the national procession will also help raise awareness about the annual Serra event, an all-volunteer movement seeking to further revive the evangelistic and spiritual pilgrimage of the saint more than 250 years ago.
“This will help develop the Camino de California as a religious pilgrimage and provide support to those who want to walk it,” said Wood, whose annual trek totals 35 miles over two days.
Wood is quick to point out that this year’s Camino de California pilgrimage is largely a driving pilgrimage with some walking. Participants will drive to each mission and walk an average of less than a mile a day (the longest day is six miles).
The California pilgrimage, which includes a daily Mass, adoration, benediction, and Eucharistic processions, began at the state’s northernmost mission, San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, on June 6.
The pilgrims will make their way down to Mission San Fernando Rey de España in Mission Hills on June 16.
After that, they will drive to San Diego, where they will meet up with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and visit the four remaining missions — in San Diego, Oceanside, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel — on to their final destination in LA.
Father Will Tarraza, OFM Cap., guardian of San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Ynez, which forms Capuchin Franciscans novices for the United States, Canada, and Australia, is helping host pilgrims passing through the Santa Ynez Valley during their journey.
“Our participation in this pilgrimage is but a drop in a sea of love that will fill the hearts of the thousands who will encounter the presence of Christ in the Eucharist as he passes through California,” Tarraza said.
“We are blessed to do what little we can to serve the pilgrims who have sacrificed so much to witness to this tremendous grace given to mankind.”
Ten sisters from the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart, an order working in the archdiocese, will be participating in the Camino de California to “spread the Gospel, to ignite the radiant love of the heart of Jesus in those we meet, and to accompany our Eucharistic Lord across California,” Sister Joanna Strouse said.
“In our prayers and joyful witness, we seek to encourage hope in the hearts of all the pilgrims, and especially in the youth we meet, to cling to Christ with trusting hearts and to open up to a faith that can change their lives,” she added.
For more information, visit caminodecalifornia.org.
