Denver, Colo., Jun 15, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
About halfway through the western route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, the Perpetual Pilgrims took a quiet respite from the road on Saturday, June 8, to attend an age-old Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy in Denver.
Day-to-day, the perpetual pilgrims make their way across the U.S. by walking and driving, sometimes in a procession of cars, with the monstrance holding the Eucharistic Lord in the mobile chapel.
In addition to their frequent stops at parishes, processions, and service activities, the pilgrims spend much of their time in adoration as the van drives across the country. The Junipero Serra Route began on the coast of California on May 18 and is set to reach Indianapolis in mid-July.
When they reached Holy Protection of the Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Church, the pilgrims stood with other parishioners and attendees on the rugs laid across the wood floors of the small church, listening to the chant and song.
Unassuming on the outside, the humble but beautiful interior is covered with golden icons and blanketed with detailed rugs for parishioners to stand on and sit during the homily.
The pilgrimage so far
Jack Krebs, one of the Perpetual Pilgrims, said he joined the pilgrimage because he wanted to share Jesus in the Eucharist.
When asked what his daily life looks like as a pilgrim, he said it varies a lot, depending on the day, the parish, and the diocese.
“But generally, it will be Mass in the morning and then a quick procession, and then we’ll drive, and we’ll have a driving procession,” he said. “Sometimes it’s with cars following. Other times it’s just having adoration in the van.”
Krebs said it can be difficult to stay focused depending on where they are driving.
“Through the mountains and through the very beautiful areas, it’s easy to make that your prayer as you’re driving through and reading some of the Psalms,” he said. “It’s really easy to reflect in that way.”
“But there’s other times where you’re just driving through a city and there’s just so much distraction and ads and all this stuff,” he continued. “But it’s also unique because Jesus gets to just bless that place as you go.”
“If he’s really present here, then he will impact all these people,” Krebs continued. “I almost see it as Jesus walking around in Galilee, just laying his hands on people’s heads and blessing them whenever they encounter him.”
During the pilgrimage, Krebs said he has been taking inspiration from both the Psalms and the Gospels.
“The Gospel [stories] of Jesus walking around have been very profound because we’re living that — just walking around with Jesus,” he said. “Some people look on and are very struck. Some people think it’s weird.”
“I feel like I’m in a way filling that role similar to what the Apostles did, of just walking along and bringing Jesus to the people,” he explained.
“I think the other thing is Jesus has reminded me that it’s not on me as a pilgrim to fix people. It’s not on me to carry this movement,” Krebs said. “It’s just on me to bring the people to him and bring him to the people and just let him do the heavy lifting, and let him take care of it.”
The pilgrims not only spend a lot of time with Jesus but also with each other. Krebs said they are being more intentional about one-on-one time to help form deeper friendships.
Byzantine liturgy
Attending a Byzantine Catholic liturgy for the first time is very different from the Roman Catholic Mass, starting with the lack of pews.
“I think [of] what Father said in the very beginning of the sacred liturgy, ‘If this is new to you, just let it wash over you,’” Krebs recalled. “I really like that he said that because it gave me a context in which to approach this.”
The Mass, called a Divine Liturgy, involves multiple processions around the crowded room with incense. Many parishioners will make the sign of the cross and a low bow, sometimes touching the floor. The Eucharist is given via intinction, where the small cubes of consecrated, leavened bread are placed in the chalice and given on a spoon.
Young kids are invited to stand in the front while the priest reads the Gospel, and during the homily attendees sit crisscrossed on the ground while pews line the walls for those who need them.
“I sat there and let the beauty of it wash over me and tried to be present to the beauty of the icons and the church architecture,” Krebs said.
Nature and God
Krebs, originally from Wisconsin, studied environmental science at the University of Nebraska. He went on the national pilgrimage after first hearing about it from a friend.
“I think it just made my prayer become a lot more relational,” he said of the Eucharistic Revival. “I’ve been coming to know the gift of the Eucharist is a lot deeper.”
After the pilgrimage, Krebs will be working at Annunciation Heights, a program that runs outdoor Catholic camps for youths, families, and students in Estes Park, a town in the Colorado Rockies.
“I studied environmental science and water science in college, so praying or being close to the Lord in creation, or coming to know our Creator through that has been powerful,” he said.
Krebs mentioned taking inspiration from Psalms 121 and 122, which are the psalms that people would pray when making pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
“[We’re] driving through the mountains and one of the Psalms uses the imagery, as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so God’s love surrounds you,” he recalled. “And we’re driving through this canyon, and I’m thinking, if these mountains, if these rocks are God’s love, I’m just so safe here. Nothing can hurt me down here. It’s just so beautiful and you feel safe.”
Krebs shared another reflection that the pilgrimage has inspired, noting that images from the Psalms help convict him “of the deeper truth of God’s love, or his care for us, or his mystery, his grandeur, his smallness — all of it.”
“Because even as I’m driving by and I see this one little flower in the middle of the pasture, God knows that that flower is there, and he willed that that flower was there, and that flower is just glorifying him in its smallness,” he continued. “It’s going to live for a year, and then it’s going to die, and no one’s going to know about it — but God cares so much about the small things.”
“And then I think also going through the cities where there’s more people, I think the image is Jesus is able to look on all these people and see them and bless them,” he continued. “Not that he doesn’t see them [already], but he’s being made physically present here because in such a real way.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
This is an awesome article. I attend a Byzantine Divine Liturgy as well and it is truly Heaven on Earth. If you ever get the chance to, visit St John Chrysostom’s in Seattle. Beautiful little church hidden in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Shortly after it was built, yours truly attended the Byzantine Liturgy several times in St. John Chrysostom in Seattle. An elevating experience…
The Byzantine Mass accents more the spirituality of the Transfiguration and Resurrection, but of course without discounting the singular and continued event and sacrificial love on Calvary. The altar is circled several times as the incense rises. The periodic refrain is “let us be attentive…” The eyes of the icons invite us into eternity (quite different than the blank stares of Rupnik’s art!).
The circling of the altar echoes the more symmetrical cruciform architecture of churches in the East. The timeless centrality of Christ as the center and midpoint of universal human history (!), as compared to the (complementary) church form found in the West–the adapted basilican design and linear cadence of columns and bays moving forward (as through history) but always toward the altar and eternity.
The gauntlet picked up by the Second Vatican Council was/is how to engage the modern world (aggiornamento) by first centering on the Source (ressourcement)—the alarming event of the Incarnation within human history, and on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers…
Handled clumsily and worse by ambulatory “synodality” is this perennial riddle: how to BE fully Church fully–both in but not of the world? This Mystical Body of Christ is the only permanence in a universe of historical change, steps toward greater unity and finality but always this side of the veil and vulnerable to radical sin, plus hurricanes and bad crops, and with some blankly-staring stars likely extinguished billions of years ago. AND, self-extinguishing ideologies–like “process theology” always seeking to ANNEX to itself the permanently one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
SUMMARY: In future centuries Benedict XVI will be recognized as a Doctor of the Church during a real Dark Age and, if remembered at all, tribal Jimmy Martin will be mocked as a pathetic court jester.
Born in the Latin Rite a priest ordained in that Rite ‘Mein Kampf’ is in the Latin Rite not simply in spite of, rather in adamant opposition to the huge, powerful presence of homosexuals in our Rite, a blasphemous presence that if not purged due to an accommodating pontificate must be called out as evil for sake of a beguiled laity.
Byzantine Rite and Eastern Rite Catholicism is certainly attractive, beautiful monastic like liturgy and icon decor a calming spiritual air. If I were born in that Rite I would likely have remained. It’s a refuge for many including Latin Catholics. Homosexuality doesn’t appear near as prevalent in the Latin Rite. Editor Olson gave an account on CWR of his experience shortly after his entrance into the Catholic Church, how two priests in the same parish he attended made homosexual advances. Olson’s response was disgust and entrance into the Eastern Ukrainian Catholic Rite. It’s a blessing we didn’t lose this man who obviously has a convinced faith. An example why I must remain. I refuse to be intimidated. I’m compelled to be a witness for the laity, a spiritual combatant against the satanic scourge of homosexuality in our Church.
“Attending a Byzantine Catholic liturgy for the first time is very different from the Roman Catholic Mass, starting with the lack of pews.”
I belong to a Byzantine parish in Ohio, and have visited Byzantine churches in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Manitoba. They all had pews.
Reply to Mark
Yes, many Melkite and Ruthenian Rite Byzantine Catholic parishes in America have pews like you’d see in a Roman Rite parish, but several of them including St John’s in Seattle have re-established the ancient practice of standing throughout the Divine Liturgy, and sitting on the floor during the homily. Most pew-less Byzantine parishes usually have a couple pews or benches along the walls for elderly people and tired mothers with a pile of kids.