Year of Faith Pilgrimaging II

I can hardly believe it has been over two months since I posted the first in the series about my Year of Faith pilgrimaging!  The problem (though not a problem!) is that I finally found a new job.  I found out on the afternoon of Thursday, August 8^th, that I would be going back to the Christian school I used to teach at and had until the next Tuesday to get the classroom ready for Parent Orientation/Open House.  !!!  I had it looking decent enough for the event and then school started the next Monday.  Needless to say I have been running around like a crazy person ever since.  There is so much to do and since I am teaching elementary for the first time I am having to put together stores of resources from scratch.  There have also been a lot of other factors like the two weekly church classes I attend and, you know, life!  J  I will try to get these posts finished in some semblance of reasonable time though!

We left off at Sunday night, July 28^th, when I had discovered the Year of Faith Pilgrimages and decided I absolutely HAD to do them.  Monday the 29^th I got up at a decent time and got ready to head to OKC to see just how many sites I could knock off my list.  Reisen (my Schnauzer traveling buddy) came along and Vyne (my GPS) led us on. 

Our first pilgrimage stop was the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  I arrived at about 10:27am.  I had never been to the Cathedral before since I had dropped out of RCIA in Norman in the spring the week before everyone went to the Cathedral for the Rites of Election & Enrollment.  The cathedral is quite beautiful and I was very interested to finally see in person the doors that adorn so much of the printed information the archdiocese produces about the Year of Faith.

I was surprised, though, at how not impressive the Cathedral is.  Not that it isn’t impressive, but I had something else in mind for a location that is the ‘cathedral’ for the archdiocese (the cathedral being the seat of the bishop or in this case the archbishop).  The name just conjures up something grandiose and ancient.  In reality it is just another church and during my pilgrimaging over the next few days I saw some that were much more impressive.

I was concerned at first that my pilgrimage was starting out going nowhere fast as the main doors were closed and I saw little signs of life.  As I walked the grounds, however, I came across an employee that is presumably a groundskeeper of some sort and he informed me that the side door was open and I was welcome to just walk in. 

I have got to admit that was a pretty formidable experience.  It was my first time being essentially alone in a large sanctuary (that experience would become the norm over the next 4 days of pilgrimaging).  I took some pictures and looked around and picked a pew to sit in to say the Nicene Creed.  Each site had the handout of the Creed but I do not need it.  I am happy to say that when I wrote the post on TVP at the beginning of the Year of Faith about memorizing the Nicene Creed I thought it would be some time before I was able to memorize it.  It actually took me very little time – saying it daily for the Year of Faith made it a snap. 

So I do my Creed and then it is time to answer the question on the passport.  The question for the Cathedral was “Where in the church are the symbols of the apostles located?”  Uh-huh.  Symbols of the apostles?  What symbols of the apostles?!  How should I know?!  I

looked around but I had no clue for what I was looking.  My best guess was that the smaller row of stained glass windows above the larger ones held the symbols of the apostles.  With no one to ask, I decided to leave the answer blank for the moment and get on with my pilgrimaging.  I asked some people at the next stop but they didn’t know and as you can tell from the picture, looking back on the stained glass windows that I felt held the symbols wasn’t a viable option.  With that lighting you can’t make anything out!  In the end I went with an answer of “on the smaller stained glass windows – the ones higher up on either side of the cathedral.”

How do I remember my answer exactly after so long you ask?  I don’t, of course.  J  I made two sets of passports during my pilgrimaging, one to turn in at the end and one to keep! 

So, after a few more pictures at the Cathedral I was off to my second stop of the day – St. Francis of Assisi Church, also in Oklahoma City.

Year of Faith Pilgrimaging I

This next series of posts I am going to post simultaneously on both The Variant Purist and On Sooner Trails.  They apply to both blogs and besides On Sooner Trails needs some love.  It frustrates me that this will get OST all out of chronological order but there are worse things in life!

To pick up where I left off:  Last Sunday night (July 28^th) around 11:00p I accidentally discovered the Year of Faith Pilgrimages that the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City organized.  Immediately I sent Beek a message inquiring as to why on earth we were not doing that!  Then I read a little further and discovered the whole program ends on August 18^th!  Horror of horrors!  It started June 17^th!  All that time lost!  :-O

Well, then logic kicks in.  I am, after all, currently not working and therefore should have plenty of time to get these accomplished before the deadline, right?  By the time I posted the blog entry that night I had printed all the necessary information including the passports for all 4 pilgrimages and had made myself a ‘cheat sheet’ of places, addresses, times, etc.  I was ready to go.

But where was I going?  What, you may ask, is a Year of Faith Pilgrimage?  The Year of Faith I have talked about on The Variant Purist quite a bit and there are MANY online resources regarding it.  It runs from October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013.  There are many layers of importance to it from strengthening the New Evangelization to rediscovering our own walk with God to commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and 20^th anniversary of the release of the Catechism of the Catholic Church…and much more. 

There are a multitude of devotions and prayers and events for the Year of Faith.  Some are universal, some more local.  Each diocese is celebrating the Year a bit differently.  Enter the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.  Technically I don’t know who came up with the pilgrimage idea or why (though I’m glad they did!) but the main goal seems to be to encourage people to learn more about the origins, resources and diversity that exists in the archdiocese.

There are 4 Year of Faith Pilgrimages to choose from.  You only need to complete one to receive the commemorative pin; but why would you do just one?  Do you only eat 25% of your Chick-fil-A nuggets?  When it comes to the good things in life you have to go 100%!!  J

Here are the specifics of each pilgrimage:

Cradle of Catholicism Pilgrimage

Sacred Heart Church – Konawa

Sacred Heart Abbey Mission Ruins – Konawa

Saint Gregory University & Abbey – Shawnee

Saint Wenceslaus Church – Prague

Seat of Catholicism Pilgrimage

Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – OKC

Saint Francis of Assisi Church – OKC

Saint Joseph Old Cathedral – OKC

Multicultural Presence Pilgrimage

Corpus Christi Church – OKC

Sacred Heart Church – OKC

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac Church – OKC

Religious Sites of Interest Pilgrimage

Saint Joseph Church – Bison

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Duncan

Saint John Nepomuk Church – Yukon

Holy Trinity Church – Okarche

Saint Patrick Church – OKC

Each pilgrimage also has one more stop which is the final one where you turn your passport in.  It is the Catholic Pastoral Center – OKC.  I don’t include it in the lists since it is not so much the end of each pilgrimage as it is the end of your journey albeit one pilgrimage or, as in my case, all 4. 

All you have to do at each site is answer a question that is on the passport.  You are also encouraged to pray the Nicene Creed (the official Year of Faith prayer) at each site.  And that is it.  Pray, answer the question, and when the passport is filled out take it to the final stop and get your pin. 

So there I am on Sunday night frantic to figure out how to go about these pilgrimages before the window of opportunity closed.   You already know I finished them; I actually completed all 4 pilgrimages in 4 days.