Youth flock to annual pilgrimage for worship, talks, fun

ANNIE FERGUSON arferguson@charlottediocese.org

BELMONT — Waking early on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, more than 850 young people traveled to Belmont Abbey College for the Bishop’s Youth Pilgrimage March 25. Due to rain, the event was held indoors at the college’s Wheeler Center. The spirits of the youth, however, were anything but dampened.

“This is a beautiful thing to do with almost young adults who are transitioning into high school or college, and it’s especially beautiful today as we celebrate Jesus’ Incarnation together,” said Anna Terrell, a high school junior who attended the pilgrimage with her youth group from Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro.

Among the prayers of the day was a consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in honor of the day’s feast. Speakers included Meg Hunter-Kilmer, who gave the keynote address and led the breakout session with the high school girls, Jake Burns, who led the breakout session for high school boys, and singer Tori Harris Gray, who led the music and middle school breakout session.

“We get to meet people from other parishes and listen to the talks about our faith. It’s powerful,” Terrell said. “In the high school breakout session for the girls, the speaker talked to us about saints who didn’t live super holy lives at first. It made it easy to relate to them as we seek holiness.”

The Bishop’s Youth Pilgrimage, held each spring, is designed to provide young people of the Diocese of Charlotte with a day of reflection, prayer, formation, vocation awareness and fellowship. It is a component of the annual Eucharistic Congress, and the annual event shares the 2023 congress theme: “I Am With You Always,” which is based on the words of the Gospel of Matthew (28:20).

At this year’s event, Abbot Placid Solari offered Mass and led the Holy Hour of Adoration and Eucharistic Procession.

He was assisted by concelebrant Father Peter Ascik and 10 seminarians from St. Joseph College Seminary. In his homily, Abbot Placid explained the dignity of the human person through the events of the Annunciation and the Institution of the Holy Eucharist.

“Because Jesus became one of us, a real and true human being, a man like us, He was able to take other created things, bread and wine, to be the unique Presence,” he said. “He wishes to remain with us in the sacrament of His Body and Blood, so we are never without His Presence, without His love, without His forgiveness and without His life.”

Abbot Placid also connected the Blessed Virgin Mary’s fiat to the youth and their quest to discover their vocations, asking them what their reaction would have been if the Angel Gabriel had visited them. He also asked the congregation to say out loud the words of Mary’s response in Luke 1:38: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.”

“She obeyed, and by that, she became the Mother of God,” Abbot Placid said. “After she said that what happened? The Angel left, and for the rest of her life – even after Jesus had ascended and until she died and was Assumed into heaven – she had to figure out by the events of her everyday life how she was to live that vocation she had been given, unique among all vocations, and she did that because she was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

He reminded the youth to call on the Holy Spirit for guidance in the process of discerning their unique vocations.

“That is powerful because, in our baptism and our confirmation, we have received the very same Holy Spirit that overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring forth the created humanity of the Son of God.”

Abbot Placid explained that by assuming our human nature, Jesus was able to make us sharers in His divine nature. He said, “That’s why receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. It is the food of everlasting life.”

“I cannot express how thankful I am for your continuous support,” said José Palma Torres of St. Joseph Parish in Asheboro, now in his third year of theology studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. “You make it possible for us to be formed, so that one day we may minister the sacraments. I look forward to the day I am ordained because I want to help the faithful encounter Christ.”

Deacon Christopher Brock, of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte, is finishing up his studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and is expected to be ordained to the priesthood June 17. “Your support has made a tremendous difference in my life. Going through the process of seminary formation has been a huge blessing for me and has helped me to grow in so many ways. Your support is helping me prepare to live out my calling, and I am immensely grateful for that,” he said.

The Seminarian Education Program, in which 21 men are currently enrolled at St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly and 28 men are enrolled in major seminary at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, is primarily funded through the annual Diocesan Support Appeal, the Friend to Seminarians Program, and this collection.

Support seminarian education

There are four ways to make a gift to fund the education of the diocese’s seminarians through the Seminarian Education Collection: n Use the envelope provided in your parish offertory packet n Make a gift online at your parish’s website, if available n Make a secure gift online at www.charlottediocese. org/donate (click on Seminarian Education) n Use the envelope provided with the letter you received from Bishop Jugis and mail it back to the diocese

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