In an evening titled “On the Road with Jesus,” three pilgrims who walked the entire Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Route to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis shared their experience in helping take the Eucharistic Jesus “out into the world and across the country.”  

The two-hour gathering occurred on Tuesday, October 8 at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan.           

The panelists were: Father Roger Landry, Marina Frattaroli, and Zoe Dongas. They and many others walked nearly 1,100 miles over two months from New Haven, Connecticut, to Indianapolis where the five-day Congress was held in July.          

The three reflected on the strong spiritual bonds created during the trek; the special praise and worship singing and instrumental accompaniment; the many prayers; the emotional heights and physical challenges; and all that is related to the brotherhood and sisterhood in being “on the road with Jesus.” 

“We’re going to see the graces long term; we saw lots of conversions,” Father Landry, who served as priest chaplain for the NEC, said during the panel discussion. “We decided to do something from sea to shining sea – and that was so bold. Thanks be to God for our bishops, for their boldness…This is the start of something big, as long as we continue our Eucharistic pilgrimage through time, following and accompanying our Eucharistic Lord.”

He noted that the panel discussion was occurring close to the feast of Blessed Carlo Acutis (October 12), who had a deep faith and devotion to the Eucharist. Father Landry also noted that he and Dongas are writing a book about the Eucharistic Pilgrimage.  

“I’m very proud to have been a pilgrim on the Seton Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage this summer; it was amazing,” Frattaroli, 26, told the nearly two dozen attendees. She noted also that it was an honor to be invited to the shrine dedicated to Mother Cabrini, “who I look up to immensely.”  She added, “One of the things that was most awe-inspiring to me about what we did this summer was how the pilgrimage was such a complicated interweaving of efforts of so many different parts of the Church.”   

Frattaroli is a first-year associate at a law firm. She is a 2022 Catholic convert; her parish is Notre Dame Church in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan. 

Dongas, 25, said the pilgrimage was an “experience of living the Gospel. We got to be by Jesus’s side very closely for two months. I think it all started with Jesus’s invitation to ‘come follow me,’ which He asked of all His disciples, and as He continues to ask all of us on our earthly pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem…It was a monumental sacrifice in my own life, (but) it was a great gift and joy.” 

She noted that a very special part of the experience for her was at the Brooklyn Bridge when the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament was handed from the Archdiocese of New York to the Diocese of Brooklyn. Dongas is a singer, musician, and actor (and a former staff member of Young Adult Outreach of the archdiocese). She led much of the praise and worship singing during church stops on the pilgrimage. Her parish is St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village.

One of the event attendees, Colette Liddy, told The Good Newsroom afterward, “It was beautiful; they really brought us inside the pilgrimage and their experience with the Eucharistic Lord. And when we hear their stories, it strengthens our faith. It was quite beautiful.” Liddy is a parishioner of St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell, New Jersey.  

“Last May, St. Frances Cabrini Shrine was the first stop on the Manhattan leg of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. Hundreds of people turned out to walk with Jesus through the streets of New York,” Julia Attaway, the Shrine’s executive director, told The Good Newsroom.

Attaway noted the contentment the Shrine’s staff and volunteers had in welcoming the three panelists who helped take “the Eucharistic Jesus out into the world and across the country…Mother Cabrini had tremendous devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and the Shrine has been deeply involved in supporting the Eucharistic Revival any way we can.”