As the sun sets on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s time in the Archdiocese of Denver, the Perpetual Pilgrims made their way to the Eastern Plains, visiting Sacred Heart Parish in Roggen and St. Helena Parish in Fort Morgan on their way to the Diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska.
Parishioners of St. Helena Parish in Fort Morgan gathered Monday evening for Eucharistic Adoration with the pilgrims.
The opportunity for prayer, worship and praise of our Eucharistic Lord was coupled by an invitation to draw near and “touch the hem” of Christ’s garment. Inspired by the humble witness of the woman healed of a hemorrhage in the Gospel of Mark, the prayerful tradition invites the faithful to approach the Eucharistic Lord in trusting surrender, saying with the healed woman, “if I but touch his clothes, I will be healed” (Mk 5:28).
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(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
(Photo courtesy of St. Helena parishioners)
“It was a great evening at the feet of Jesus,” said Father Erik Vigil, pastor of St. Helena Parish. “My parishioners felt his love and part of the Universal Church.”
The next morning, the Fort Morgan Catholic community gathered for Mass and a Eucharistic procession, giving public witness to their faith in our Eucharistic Lord.
“What struck me is how Jesus comes out to meet us and invites us not to stand by, watching what passes by our side, but as a Church, to go out and meet him, to dare to give him what we have not yet given him,” said Morena Zavala, a St. Helena parishioner, reflecting on the pilgrimage’s visit to her parish.
“It gives me joy, too, to see how these brothers and sisters travel throughout the world announcing that Jesus is alive in the Eucharist, fulfilling the mandate that the Lord has given us to be his missionary disciples, announcing that Jesus is the same as in that time, and he can change our lives,” she continued.
From Fort Morgan, the pilgrimage will make its way to St. Anthony Parish in Sterling, its last stop in the Archdiocese of Denver before leaving Colorado for the Diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska.