Meet the sister who follows the National

By Kate Quiñones/CNA

In her daily life, Sister Mary Rose Chinn of the Servants of the Triune God works with children in the public schools of Ventura, California, a coastal city northwest of Los Angeles. But this summer, she hit the road to camp and follow Jesus in the Eucharist.

When Chinn learned that a group of “perpetual pilgrims” would be traveling from California to Indiana on the Junipero Serra Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, she wanted to be a part of it.

Equipped with her car, a tent and “angels and saints from heaven,” Chinn follows the online program of pilgrims who accompany Jesus into the Eucharist on foot and in vans en route to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where The National Eucharistic Congress will be held from July 17 to 21.

Along the way, she offers the prayer intentions of the people of Ventura and offers to pray for the prayer intentions of those she meets from town to town and parish to parish.

Chinn’s days are a mixture of meetings, visits to different parishes and attending processions followed by the solitude of the campsite.

“It allows me to be quiet and alone with him (Jesus) during the times when I’m not in the churches or in the parish,” she told CNA. “Because there are a lot of RV campers, but very few tent campers.”

– Advertisement –

Chinn has participated in many types of pilgrimages, whether with an organization or “on his own.” With her hiking experience, she feels ready for this pilgrimage.

“The opportunity of a pilgrimage, to me, is like a microcosm of everyday life, where you really have to listen and just trust in God’s providence for the next step,” she said. “You can make your plans … but then you turn your plans over to the Lord and see how He unfolds the day. That’s how it happened.”

Conversion through the Eucharist

“My intention during the pilgrimage was to give thanks to the Lord for the gift of himself in Holy Communion,” Chinn explained.

Chinn, a convert to the Catholic Church, said another reason she joined the pilgrimage was that “it was really Jesus in the Eucharist that brought me to the Catholic Church.”

“Because when I was going to Mass with a friend, I was reading the Old Testament, wondering what happened to all the Old Testament laws about sacrifice, the Protestant churches, and there was no sacrifice,” she explained. “But as soon as I went to Mass, I saw Jesus as a sacrifice.”

Although initially introduced to Christianity by Pentecostals, she learned more about the faith from a Catholic priest before eventually joining the Catholic Church.

“I had a lot of Catholic friends growing up, but none of them ever shared Mass with me. They never invited me to Mass,” she said. “I was introduced to Christianity by customers at my parents’ restaurants, who were Pentecostal Christians, and they invited me to their church. That’s how I first encountered Jesus in his word, through prayer, and through the possibility of the Holy Spirit bringing healing, igniting your life.”

When she had to choose between Catholicism and Pentecostalism, the Eucharist drew her to the Catholic faith.

“And so at the end, in my prayer, I asked Jesus: “So, had I really received the gift of faith to believe in Jesus in the Eucharist, on the altar of the tabernacle? and I said, ‘Yes,'” she recalls. “So how could I get away from the Catholic Church? Because that would be denying Jesus.

During her pilgrimage, Chinn said she intended to “pray and ask God for forgiveness — the old word is ‘reparation’ — for those who do not believe in His real presence and (I) pray for their conversion so that they can return.

Chinn said since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has noticed many people have not returned to Mass. She prays that they can “worship God as Jesus gave himself to us.”

“I see that there is a trend, which is constant and which is found in all parishes, where parents send their children to receive the sacraments, but they do not practice the faith on a regular basis,” explains Chinn. “And I pray that they will fall in love with Jesus, with Holy Communion, with the Eucharist and with the Mass, so that they will be consistent and constant. »

“If only they realized that this would make their lives much more stable,” she continued. “The Lord is with them all the time, this relationship could develop. »

“I think what struck me the most was the number of parishes that the pilgrimage (reaches). We, at least sometimes on Sundays, pass through at least three parish towns,” she said. “And then there is Benediction. So I received the blessing at least three times a day.”

When asked what has stood out to her so far, Chinn said it’s the faith of the people she meets.

“I realize that, thanks to my interactions with parishioners, they are truly people of faith,” she continued. “There is an identification, even if they don’t know me and I don’t know them either. They have been very generous in their journey with me. »

“The basic faith of the people is still there,” Chinn said. “Even though Catholicism in the United States is said to be in decline, there is a good portion of the population that is still religious, that is willing to go out more to worship God, especially Jesus in the Eucharist.”