- Feb 5, 2002
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INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) — As she talked with the grieving woman, Jan Pierson believed this was another moment when God had led her to where he wanted her to be — which is exactly why the 69-year-old Indiana woman has looked past the challenges and has embraced her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
Ever since beginning the pilgrimage May 18 in New Haven, Connecticut, traveling along the Eastern Seaboard, crossing the Appalachian Mountains and heading across Ohio toward Indianapolis, Pierson has placed her every mile in God’s hands.
“I’m always up for an adventure,” said the member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington, Indiana, a mother of four grown children and 10 grandchildren. “When I found out about the pilgrimage, I thought, ‘Why not? Why not do something with Jesus?’ I was all for it.”
“I took the video, and then I told her to double-check it, to make sure it was OK,” Pierson recalled. “She did, and then she started talking with me. She told me her husband had just passed away a few months ago.
“I just looked at her. I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m also a widow, but I’ve been a widow a little longer. This coming July, I’ll be a widow for 32 years.’ She just looked at me and said, ‘Can I just hold onto you?’ She just held on to my hand all the way to the end of the procession, to the last church. We walked about 8 miles together. At the end, she said, ‘Thank you. Thank you.'”
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Ever since beginning the pilgrimage May 18 in New Haven, Connecticut, traveling along the Eastern Seaboard, crossing the Appalachian Mountains and heading across Ohio toward Indianapolis, Pierson has placed her every mile in God’s hands.
“I’m always up for an adventure,” said the member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington, Indiana, a mother of four grown children and 10 grandchildren. “When I found out about the pilgrimage, I thought, ‘Why not? Why not do something with Jesus?’ I was all for it.”
Moments of connection
She had the same feeling of being all-in when she was approached by a woman during a Eucharistic procession in Connecticut. The woman wanted Pierson’s help in taking a video that showed her participating in the procession, a video the woman wanted to share with her children. That moment led to a deeper one.“I took the video, and then I told her to double-check it, to make sure it was OK,” Pierson recalled. “She did, and then she started talking with me. She told me her husband had just passed away a few months ago.
“I just looked at her. I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m also a widow, but I’ve been a widow a little longer. This coming July, I’ll be a widow for 32 years.’ She just looked at me and said, ‘Can I just hold onto you?’ She just held on to my hand all the way to the end of the procession, to the last church. We walked about 8 miles together. At the end, she said, ‘Thank you. Thank you.'”
Pilgrimage highlights
Continued below.
At 69, Indiana woman deepens her faith while on pilgrimage
Ever since beginning the pilgrimage May 18 in New Haven, Connecticut, traveling along the Eastern Seaboard, crossing the Appalachian Mountains and heading across Ohio toward Indianapolis, Pierson has placed her every mile in God's hands.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
