MCP believes pilgrimage is an essential physical demonstration of the spiritual faith in Jesus Christ's life, death, and Resurrection, and recognizes it as one of the earliest traditions of the practice of the Catholic faith. Pilgrimage is something that deserves to be undertaken and deserves to be undertaken well. For that reason, the project exists to prepare pilgrims and send them out on routes to holy sites in the United States. As the great 20th century mystic (and pilgrim) Thomas Merton writes, "The geographic pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey…One can have the one without the other. It is best to have both.” Through MCP, one can easily have both.

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The project provides resources to prospective pilgrims so that the men and women can be best prepared to take part in a deep conversion through participating in the rich tradition that is the purposeful journey. The pilgrims will understand what it means to receive their hosts' hospitality while on the road and will understand that this travel is not tourism, but a yearning to bring prayers and intentions before God at a particular holy place.

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The pdf and video links below are an extended explanation of why we at MCP find pilgrimage to be such a crucial element of the practice of faith.