SAN DIEGO — Jesus visited San Diego in a special way in June.
Two Eucharistic pilgrimages converged in San Diego on June 16 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá. The pilgrims were from the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which set out from Indianapolis on May 18, and the Camino de California, which embarked from Mission San Francisco Solano on June 6 on its southward journey along the California Mission Trail.
The pilgrims, joined by local faithful from the San Diego Diocese, walked from the historic Mission San Diego church to St. Francis Chapel, where Mass was celebrated. After Mass, another procession — this time with the Eucharist carried in a monstrance – led to the mission church for a Holy Hour with Eucharistic exposition.
The next morning, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage led a Eucharistic procession along a 1-mile loop in Balboa Park. The pilgrims sang traditional songs in English and Spanish as they walked under the bright sunshine as park visitors watched in curiosity.
Afterward, Camino de California led its own procession from Balboa Park to St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown San Diego and, ultimately, to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Little Italy.
A “Concert in the Park” was held that afternoon in Bonita Cove Park.
On June 18, pilgrims from both groups attended a morning Mass at Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, followed by Eucharistic adoration, before continuing their journey north. They arrived on June 20 at their final destination, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and concluded two days later on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Leslie Reyes-Hernandez, 26, was among eight young adults selected as Perpetual Pilgrims, traveling the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s entire St. Katharine Drexel Route, from Indianapolis to Los Angeles in a special van equipped with its own tabernacle.
She lives in Phoenix, where she teaches algebra at a public high school and ministers at Grand Canyon University’s Newman Center.
For her, the monthlong pilgrimage has been filled with “so many” meaningful experiences.
“Something I was particularly looking forward to were all of the conversations that I would have with people,” she said, “and our Lord provides.”
“I’ve been meeting so many people from different walks of life … and it’s such a blessing to be able to chat with them,” she said, “but more than anything, take them to our Lord and just pray with them and pray for them as well.”
Reflecting on the impact that the pilgrimage has had on her own life, she said that she has been “astounded by all the ways that the Lord has been working in my heart.”
She said that she “came in (to the pilgrimage) one way,” but, “thankfully, spending so much time in front of our Blessed Sacrament, one cannot remain the same.”
Ace Acuña, 24, concluded two years of working at the Aquinas Institute, the Catholic campus ministry at Princeton University, before joining the pilgrimage, and plans to start graduate school in the fall.
Originally from Las Vegas, Acuña applied to be a Perpetual Pilgrim because he saw it as “a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.”
He credits the Eucharist as the catalyst for his reversion to his Catholic faith during his senior year of high school, and he wanted to be part of something that would give others “that same encounter with the Eucharist.”
Among the highlights of the pilgrimage, he recalled visiting a state prison in Texas, where a Mass and Holy Hour were held.
“Even though we weren’t able to speak with the inmates, we were given front-row seats to our Lord speaking to them in the Blessed Sacrament,” he said, “and, just seeing lines of confessions and men kneeling in front of the monstrance and praying, kneeling, bowing, being moved to tears — that was absolutely amazing.”
Hunter Lawless, 30, has been a pilgrim with the Camino de California since attending the orientation June 5 and beginning the pilgrimage itself the following day.
Lawless, a civil engineer who has lived in San Luis Obispo for the past decade, experienced a reversion to his Catholic faith last October.
He said that, through the pilgrimage, during which he has been sleeping in his car, he has gained “a deeper appreciation and love for Jesus” in the Eucharist.
“I feel like my heart has been … healed in ways that are hard to explain,” he said.
“A lot of people, because of my involvement in this, are asking if I’m discerning for the priesthood or for religious life,” said Lawless, sharing that this is “still up in the air.”
He said that he hopes to continue the “new traditions” and “small habits,” like praying the rosary every day, that he has picked up recently.
Josefina Mancilla walked from Fifth Avenue, in downtown San Diego, to Balboa Park to join the procession there. She’s a parishioner from St. Rose of Lima Parish in Chula Vista.
“I wanted to unite with Jesus in a way that called for me to make an extra effort, not just join adoration,” she said.
“I prayed for the salvation of souls,” she continued. “I have a lot of needs. I also prayed for mercy.”
Stephanie Mahoney, senior director of marketing communications for the National Eucharistic Congress, was there for the pilgrimage’s kick-off in Indianapolis and then rejoined the pilgrims for the final stretch from San Diego to Los Angeles.
“We recognize the Lord’s divine plan to reach souls across the country, and he doesn’t start by reaching the multitude,” she said. “He starts with an encounter with every single one of us.”
“That’s how revival begins,” she said. “It begins with the spark in each of our hearts that we then go out and share the love of Jesus with everyone across the country.”
In his homily at the June 16 Mass at Mission San Diego, Capuchin Franciscan Father Christopher Iwancio said, “God is calling us … to get out of our comfort zone.”
“We can’t sit in our seats and just expect that the Gospel will be spread comfortably from our seats and our recliners,” said Father Iwancio, a chaplain with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. “God is calling us to go out.”
Though the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage traveled from Indianapolis, the site of last summer’s 10th National Eucharistic Congress, to Los Angeles, Father Iwancio explained how — in a very real sense — the pilgrimage is never-ending.
“Our pilgrimage did not end in Indianapolis, and it doesn’t end in Los Angeles,” he said, “just as Jesus’ pilgrimage did not end in Jerusalem; it went out through Emmaus to Rome and to the many ends of the earth. We’re not done yet.”
“If we are looking for the conversion of our country and our world, it is not going to be led by signs; it’s not going to be led by ballot measures,” he said. “It is going to be led by the Eucharist. … We are called to follow God in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us go always forward.”
Aida Bustos contributed to this article.
See a photo gallery of the pilgrimages across diocese at thesoutherncross.org/pilgrimage2025.
