The Blessed Sacrament is seen in a monstrance at Holy Spirit Parish in Bowling Green on July 3, 2024, during the closing Mass of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in the Diocese of Owensboro. RILEY GREIF | WKC
Pilgrims of Hope: Something Beyond Ourselves
Editor’s note: In celebration of the Jubilee of Hope, The Western Kentucky Catholic has launched Pilgrims of Hope, a yearlong blog series inspired by Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025: “My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local Churches.” Blog reflections will be written by individuals from across the Diocese of Owensboro, sharing their unique perspectives on the virtue of hope in a world that so greatly needs it.
BY FR. RAY CLARK
E.B. White, the author of the children’s book Charlotte’s Web, was married to Katherine, a devoted New England gardener. As his wife grew weaker from a terminal illness, White described her dedication:
“Armed with a diagram and a clipboard, Katherine would get into a shabby old brooks raincoat much too long for her, put on a little round wool hat, pull on a pair of overshoes and proceed to the director’s chair – a folding canvas thing – that had been placed for her at the edge of the plot. There she would sit, hour after hour, in the wind and the weather, while Henry Allen produced dozens of brown paper packages of new bulbs and a basketful of old ones, ready for the intricate interment. As the years went by and age overtook her, there was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance on this awesome occasion – the small, hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.” (E. B. White, “Introduction” in K. S. White, Onward and Upward in the Garden)
I marvel at the martyrs – at the hope that allowed them, like Katherine, to sense there was something beyond themselves and to offer their lives. Their blood would be the seed of the Church.
This hope was impossible without faith – faith nurtured by the blood of Christ – at Calvary, on the altar. Other fruits of the Spirit – joy, fortitude and courage – prompted them.
Like the martyrs, I know that I can live fully only with the graces God provides. One of these is the Eucharist.
At Mass I sometimes remember what Bishop John J. McRaith said as he celebrated Mass with the diocesan staff at the pastoral center: “This is the most important thing we will do today.” I am reassured that I can count on the grace of God that enables me to do whatever faces me today.
Msgr. Bernard Powers’ (1926-2024) favorite writing on the Eucharist was from St. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. There JPII writes in section 20: “It is in this world that Christian hope must shine forth! For this reason too, the Lord wished to remain with us in the Eucharist, making his presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by his love.”
Fr. Ray Clark is a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky.
To learn more about the Diocese of Owensboro’s celebration of the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025 visit https://owensborodiocese.org/jubilee-year-pilgrims-of-hope/.
