The journey concluded, Sunday, June 29 with a welcome home Mass and celebration at St. Mary’s in New Ulm. Despite blisters and exhaustion, the young adult pilgrims were all smiles upon their return.

“It was a beautiful experience to see our dioceses, our church as a whole, visit the people and take up their prayer intentions through the intercession of Our Lady to see the beginning fruits of this pilgrimage working with the diocese,” said Aaron Gnerer.

Gnerer found out about the pilgrimage after having attended the National Eucharistic Conference last summer. It grabbed his attention because it was a young adult event, which made him really happy to see that the dioceses was reaching out to the young adults and calling them forward to share their faith and show that the church was alive and growing.

When David Rabey, a seminarian, first found out this was happening, he really hoped he would be assigned to the pilgrimage. He was also really happy when he got the call and was asked to go.

Bishop Zielinski and Father Thooft bless a replica of Our Lady of the Prairie during a Sunday morning mass on the last day of the Diocesan Pilgrimage.

“In general, for me it was extremely joyful and fun. We prayed when we walked, and talked; there was a lot of good goofing off. Once when we were live streaming a rosary, we were told the microphone was off, but it was actually on, so we accidentally live streamed 5 minutes of us just talking. That was pretty funny and memorable,” said Rabey.

These videos from the pilgrimage can be found online on YouTube @DioceseofNewUlm.

“It was cool as we were walking; the most joyful was the first time it rained,” said Jake Brost. “It was a torrential downpour, and everyone was singing, dancing, running through the puddles. It was really great. It was so much fun. It was really great to go to each parish in the dioceses. Sometimes Damien the artist of Our Lady of the Prairie would play the organ–just to see people gather around and listen — we’d have singing during the adoration, seeing that bring everyone together was really beautiful.”

“It rained three days for something like six hours of walking in the rain, so that was for me, the most memorable day. And, we had the handmaids walk with us and the artist Damien, and it was so joyful with our conversations. We were singing,” said Amber Rosemeier.

“We turned around one time, and Molly was waist deep in a puddle,” said Brost. “As for joining the pilgrimage, I just knew this was something God was calling me to do so, I said yes.”

Aleah Vetsch and Amber Rosemeier walk alongside Matthew Collins, seminarian and perpetual pilgrim, who leads with a replica of Our Lady of the Prairie (by artist Damien Walker of The Studio of Saint Philomena). (Photo submitted by Chris Clancy, The Prairie Catholic)

New Ulm Diocese Bishop Chad Zielinski felt there was a loveliness of the thousands of acres of prairie land that connects the diocese. This ultimately created the idea to rededicate the Diocese of New Ulm to Mary under the title Our Lady of the Prairie, and commissioning Damien Walker founder and director of The Studio of Saint Philomena in New Zealand to paint the life-size image of Our Lady of the Prairie.

The Pilgrimage of Hope was coordinated by the Diocesan Office of evangelization, with Leonard Gutierrez as the director of evangelization.

“The painting is of Mary and the Child Christ. There are many titles for Mary, like Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady of the Prairie fits with the New Ulm Diocese,” said Gutierrez.

“Meeting people in the dioceses, hearing their joys, their intentions, the hardest moments of their lives, and bringing that to Mary, to the Lord, as we were walking on the pilgrimage–it was a beautiful thing to have people open their hearts to you,” said Molly Koralewski.