Pilgrims experience love of Jesus in unique way in Louisiana

The two dozen pilgrims who are carrying Christ in the Eucharist from the four compass points of the US to the National Eucharistic Congress are accumulating a lot of memories as they walk and drive their two-month journey to Indianapolis. But as far as stories they might one day be able to tell their grandchildren, God willing, it’s hard to beat something that happened in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The six perpetual pilgrims on the southern route, named for St. Juan Diego, had already spent two weeks trekking through Texas. They entered the Diocese of Lake Charles June 3, holding a youth adoration night at Camp Karol in Moss Bluff. 

Next day, after Mass, they had a long walk through Lake Charles, touching six stops and participating in Eucharistic processions, prayer services and adoration, presentations, a work project, and interaction with various ethnic communities.

Arriving at St. Henry parish in the afternoon, the pilgrims, along with four Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who were accompanying them as chaplains, were greeted by the Hispanic community there. The gathering including a group of women wearing folkloric dresses representing various states of Mexico.

“As soon as we show up, the first thing we see is these women in Mexican dresses – the dancing dresses, the ones with a ton of material. They’re so beautiful,” one of the pilgrims, Shayla Elm, told Aleteia.

The pilgrims brought their monstrance holding the Eucharist into the Church, and then the community invited the group to go outside again.

“And we see a row of chairs with bowls underneath each chair,” Elm said. “And they say, ‘Please remove your shoes; we’d love to wash your feet. And they didn’t really give us a choice.”

Elm, who works at Christ in the City in Denver, and another pilgrim, Mackenzie Warrens, who is working on a doctorate in physics, said they had mixed emotions: reticence to allow strangers to see – and smell – their “stinky, smelly” feet, but honored that someone would make such a gesture.

“That is so gross!” Warrens told Aleteia. “But I was like, ‘Thank you so much, it’s very, very humbling.’”

“So these women in these beautiful dresses get down on their knees and they wash our feet and they massage our feet and put powder on them and put our socks and shoes back on,” Elm recalled. “It was just like so motherly. Their hearts were so motherly.”

Warrens pointed out that the action wasn’t simply symbolic, “where they’d pour a little water over our feet.”

The foot-washing was a somewhat spontaneous addition to the schedule, according to Ricardo Ruvalcaba, who works in Hispanic ministry at St. Henry’s and joined the women in scrubbing some pilgrims’ feet [photo above].

“About three and a half hours before they arrived, I don’t know how, but I got the idea,” Ruvalcaba, who is from Cancun, Mexico, told Aleteia. “It jumped to my mind. But I said no, we can’t do it, because we don’t have time, and I didn’t prepare anything for this.” 

But the notion persisted, so he called some people in the Hispanic community and told them, “Hey, let’s follow Jesus’s example and have mercy with them. They are very good people. They are pilgrims, so let’s wash their feet, because Jesus gave us this commandment to wash one another’s feet.”

“They were perfect candidates for this,” he added.

The response on the part of the community was enthusiastic, he said. “I called people who came from Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, and they said ‘Yes, let’s do it!’ I found eight volunteers and I asked them to bring jars and buckets.” 

One woman brought soap and creams for exfoliation and soothing. 

“They arrived, and we prayed to Jesus for a little bit, and then we washed their feet with soap, used the cream with a little massage, and then put relaxing foot cream,” Ruvalcaba said. His wife, Badiha, brought foot powder, which their two daughters, Badiha, 8, and Lineth, 7, put in the pilgrims’ shoes. 

“I think at that moment everybody felt Jesus around us. Always, when we follow his commandments, we are happier and more blessed.”

Elm agreed: “It was one of these extreme moments where I was like, ‘There’s Jesus again.’ Like, He can’t help but pour Himself out through His faithful.”

The visit concluded with snacks and a performance of Mexican folkloric dances such as Jarabe Tapatio. 

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