By Jessica Easthope
Diane DeBernardo was among the many pilgrims pounding the pavement to pray with each other. She hit a milestone of 20 churches along the route throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“I loved seeing the different neighborhoods and the parishioners that you met when you went into the churches, and so many beautiful churches that honestly I would’ve never have been to if I wasn’t inspired, or encouraged to do so with the pilgrimage,” DeBernardo said.
DeBernardo spent Monday at her favorite pilgrimage stop, the home parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Windsor Terrace, with Bishop Robert Brennan.
“I’m very touched by the participation in the pilgrimage by people who have been coming from church to church,” Bishop Brennan said. “The pastors who have been hosting have been so moved by the number of visitors who have come to their parishes to pray to be with the Lord. I think it was a great success, a great grace, thanks to the faithfulness and the effort of so many people.”
This year, pilgrims checked in on the Lenten Pilgrimage app, which was developed by DeSales Media Group, the communications and technology arm of the Diocese of Brooklyn that operates NET TV. Father Joseph Gibino, Vicar for Evangelization and Catechesis, praised the innovation required to get it off the ground.
“I have to thank DeSales Media and acknowledge the incredible team at DeSales,” Father Gibino said. “So yes, bigger and better and year three we are learning every year we learn a little bit more.”
But for pilgrims and diocese officials alike, there was one feature that stood out.
“The one piece that was the most moving to me were the prayer intentions,” Father Gibino said. “What I especially liked about the app was the prayer section.”
People from all over the Diocese of Brooklyn and worldwide got to submit intentions and pray together.
“The thousands of people who requested prayers, prayers, and so that piece alone that united the diocese this year we became an international pilgrimage with the app,” DeBernardo said.
“I really felt like that brought us together and that clicking on the image of I’m praying for all these different intentions that people put, and I just feel like that we were unified in that way, and the app did that the app was able to do that it builds community even in the digital way even an emoji builds community.”
When people reached the end, they realized the pilgrimage was never about taking them to a physical place but about making a place in their hearts for Christ and the community.