Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington was packed, bumper to bumper, with cars on Sunday evening.
If you tried to drive west down the main strip, you were likely stopped by police officers directing traffic.
Why? Because the National Eucharistic Congress, a group of Catholics who host events to publicly express their faith and spread Catholicism, stopped through town to pray for the country during its semiquincentennial.
“During this 250th anniversary, it’s a real opportunity for us to pray for our country, for healing, for unity, thanksgiving, and for blessings,” Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, told the Observer. “It’s neat that we get to do it in such a historic place like Boston.”
The group is in the middle of its “One Nation Under God” pilgrimage, during which it stops through different cities around the country to pray for the nation in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
“These processions are sort of the Catholic way to show us following Jesus, literally and truly walking behind the blessed sacrament, but also as a public witness to our faith to be able to go out, as he said in the Bible, to all the nations,” Shanks explained.
Richard Henning, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, held a mass at the Church of Saint Brigid in Lexington on Sunday as a part of the group’s stop through town. Almost 1,000 people attended the mass, Father Joe Hubbard, the pastor at St. Brigid, told the Observer, making it one of the church’s largest gatherings yet. Many attendees were Lexington families, but there were also people from neighboring towns, and a few people from around the country in attendance, too, Hubbard said.
After mass, members of the Congress, church attendees, nuns, priests, and other members of the public pilgrimaged on Massachusetts Avenue from Saint Brigid to the Battle Green (about a tenth of a mile). They walked in an organized parade, holding banners and signing hymns.
“The procession from St. Brigid’s Church to the Lexington Battle Green was a profound moment of prayer and gratitude, connecting our faith with this historic place,” Hubbard said. “Together, we remembered and honored the courageous men and women who first fought for the freedoms upon which our nation was founded, freedoms that we continue to cherish today.”
Once the pilgrims arrived at the Battle Green, Henning performed an adoration, or prayer. Over 1,000 people attended the adoration on the Green.
“This is significant because the theme, ‘One Nation Under God,’ marking 250 years, Lexington being the opening battle of the Revolutionary War, it’s a really unique intersection of our faith and of our country to pray for the history of our country, to pray for our nation as a whole, and to thank God that we get to be here today,” Mary Cameron Zakrajsek, one of the pilgrims with the National Eucharistic Congress, told the Observer.
Lexington was one of several stops Zakrajsek and other National Eucharistic Congress pilgrims hit during the “One Nation Under God” pilgrimage. The day before coming to Lexington, the group did the same thing in Boston — pilgrimaging from Boston Common to Bunker Hill in Charlestown, holding an adoration at the Bunker Hill Monument, and then attending a mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The day before, they did the same in Plymouth, with an adoration at Plymouth Rock, followed by a half-mile pilgrimage to a local church for mass.
Zakrajsek and crew started their pilgrimage in St. Augustine, FL on May 24, which fell on the Chsristain holiday, Pentecost Sunday, this year. Since then, they’ve stopped through Savannah, GA; Charleston, SC; Washington, DC; Baltimore MD; and Patterson, NJ, among other places. The group will conclude its pilgrimage in Philadelphia, PA, on the Fourth of July.
“We are walking with the Eucharist, with Jesus in this sacrament of the Eucharist in the streets, busy towns, across highways, on sidewalks, even across waterways — we went across the Chesapeake Bay, across the Delaware River,” Zakrajsek said. “We are publicly walking with our Lord and inviting him back into our life, not just as individuals or as communities, but as a nation.”
This pilgrimage was just one of the many Fourth of July festivities on the docket in Lexington. The Lions Club is hosting its annual carnival at Hastings Park, there will be a fireworks display on Thursday night, and more.