A Pilgrimage for this Jubilee Year
By Tim Williams, Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development
Looking ahead to our Vincentian Pilgrimage to France this fall, I can’t help but think about the many pilgrimages I embark on throughout the year. They are my favorite part of this job – the time that I spend traveling around the country giving talks and leading retreats and training. Our “worldwide network of friends” is not just a poetic phrase for me, because I never feel like a stranger wherever Vincentians are present. We are not only friends, but old friends, once we get past the mere formality of learning one another’s names.
Each of my trips is a true pilgrimage, not because of the many beautiful churches and retreat centers I get to see, but because my geographic journey is also part of my spiritual journey – a journey in which I seek God’s will by sharing, praying, and growing in holiness together with my fellow Vincentians.
As Pope Benedict XVI once explained, “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place [but] to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.”
In this Jubilee Year of 2025, all Catholics are called to be Pilgrims of Hope. How perfect for Vincentians who serve in hope!
In September, along with International First Vice President Ralph Middlecamp, I will be leading a group of Vincentians on a special pilgrimage to France, where we will follow in the footsteps of saints and founders, visiting the places where they lived, served, and are buried. Not only will we see beautiful churches – including the recently reopened Notre Dame Cathedral – we will pray together in the very places where Vincent, Louise, Rosalie and Frédéric were inspired by the Holy Spirit to begin the works that we continue today.
Along the way, we will form stronger bonds of friendship with each other and with that great cloud of witnesses whose legacy is our vocation.
There are still spots available for you to join us, but time is running short. I hope that you will join me in Paris in September!
Learn more information about the Vincentian Heritage Pilgrimage to France trip.
Tim, I really would love to join this pilgrimage, however, I already have a trip planned at the same time. I hope that you will offer this trip again next year. People who travel a lot tend to plan at least a year in advance for their trips. This was short notice for such an overseas experience. I beg you to offer this again in 2026!