Fr. Jacob Thomas
Mexico Pilgrimage
August 8-13, 2016 - 6 Days
$1679 from Denver
This information was followed with the different places they would visit in and around Mexico City. As I glanced through the flyer I realized that the only place I had not visited in Mexico was Coyoacan. This is where Frida Kahlo had been born and a place I wanted to see. The flyer did not mention the artist and I wondered if they would even go to the house where she was born, which was the only place that interested me.
I remembered the second time I went to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the Archdiocese of Denver in a large group. I remember that to accommodate every one on the tour, over 200 persons, there were many buses used. To distinguish each bus, each bus was given a color and that was how we determined which bus would take us around town. My bus was red. Since no hotel could house the whole group, we were separated and put in two different hotels.
I have written about my pilgrimages to Mexico City in my blog of December 11, 2012 A Fairy Tale That Wasn't and My Friend David written on February 25, 2014. In total, I have been to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe four times so even though I felt a tiny tickle of excitement for this current Mexico Pilgrimage led by our parish priest, I decided to wait for a tour where I have not been!
The groups that I took were right around December 12 on Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day and we had to deal with the millions of other people from all over the world. Maybe August, when this group will be going, will not be as crowded, but I have a feeling that it will be very hot!
The pictures below are from my 1999 Pilgrimage with Archbishop Chaput. To show how life changes a person, in one of the pictures I am squatting, and that is something I can no longer do!
"With great passion,
observe every detail
of the sacred journey."
Lailah Gifty Akita