Feel like I’m called to go on an overseas pilgrimage

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MiserereMei25

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Unsure how to do this financially. Advice?

Thanks 🙂
 
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Depends on where you want to go. But a lot of pilgrimage companies offer a package deal that’s much cheaper than going on your own. The group I went to the Holy Land with charges about $3990 a person, which includes airfare to Israel, hotels, transport, and some meals.

-Fr ACEGC
 
Not sure what you’re asking.
Are you trying to figure out how to raise money to go? Same way you’d save or raise money to do anything else.

Are you asking how to get the best price on your travel? Same as any other trip, go in the off-season, search for cheap airfares, look for budget accommodations in hostels or camp grounds.
 
See if they are organising a trip in your diocese, if not enquire about your parish or diocese doing one.
 
Sounds like the company we use. Italy was fairly reasonable. We’ve been twice. Holy land is next.
 
Can you clarify your question?

My first instinct was to say “save,” which is what I am doing, but I get the sense you are looking for a different answer?
 
Parish-sponsored tours are nice, you see a lot of things, the price is reasonable, and it benefits your church/ priest. I have been on several.

They aren’t particularly cheap though. They usually end up costing 3 or 4 grand.

If you travel on your own, you can definitely save money, and you have more freedom to set your own itinerary, for example spend 3 days at Fatima rather than 1.
 
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I’ve done Rome both on my own and with a group, and I definitely feel I learnt more in the group and was able to do more, however I could spend more time in places by myself, also I could go back to certain churches on my own. However our tour did have plenty of free time to explore as we wanted as well.
 
“Overseas” is a big place. Which country do you want to visit?

Flights to most of Europe will be less expensive than to, for instance, Australia from the US. Flights from a little airport will be more expensive than from a major international airport.
 
Use the money you planned to spend on a holiday.

Budget!!! And stick to it!

Make a weekly/monthly plan of what to eat and only buy the ingredients needed. Put the other money aside that you had previously spend on “not neccessary items”. Use leftovers for another meal. Buy fruit and vegetables that are in season as they are usually cheaper.

If you pay a deposit for soda/beer bottles then return the bottles to the shop and save that money for the pilgrimage. Drink tap water instead of bottled bought water.
 
Why not just say you feel like doing a pilgrimage like most people do?
 
Take a pilgrimage of the mind. That’s all that I can afford. One should not be coerced by others who have a “bucket list” of things to do. I know someone who has been to many distant places and they do not feel changed by it, that I can tell. In the end, “they” have pictures and memories.

just tonight I spoke with this person about maybe going to London, to the British museum. and then showed me the picture outside of the restroom facilities , to prove they were there. “That’s where i went to the bathroom.”

Let’s see, this is the spirituality forum. Hmmm…I don’t have to go to Jerusalem or Rome to visit Jesus, I can go to the nearest church. That is all the experience I need.
 
The package idea with a group doing it cheaply sounds great 🙂
All the best with your hoped for trip @MiserereMei25 .
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Can you make a pilgrimage close by? Perhaps there’s a historic church, a shrine, a monastery, or some similar place where you could go for a day or two.
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This is a great idea. One of my parish priests told me that there was no need for people to go to Europe to see beautiful churches when there are beautiful churches right in our own city, sitting empty because they are in bad neighborhoods or whatever. He said you could just go to those. I decided he was right and started visiting many of them. I still have lots to go.

Some cities also have a good many shrines. For example, NYC has shrines to Padre Pio and Mother Cabrini. Philadelphia has shrines to St. John Neumann, St. Rita and St. Catherine Laboure/ Miraculous Medal, as well as the tomb of St. Katherine Drexel now in the Cathedral.The Shrine of St. Elizabeth Seton is a couple hours away, also a shrine to St. Anthony. Baltimore has a shrine to St. Jude. Pittsburgh has a wonderful old church full of thousands of saint relics. Upstate New York has a Fatima shrine with a giant outdoor Rosary, hundreds of life-sized saint statues. There is a Mary statue several stories tall overlooking a highway in Delaware. Etc.
 
There is really only one way to do this, save up for the trip. I made a pilgrimage in the year of mercy. I had saved for quite a while to do so. I looked into tours and none of them offered what I wanted to do, none of the tours offered the freedom I wanted so I went on my own.

I was able to go to Italy, France, and England for three weeks for less than $5000. Granted I didn’t go the budget route but going alone as a middle age woman safety was very important to me. I stayed in better hotels, took taxies if it was dark, and hired private cars to and from airports.

I don’t think I could have taken the trip I did, saw the things I did, experienced the splendor of the great basilicas & cathedrals in Rome, Florence, Pisa, Assisi, Siena, Padua, Bologna, Venice, Paris, or taken in the pure history if I had been part of a tour. While in Rome I was able to go back to my favorite places several times, I walked in to St. Peter’s and the Pope was saying Mass. So many great experiences.

When I get to go again the only thing I would change is to bring another person with me.
 
If God has called you, he will show you how to find a way to go. Listen carefully/prayerfully. This has always been how my impossible things have been made possible, relying on Him who has called you. Oh and yes it is terrifying. I don’t really know how to explain the nitty gritty but take a first step of faith and then it all starts to fall into place… if that makes sense. Like Jesus showed us in the garden of gethsemane. Remember, he may have been afraid and have asked for the cup to be taken from him…… but he was there. That first step he had already made, he went to the place where he knew he would be betrayed, where he would always go to pray, when he knew he was to be betrayed before asking if he could be delivered from his terrible future. That first step of faith. May God bless you.
 
Contact one of the tour companies that specialize in Catholic pilgrimages. If you plan and organize a pilgrimage and, if enough people sign up to go, you travel to free.
 
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