When MacKenzie Warrens spent weeks crossing the country with Jesus in the Eucharist during the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, she had already discerned her vocation as a consecrated virgin. What she did not expect was how profoundly the experience would deepen that calling.
“I already knew what I was called to,” Warrens told EWTN News. “Any lingering doubts that may have been in my mind were completely gone with the pilgrimage. It was just even more clear… ‘This is, without a doubt, my vocation.’”
Months after completing the pilgrimage, Warrens took vows as a consecrated virgin in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. For Warrens and many others who walked thousands of miles with the Eucharist, the pilgrimage became more than a journey across America. It became a path toward discovering or confirming the vocation God had prepared for them.
Forty‑five young adults have served as perpetual pilgrims since the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage began in 2024, and organizers told EWTN News that 26 of them are discerning or pursuing forms of consecrated life.
Growing harvest of vocations
In the interest of transparency, organizers noted that eight of the men discerning priesthood were already seminarians during their time on pilgrimage and continue to feel called to the priesthood.
Among the former pilgrims are current seminarians, men newly discerning diocesan priesthood, women preparing to enter the Sisters of Life and the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, and several others discerning religious life or consecrated vocations.
Organizers also said one former pilgrim has taken a private vow of celibacy, while another is discerning a yearlong private vow of consecration.
Pilgrims’ perspective
For Mason Bailey, a seminarian for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, the pilgrimage became an unexpected lesson in what priestly ministry looks like. Already in seminary when he joined the 2024 Marian Route, Bailey said traveling through the Midwest with the Eucharist introduced him to the breadth of the Church and strengthened his vocation.
“I was blessed to see the American Church in a new way,” Bailey told EWTN News. “I encountered a lot of amazing priests — diocesan priests and religious — that affirmed my vocation along the way.”
Bailey said one of the most memorable aspects of the pilgrimage was visiting small rural parishes that many Catholics never see.
“We went to parishes that probably nobody visits,” he said. “These beautiful Polish Catholic churches hidden away in the farm communities of the Midwest… I got to meet the priests there and stay in rectories with them. They were beautiful witnesses of what the priesthood is.”
Reflecting on the journey, Bailey said the pilgrimage revealed a profound connection between the Eucharist and the priesthood.
“The Eucharist is taken, blessed, broken, and given,” he said. “Thatʼs also an image of the priesthood — and indeed every Christian life. … Doing this difficult thing, but doing it for others so that they can encounter Jesus.”
Cheyenne Johnson, who participated in both the 2025 Drexel Route and the 2026 Cabrini Route as a team leader, said the pilgrimage gave her the freedom and peace to continue discerning a call to religious life.
"Being around the Blessed Sacrament all the time and just having that time of really close intimacy with him," Johnson told EWTN News, "was a very important time for me to continue to pray and see if he was still calling me.”
Johnson said the opportunity to spend weeks with priests, religious sisters, and fellow pilgrims living out different vocations helped her recognize where she experienced the deepest peace.
“Getting to see happy religious was super important for me,” she said. “It was beautiful to speak with them, as well as see how the Lord was shaping my own heart and to be like, ‘Yeah, this is where I find the most peace and fulfillment’ in pursuing being a bride of Christ forever.”
A vocation strengthened
For Warrens of Galveston-Houston, who served as team leader on the Marian Route while completing a doctorate in physics, accompanying fellow pilgrims became an unexpected source of vocational clarity.
“I really got to tap into my spiritual motherhood in a way that I’d never gotten to before,” she said. “My role as a team lead was to serve my team so that my team could then serve the public.”
By the end of the pilgrimage, Warrens said her professional aspirations had shifted. Although she had been uncertain how she would use her doctoral degree, she realized: “I really just want to do ministry.” She has since completed the Encounter School of Ministry and is halfway through spiritual direction training, saying the pilgrimage confirmed that “this is where you’re definitely called.”
Looking back on two summers of pilgrimage, Johnson said the experience taught her the importance of making space for God to speak.
“I really encourage people to take that time to make a pilgrimage,” she said. “Allow him to do the unexpected in your heart because he really does. He wants to wow us with how good he is.”
