Year of Faith – The Diocese of Cleveland Pilgrimage part 1

For The Year of Faith, the Diocese of Cleveland has organized a way for the faithful to make a Pilgrimage with all that that entails!


There are five churches that have been designated as pilgrimage sites (and one of them is my home church!).  You get a passport at your very first stop and then when you visit one of the pilgrim churches, you get a lovely golden stamp for your passport.  After visiting all four churches, you are supposed to go to the cathedral to get your final stamp.

This only goes until September 7, so Mr. Pete and I decided we better make our first trip and we did that on Sunday – we visited St. Mary’s Parish in Elyria. 

This is a lovely old church (although not the original!)  The people were very kind and welcoming and they had a printed program to explain the building and the parish history.

The sanctuary, organ and church interior have all been recently revamped.  The floor was carpeted which I didn’t mind.  There weren’t any kneelers though which was surprising and it made it difficult to kneel during the consecration.

The church is obviously dedicated to the life of the Blessed Mother.

Just before the sanctuary were four windows on each side.  On the left were windows dedicated to the great prophets.

and on the right the gospel writers.

A parishoner told me that one of the priests had these windows boarded up about 50 years ago, because the sun was in his eyes when he was saying mass.  They discovered these windows when they were doing the re-vamp and had then uncovered and restored to their rightful place.  I can’t imagine ever covering up something so beautiful!

All in all, it was a nice visit, beautiful church, friendly people, and I am looking forward to our next pilgrim visit!