SAN DIEGO — “A wonderful, exciting and courageous opportunity.”
That’s how Bella Aguilera, a senior at Cathedral Catholic High School, described a recent pilgrimage that she attended through Dons Discover, her school’s immersion experience program that started this year.
Aguilera was part of a group, consisting of 27 students, five adult chaperones and one priest, that went to Mexico City during Easter break.
The pilgrimage began on Holy Thursday, April 17, with the pilgrims’ arrival in Mexico City, and concluded with their departure on the following Wednesday, April 23. It was organized by JMJ Youth Pilgrimages.
“This trip was nothing I expected it to be,” said Aguilera, “because it was everything I needed it to be — a culturally binding, faith-immersive experience.”
Highlights included Good Friday, April 18, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the site of the Virgin Mary’s appearance to St. Juan Diego in 1531. His tilma, which was imprinted with the miraculous image of the Blessed Mother, is displayed at the basilica for veneration.
At the basilica, the pilgrims attended the Good Friday liturgy and Stations of the Cross. They would pay a final visit to the basilica on Easter Wednesday before their flight home.
On Easter Sunday, the pilgrims spent a day at Chalco Girlstown, a Catholic boarding school operated by the Sisters of Mary for about 3,000 young girls living in poverty.
Ysabel (Izzy) Brenner, a sophomore at Cathedral Catholic, described Girlstown as “everyone’s favorite destination” of the pilgrimage.
Brenner said the group attended Mass with the school’s students who, afterwards, greeted their visitors with a song “sung with the most angelic voices I’ve ever heard.”
Brenner was paired up with a girl named Mariela. Despite Brenner’s best efforts to converse with her in Spanish, verbal communication was challenging.
“We played basketball, walked around, and talked as best we could,” she said. “I learned about her, and she learned about me. Although we had such different stories, we became really close.”
“I could see how God was working in her life and how important her faith was to her. She made me realize how incredibly blessed I am, and I was immediately filled with gratitude upon meeting her,” she said.
Christine LaPorte, a Cathedral Catholic teacher and pilgrimage chaperone, said that the day at Girlstown offered “the rare and mutual gift of carefree timelessness.” Because it was Easter Sunday, she said, the Girlstown students had no classes or commitments.
“What made the experience unique for our students was the effort required to communicate entirely in Spanish and the absence of the usual comforts and distractions of home,” she said. “Without phones, music or social media, they had to be fully present.”
“In the end,” said LaPorte, “many of our pilgrims came to see that the girls of Girlstown were the ones offering them a form of service — showing them joy in simplicity and gratitude for living in a community of faith.”
Cathedral Catholic dedicated its annual appeal to the Mexico City pilgrimage, making it possible for all of the participants, who were selected after a highly competitive application process, to attend at no cost.
Brenner said that she is “so grateful” to everyone who made the pilgrimage possible and expressed hope that “many more will be able to deepen their faith through Dons Discover.”
Aguilera also found the pilgrimage to be “emotional, faith-filled and life-shifting.”
“This experience taught us that we all are much more similar than different,” she said. “Our faith, humanity, morals, hope and dignity draw us together to create unity.”
