There’s hot and then there’s south Texas hot. 

MacKenzie Warrens, a National Eucharistic Revival “perpetual pilgrim,” told CNA that the heat in the Texas Rio Grande Valley is unlike anything she has ever experienced. 

A doctoral student at Rice University in Houston, Warrens is no stranger to heat. But the weather in the valley, which instantly makes one feel as if he or she is swimming in a pool of heat and humidity, is something entirely different. 

Warrens is one of 23 young Catholics who as part of the ongoing National Eucharistic Revival are accompanying Christ in the Eucharist in a series of pilgrimage processions that are currently traversing the length and breadth of the contiguous United States. 

For Warrens and seven other young pilgrims who are leading the southern “Juan Diego Route,” the journey begins just as the region’s sultry temperatures begin to soar.

Despite these challenging conditions, hundreds of Catholic faithful joined the perpetual pilgrims in an approximately six-mile procession beginning at San Martin de Porres Parish in Weslaco and ending at the National Shrine of the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle.

South Texas faith. The Church is alive in @CatholicRGV! #NationalEucharisticPilgrimage @cnalive @euchrevival_ pic.twitter.com/w9JnRiWIuA

— Peter Pinedo (@Pete_Pinedo) May 22, 2024

The atmosphere was both joyful and reverent. From the moment the procession started at 6:30 a.m. through the end, there was hardly a moment that went by without the crowds entoning popular Spanish hymns such as “Bendito sea Dios” and “El Espíritu de Dios se mueve.” 

Now and then someone in the crowd would shout “Viva Cristo Rey!” or “Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe,” to which hundreds would immediately respond: “Que viva!” 

While some of the other routes had striking beginnings, such as the western route, which began at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and the northern route, which started at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the southern route began in a place special in another way. Instead of a significant landmark, the aptly named Juan Diego Route began in a place where devotion to Christ and his Virgin Mother is as grand as the Golden Gate and as deep as the Mississippi. 

The Catholic faith is strong in south Texas. Located just minutes from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the Rio Grande Valley is over 90% Hispanic and largely Spanish-speaking. The vast majority of residents are Mexican-Americans whose parents or grandparents immigrated in years past. 

The region’s historic faith was on full display as the Eucharistic Lord was carried through the streets. In addition to the hundreds in the crowds, many locals stopped and crossed themselves when they recognized the Eucharistic monstrance leading the procession. A few even fell to their knees and bowed as the monstrance passed, while still others waved with large smiles on their faces. 

One woman, a local named Tricia, hopped on her bike and joined the back of the procession, singing and praying with the other pilgrims. A homemade sign attached to her bike read “Eucaristía el Origen de mi Fortaleza,” that is: “Eucharist the Source of my Strength.” 

For the last mile of the procession, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, carried the monstrance, finally climbing the grand steps leading up to the Our Lady of San Juan del Valle shrine. 

A storied pilgrimage site that regularly sees over a million annual pilgrims from the U.S. and Mexico, the shrine has long been a place of Marian and Eucharistic devotion.

Established in the 1950s, the basilica houses a 3-foot statue of Our Lady of San Juan, a replica of an image popularly associated with several miracles, including the resurrection of a little girl killed in an acrobatic act in 1623. In 1999, St. John Paul II elevated the shrine to the status of basilica.

Bishop Flores placed the monstrance atop the shrine altar as majestic organ notes swelled and pilgrims filled the pews. Suddenly the hymns and music ceased and there were a few minutes of silent adoration as all eyes focused on Christ in the monstrance.

To culminate the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s time in the Diocese of Brownsville, Flores celebrated a special Mass at the shrine. Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcía of Matamoros, Brownsville Auxiliary Bishop Mario Avilés, and several other priests concelebrated. 

To deliver his homily, Bishop Flores walked to the center of the church, where his large metal crozier could be heard clanging on the stone floor. Preaching in both Spanish and English, he focused on the reality of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist, saying that “another name for God is ‘for you.’”

Pointing to a massive crucifix on the wall, Bishop Flores said: “This is the God we need, the God who pours himself out, the God who gives himself up, the Lord who gives his life, for us. Those simple, precious words, ‘for you.’” 

Reflecting on the day, Joshua Velasquez, another member of the Juan Diego perpetual pilgrim team and a native of the area, told CNA that he was very glad to be able to start the pilgrimage in the valley. Currently an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, he believes there is a special faith rooted in the people of the valley’s identity. 

“I hope that something about the devotion here can inspire the rest of the country to greater Eucharistic devotion as well,” Velasquez said.

“I learned love of the Eucharist from the people here,” he went on. “It was here that I started to fall in love with the Mass, where that became a rhythm pattern in my own faith. That devotion to the Mass and the Eucharist is very much rooted here, and I’ll be bringing that with me the whole way.”