The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage last year spawned an idea for Sister Mary Fatima Pham: Why not do the same thing in New Hampshire?

Her religious superior agreed. The bishop approved it. Donors kicked in. Volunteers appeared.

And lo and beyond, the 33-day Jubilee 2025 NH Eucharistic Pilgrimage is on the roll that began with a kick-off Mass Sunday morning at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Manchester. (This pilgrimage is distinct from the 2025 Drexel Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.)

Pilgrims in a small white school bus and on foot plan to bring Jesus in the Eucharist to all 88 Latin-rite parishes in the state —  along with one Eastern Rite parish, five colleges, and a men’s prison.

The pilgrimage, which goes from Sunday, May 18, through Thursday, June 19, is sponsored by the Diocese of Manchester, which hosts a web landing page with a link to the itinerary and includes a decree from Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci offering a plenary indulgence for those who take part, subject to the usual conditions of confession, Communion and detachment from sin. (It’s separate from the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage kicking off the same day from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, though similarly inspired.)

The New Hampshire itinerary calls for multiple Eucharistic processions — the longest is about 9 miles — along with Masses and prayer services.

 

“Jesus desired to be processed. I think he’s starting something new — a new evangelization on the streets, proclaiming his presence, proclaiming his Gospel,” Sister Mary Fatima told the Register. “And it’s a joy to follow him.”

 

 

Fruits of National Pilgrimage Last Year

Sister Mary Fatima is one of several members of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love, a religious congregation based in Manchester, who journeyed the entire Seton Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage last year, a 65-day trek that started in Connecticut and ended at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

Along the way, they encountered jubilant greetings at parishes and intense spiritual encounters from passersby.

“It inspired and it ignited their faith. And that’s what I saw the Lord do throughout the two months,” Mother Mary Maximilian Cote, mother general of the congregation, told the Register. “The Lord has this competitive side to him. He is not going to be outdone in generosity.”

Stories from last year’s pilgrimage poured out of both sisters during recent telephone interviews.

In New Jersey, the Seton Route unknowingly went by a spot where a man had been killed about six months earlier. The man’s sister, in her early 40s, saw the procession and joined it, and she later talked to the sisters about her experience walking behind the Eucharist, which Catholics believe is the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

“She said, ‘Sister, I can’t tell you — the anger and the grief just lifted. It’s like Jesus took it away,’” Sister Mary Fatima said.

In Xenia, Ohio, the procession went by three homeless men. They joined in. One of the men, who was 24 years old, stayed for lunch. He reached into his backpack and threw away his marijuana and his vaping paraphernalia.

“He knelt down — he’s not even Catholic — and opened his arms. He says, ‘Jesus, I need you. Help me,’” Sister Mary Fatima said.

A woman in Ohio was feeling down as she drove along an interstate highway after spending three months taking care of her mother, who had just died.

“And she was praying, and she asked, ‘Lord, where are you right now?’ And as she looked at the interstate, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage van went past her,” Mother Maximilian said.

The van had large windows and a monstrance with the Eucharist plainly visible.

“And she looked in there, and she was breath taken, and she was just kind of aghast,” Mother Maximilian told the Register. “And she said, ‘That’s where you are — you’re right with me, right now, here on the interstate.’”

 

 

‘He’s Coming to the People’

The national route last year did not include New Hampshire, which surveys find is one of the least religious states in the United States.

“That’s exactly why we wanted to bring a pilgrimage home to New Hampshire,” Mother Maximilian said.

The New Hampshire pilgrimage includes several single young adults who plan to participate the entire time, performing tasks such as carrying canopies, carrying torches, helping set up services, singing, and evangelizing passersby.

They are all aware that going to church isn’t popular in the Granite State. But they expect a turnaround.

“I would just like to be part of that whole revival — to see my state set on fire for him,” said Jessica Swope, 20, of Derry, New Hampshire, a freshman at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack.

She cited a verse from St. Paul — “Where sin abounds, grace abounds the more” (Romans 5:20).

“Where secularization abounds, all the more it will be so glorious and beautiful to bring Jesus,” Swope told the Register. “And his work will be more clearly seen. And I would love to see that in my state. Maybe if New Hampshire is set on fire, our little state will inspire the whole country.”

Patrick Nagle, 23, of Brookline, New Hampshire, said he hopes to see changes in New Hampshire and in himself.

“I hope the Diocese of Manchester grows more in love with our Eucharistic Lord,” said Nagle, a graduating senior at Thomas More College who is applying to seminary to train for the priesthood. 

“To see a Eucharistic procession in every parish in the diocese will hopefully make people ask, ‘What is this?’ and ‘Why do people live this?’” he said.

“I also expect for myself to fall more deeply in love with my Lord, by spending time with him,” he said. “You can only really fall in love with a person when you spend time with them, and spending time with our Eucharistic Lord is a good way to do that.”

Matthew Henry, 19, of Salisbury, New Hampshire, who is also interested in the priesthood, said the “perpetual pilgrims” will serve “as an example to those around us … what a burning love for Jesus looks like.”

“I want to see an increased recognition of Jesus’ True Presence in the Eucharist and kind of stir up the desire of people who haven’t been to Mass in a while to go back,” said Henry, who serves as organist and choir director at about a half-dozen parishes and works as assistant manager at a supermarket.

“Jesus wants that relationship so badly that he’s coming to the people and not forcing the people to come to him,” he said.

One of the pilgrims is a new Catholic.

 

Encountering the Eucharist

During the summer of 2022, Amanda Newton, 26, of Deering, New Hampshire, was attracted by the stained-glass windows of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Aurora, Illinois, near where she is originally from. Ordinarily the doors were locked, but one afternoon she saw that something was going on inside.

“So I didn’t really know what I was going to. I just knew there would be an open door,” Newton said.

After she went in, she saw a Hispanic woman enter the church on her knees and process on her knees all the way to the front, where a monstrance with the Eucharist was on the altar. Newton, a Protestant at the time, quickly got the sense that Jesus was truly present in the Host.

“I wanted to go pray in a beautiful place, and Jesus was exposed there in the monstrance waiting for me,” said Newton, who now works as women’s program administrator of a recovery program that treats addictions and other problems.

She started attending Eucharistic adoration frequently.

“It was in these moments that I was looking at him, I knew that he loves me, and I love him. And nothing was expected,” Newton said. “That’s what adoration is.”

She participated in the Seton Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage last year for about two weeks, spanning sections of Pennsylvania and Maryland — without even being a member of the Catholic Church, which she joined in September 2024.

“I know the transformation and the healing that can take place from encountering Jesus in the Eucharist, so I’m hoping that in New Hampshire as many people can experience him as possible — that Catholics will be revitalized in their love for him and experience him personally,” she said.

Maria Brouillette, 20, an artist from Greenville, New Hampshire, told the Register she has experienced “growth and healing” through the Eucharist during the past year, including nine months as a missionary helping run retreats for students from grades one through 12, for Spiritus Ministries in Wisconsin.

“There’s just so much goodness and love that flows forth from Jesus in the Eucharist, even if you’re just sitting there and doing nothing but looking at him,” said Brouillette, who makes and sells Catholic paintings and prints.

By processing with the Eucharist throughout her home state, she said, she is hoping that other people will experience what she has experienced: “There’s nothing better than walking with the Lord.”