TULSA, Okla. — Hundreds of people gathered for a yearly pilgrimage and prayer walk from Claremore to east Tulsa.
St. Thomas More Catholic Church held their fourth consecutive pilgrimage from Claremore to their church, near 27th and 129th, letting people express their faith and share Mexican culture.
“It’s a pilgrimage that we do, and we’ve been doing it for four years now. It’s a walk but it’s a way for people to express their faith and their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” said Denny Rodriguez, church staff member with St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
Rodriguez said this week in Mexico, people from all over the country take a pilgrimage to an image of the Virgin Mary. The walk in Green Country lets people who can’t go to Mexico express their faith and feel closer to Mexico.
But, Rodriguez said today’s pilgrimage isn’t just about Mexican culture.
“It’s not just a heritage in all the Catholic Church there’s many pilgrimages for many different places that visit different shrines. So, pilgrimages is not just something we do in Mexico but it’s something that the Catholic Church does and it reminds us that in our life we’re going to have struggles but our goal at the end of the day is to get to Heaven,” Rodriguez said.
More than 400 people walked from Claremore to St. Thomas More Catholic Church in east Tulsa, making the pilgrimage around 20 miles long.
“We had people from Texas, we have people from Arkansas, from Kansas, from many states nearby Oklahoma that have known about this, and they have come to be part of it,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said it makes him happy that they are able to share their faith.
“It makes us feel really great that we are sharing our faith and knowing that God is doing great things in our community especially in our Hispanic community, that we can give that great news to not just people that belong to this church but to many people that are outside of this church outside of the city of Tulsa,” Rodriguez said.
While the walk is for a good cause some people who weren’t aware of what they are doing have taken things out of context.
“Throughout the walk there was many people honking their horns and saying negative things, and many people think they are doing a protest or a manifestation of something but what the people that are walking they don’t really pay attention to it during the walk most of the people they are praying either the rosery or they’re just praying to God for whatever necessity they need. And I think when people see that their whole mindset changes of what is happening,” Rodriguez said.
They even carry a sign at the front of the walk that reads "God protects us" and although it’s in Spanish they translate it for people who are asking what it means.
Rodriguez said people shouldn’t let their faith die, and seeing so many people walking should give them motivation.
“Don’t let your faith just die because sometimes when we let our faith die, we can get lost and when we see all these people, even elderly people there were kids walking as well it should give us motivation to keep going in our daily lives,” Rodriguez said.
https://www.fox23.com/news/hundreds...cle_d9b80c34-bd84-11ee-96be-bb54da7f946b.html
St. Thomas More Catholic Church held their fourth consecutive pilgrimage from Claremore to their church, near 27th and 129th, letting people express their faith and share Mexican culture.
“It’s a pilgrimage that we do, and we’ve been doing it for four years now. It’s a walk but it’s a way for people to express their faith and their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” said Denny Rodriguez, church staff member with St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
Rodriguez said this week in Mexico, people from all over the country take a pilgrimage to an image of the Virgin Mary. The walk in Green Country lets people who can’t go to Mexico express their faith and feel closer to Mexico.
But, Rodriguez said today’s pilgrimage isn’t just about Mexican culture.
“It’s not just a heritage in all the Catholic Church there’s many pilgrimages for many different places that visit different shrines. So, pilgrimages is not just something we do in Mexico but it’s something that the Catholic Church does and it reminds us that in our life we’re going to have struggles but our goal at the end of the day is to get to Heaven,” Rodriguez said.
More than 400 people walked from Claremore to St. Thomas More Catholic Church in east Tulsa, making the pilgrimage around 20 miles long.
“We had people from Texas, we have people from Arkansas, from Kansas, from many states nearby Oklahoma that have known about this, and they have come to be part of it,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said it makes him happy that they are able to share their faith.
“It makes us feel really great that we are sharing our faith and knowing that God is doing great things in our community especially in our Hispanic community, that we can give that great news to not just people that belong to this church but to many people that are outside of this church outside of the city of Tulsa,” Rodriguez said.
While the walk is for a good cause some people who weren’t aware of what they are doing have taken things out of context.
“Throughout the walk there was many people honking their horns and saying negative things, and many people think they are doing a protest or a manifestation of something but what the people that are walking they don’t really pay attention to it during the walk most of the people they are praying either the rosery or they’re just praying to God for whatever necessity they need. And I think when people see that their whole mindset changes of what is happening,” Rodriguez said.
They even carry a sign at the front of the walk that reads "God protects us" and although it’s in Spanish they translate it for people who are asking what it means.
Rodriguez said people shouldn’t let their faith die, and seeing so many people walking should give them motivation.
“Don’t let your faith just die because sometimes when we let our faith die, we can get lost and when we see all these people, even elderly people there were kids walking as well it should give us motivation to keep going in our daily lives,” Rodriguez said.
https://www.fox23.com/news/hundreds...cle_d9b80c34-bd84-11ee-96be-bb54da7f946b.html
