Catholic Pilgrimage: An Ancient Christian Tradition
Nawas Special Pilgrimage Features
- Roundtrip airfare
- Great hotels
- Most meals
- Comprehensive sightseeing with expert Tour Directors
- Papal Audience on all pilgrimages including Rome
- Mass scheduled throughout your tour
Making sacred journeys to holy sites is a long-held Catholic tradition. With Nawas you can fulfill your need to travel to great Catholic sites -- to absorb the sights, smells and history and relive the sacrifices made. On a pilgrimage with Nawas you may experience many of the major shrines from Rome and the Vatican to Lourdes and Fatima, to St. Francis of Assisi, Santiago de Compostela, Ireland's Knock Shrine and other major sites.
Nawas' Catholic Pilgrimages
Nawas International offers a wide selection of carefully planned pilgrimages to Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Poland, and Ireland, as well as to the Bible Lands and the Passion Play of Oberammergau 2010. We arrange a Papal Audience on all programs including Rome and schedule Mass throughout your pilgrimage. Our most popular pilgrimages include:
- Rome--center of the Catholic Church, and the most popular pilgrimage destination. Nawas' programs include an Audience with our Holy Father and visits to the four major basilicas.
- Turkey & Greece , where pilgrims can follow the missionary journeys of St. Paul in Corinth, Philippi, Thessaloniki, Ancient Smyrna, Pisidian Antioch, Pergamum, and Istanbul. Cruise the Greek Isles to Ephesus, where St. Paul lived and preached, and St. John's Isle of Patmos. Celebrate the Jubilee Year of St. Paul from June 2008-June 2009 with five Steps of St. Paul pilgrimages including Ephesus and the Churches of Revelation.
- Lourdes, where millions of pilgrims visit annually. In 2008 Lourdes is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Nawas is featuring a special selection of pilgrimages to honor the event.
- Fatima, where the Blessed Virgin appeared to three young children, asking them to pray for world peace, and the famed pilgrimage center of Santiago de Compostela
- The Holy Land, where you can walk in the footsteps of Jesus and see the Bible come alive.
- Nawas also offers pilgrimages to Our Lady of Knock in Ireland; Lisieux, France, home of St. Therese; and Eastern Europe including Poland, birthplace of Pope John Paul II and site of the famous Black Madonna in Czestochowa.
Why Make a Pilgrimage?
Pilgrimages -- journeys of faith to places of religious significance -- have been a valid part of devotional life for two thousand years. Cathedrals and basilicas in Rome and throughout Europe hold many sacred relics of the Apostles and early saints, and Fatima, Lourdes, and Knock, all sites of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, draw hundreds of thousands of the faithful each year. In 2008 Lourdes is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin and even more pilgrims are expected to visit this sacred shrine.
Many other pilgrims trace the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land and of St. Paul in Greece and Turkey. During medieval times, the most popular places of pilgrimage were Rome and Santiago de Compostela. They remain the top two sites in the world today, but new places of pilgrimage continue to arise.
There are many reasons for pilgrimage. Some want to grow deeper in their faith, others want to pray for world peace, give thanks to physical or spiritual healing, pay homage to a particular saint, or do penance.
A pilgrimage is an ideal way to enrich your spiritual life and strengthen your convictions of being a Catholic. As you and your pilgrims observe the Sacrament and pray in holy shrines, you will be able to more closely identify with Christ's message and his saving sacrifice.
