Pilgrimage Report: Into the Desert! Phoenix, AZ – August 2018

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Sometimes I don’t need a lot of motivation to go fly somewhere. Regardless of my initial motivations to fly, to me, any trip is worth having a pilgrimage portion to it. But in this recent Phoenix pilgrimage, I originally had fun intentions, but had to turn it into a more legit pilgrimage.

At the beginning of July, I searched Google Flights to see where I could fly for cheap. I had some dates in mind for the remainder of summer that would work with my schedule.

While searching Google Flights, I pretty much let prices determine where I would go. Essentially, whatever city I could fly to with the cheapest round-trip airfare using American Airlines, I would purchase it.

And drum roll…

Phoenix, Arizona, USA won! So now I had tickets for the end of August.

I figured that it would be a good, fun weekend to visit family friends and family of friends (#distinction) who live in Phoenix. I probably would have visited a church or two even if I would be just visiting friends.

However, recent revelations and release of information regarding clergy sex abuse and bishop cover-ups in the Church (in America) was cause for me to rethink how I approached this trip to Phoenix.

The week leading up to the trip, I decided to make it more of an intentional personal retreat and pilgrimage. In the spirit of fasting for reparation of sins committed, I decided to give up watching movies or TV on the flights or in my hotel room, keeping social media to a minimum, taking hot showers, and listening to music or podcasts in the car while driving around. Pretty difficult. I’ve also been wanting a retreat experience or something like a retreat for my own personal reasons. Because of these more intense intentions, I didn’t think visiting with friends and family friends would be fitting. Besides, I have to have a reason to go back, right? Haha.

Some initial research into Phoenix made me realize that Phoenix has some pretty cool churches and shrines to visit. I also consulted with a good friend of mine who is from Phoenix, and she gave me a little bit of guidance on things to check out. She also told me about a book she is currently reading with her ladies book club called Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Michael Gaitley. It’s a do-it-yourself weekend retreat in book form reflecting on being Jesus’ friend through consoling His suffering heart. I ended buying it, and that fulfilled the retreat function that I was seeking.

This pilgrimage/retreat/trip ended up being kind of fast and action-packed because my flight arrived in Phoenix on Friday, and I had the first flight out Sunday morning. I provide the close-to-actual play-by-play itinerary in the Itinerary section below.

I did do some research into the places that seemed intriguing, and I ended up going through one iteration or three of my itinerary. Unfortunately, my hotel reservation was for a hotel in far north Phoenix because I originally intended to go to Sedona, AZ to check out the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a famous and touristy chapel inset against a mountain. I ultimately decided to nix visiting the Chapel because Sedona is a two hour drive from Phoenix, but kept my original hotel. It ended up being a lot of driving across town.

Well, I think that’s good enough for background.

Come–let us go into the desert!

Check out the details below!

Pilgrimage Details:

Location: Phoenix, AZ and surrounding area
Time Required: Friday-Sunday
Cost: $$$
Transportation: Air (American Airlines), Rental Car (Hertz)
Accommodation: Hotel (Hilton Garden Inn)
Essentials: Journal, Prayer Requests, Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Michael Gaitley, DSLR camera

Itinerary:

• Friday 8/24/2018
  • 0710 Depart [DFW] AA#854
  • 0742 Arrive [Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, PHX]
  • 0800 Get car rental
  • 0830 Drive to [Our Lady of Solitude Monastery]
  • 0930-1130 Pray at [Our Lady of Solitude Monastery]
  • 1130-1400 Drive, stop for lunch at [QT], go to Mesa, AZ
  • 1400-1600 Pray at [St. Peregrine Shrine]
  • 1600-1630 Drive and check-in at [Hilton Garden Inn North Happy Valley]
  • 1630-1845 Read/nap/swim
  • 1845-1930 Drive to [Vietnamese Martyrs]
  • 1930-2015 Daily Mass at [Vietnamese Martyrs]
  • 2015-2045 Drive back to hotel
  • 2045 Get dinner at [Salad and Go]
  • 2130 Sleep
• Saturday 8/25/2018
  • 0230 Wake and find private place for video call
  • 0300 Men’s group coaching call
  • 0400-0600 Read and nap
  • 0600-0630 Swim
  • 0630-0700 Shower
  • 0700-0730 Breakfast in hotel
  • 0745 Leave for [Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral]
  • 0830 Daily Mass at [Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral]
  • 0900-1000 Read
  • 1000-1030 Check out gift shop
  • 1030-1100 Drive to [Desert Botanical Gardens]
  • 1100-1330 Check out [Desert Botanical Gardens]
  • 1330-1430 Lunch at [Whataburger]
  • 1430-1500 Go downtown / spend too much time finding parking
  • 1500-1530 Check out [St. Mary’s Basilica’s] gift shop
  • 1530-1700 Read
  • 1700-1800 Vigil Mass at [St. Mary’s Basilica]
  • 1800-1830 Drive to [Wal-Mart] near hotel
  • 1830-1900 Grab food from [Walmart]
  • 1900-1930 Snack time
  • 1930-0000 Attempt reading, take a nap, accidentally fall asleep
• Sunday 8/26/2018
  • 0000-0100 Pack
  • 0100-0200 Nap
  • 0200-0245 Pack and check out
  • 0245-0315 Drive and refuel rental car at [QT]
  • 0315-0345 Return rental car and arrive at [PHX]
  • 0520 Depart [PHX] AA#1153
  • 0944 Arrive [DFW]
  • 1030 Return home

Map

Points of Interest

Friday (August 24, 2018)

I had a relatively early flight out to Phoenix. No problem, because I’m an early riser anyway. I’ve been to Phoenix before for my good friend’s wedding, but I hadn’t really ever been to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport. Cool airport, though! After landing, I made my way to the car rental center to pick up my car. I’m a Gold member with Hertz, and I always, always forget that at most Hertz airport rental locations you can pretty much skip the counter, if you prepay, and head straight to the Gold section and pick your own car. I slowly walked through the compact cars deliberating what I wanted to get. I didn’t want a Nissan Versa because I often end up with one. I went with a white Toyota Corolla (2017 or 2018).

After the airport, I pretty much hit the road towards Our Lady of Solitude.

Our Lady of Solitude

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration have a monastery an hour outside of Phoenix. I thought it would be cool to check it out and spend some time Adoring with them. What I didn’t realize is that they have like 10-12 miles of dirt roads from highway I-10 up to their monastery. Crap. I get nervous about these kind of things because last time I drove a rental car through desert dirt roads, I broke it (2014, Ford Mustang convertible…terrible…but I actually paid for the insurance and they didn’t care that I broke the bumper…).

It was kind of bizarre driving those dirt roads because I was literally the only car driving around out there. And the houses are few and spread out, and I only saw one house with people out and about. Or rather, just elderly folk were porch-sitting and conversing.

However, about 3/4ths of the way to the monastery, I did encounter another vehicular device kickin’ up dust on the dirt roads. They stopped so that I could pass by. When I gave a looksie, I realized that it was a Toyota 4Runner full of habited nuns, who I’m assuming came from the monastery. I was just so highly amused by this because I was driving 20 minutes on dirt roads encountering no one, and very casually, I run into an SUV full of nuns. Like, what???

I finally arrive at Our Lady of Solitude. It’s beautiful out there! They have their main chapel built up, their entire grounds fenced in, and they have some temporary structures built up while they’re in the process of raising money to build the rest of their grounds. When you’re driving up, you can see the monastery against a background of mountains surrounded by deserts.

The first thing I did was awkwardly walk toward the chapel, but I coincided with two of the nuns working. They kindly unlocked the door for me. However, one of those nuns was the mother of the community! She introduced herself and the sister helping her, and she gave me a heads up that the chapel would close at lunchtime, and that some priests were on site on a retreat. She also reminded me to keep the door shut and to lock it when I leave. They also invited me to partake in refreshments they’ve put out in their parlor in the chapel. How kind!

I spent about 1.5 hours praying, journaling, and reading through Consoling the Heart of Jesus. And I also couldn’t get over how nicely built of a monastery it is even though it’s in the middle of nowhere.

After that long while, I left to head towards the St. Peregrine Shrine. I decided to grab a convenient store lunch at QT to keep things cheap. Then I made the hour or so drive to Mesa, AZ for the Shrine.

St. Peregrine Shrine

When I learned about this shrine from my researching, I thought it would super cool to visit. St. Peregrine is the patron saint of those afflicted with cancer. He holds a special place in my pew of awesome saints because I know he’s been a powerful intercessor for family and friends who had cancer. I also mentioned in my petitioning for prayer requests for this pilgrimage for anyone wanting prayers for cancer knowing that I would be visiting this shrine, and I had some takers. I guess I wanted to go and pray there mostly out of thanksgiving and definitely for the prayer requests I received.

The St. Peregrine Shrine is actually part of Christ the King parish in Mesa, AZ, and it’s the only cancer-specific shrine in the southwest United States. They have a ministry that prays for people afflicted with cancer. When you first walk in, they have a wall full of cards with names of people that you are encouraged to take inside with you to pray for.

While at the Shrine, I continued my praying, journaling, and reading.

I guess I stayed there for 1.5 to 2 hours. Towards the end, I noticed a reliquary (a vessel that holds relics) that holds a first class relic of St. Peregrine off to the side behind glass–it’s a bone fragment of his! I only know that it’s a first class relic because of the website. So I went over there for a few minutes and asked St. Peregrine to intercede for all the prayer requests I carried, especially the cancer-related ones. Very cool.

After the Shrine, I decided to go make the long drive to my hotel to check-in and chill.

Hilton Garden Inn (North Happy Valley)

I mentioned above that I chose a hotel in far north Phoenix with the intent of visiting Sedona, which is 2 hours north. I ultimately didn’t go there. At the same time, the hotels up north had cheaper prices than those in the middle of Phoenix. The nice thing about the Hilton Garden Inn North Happy Valley is that it’s really close to one of the main north-south highways of Phoenix with easy access to the airport.

Unfortunately, getting there from Mesa was a chore because I left the Shrine at rush hour. I also decided to take the big loop around Phoenix so I didn’t have to go through the middle of the city, but even the loop had traffic.

Once I arrived, I checked in, and had some rest and relaxation from a long day of traveling. I ended up going for a swim and taking a nap.

A cool thing related to technology these days is being able to unlock your hotel room with your phone, but I feel like using a dedicated key card is faster because the app has a loading time, lol. This hotel stay was my second time ever using the digital key on my phone.

The hotel was also abuzz because of a conference they were hosting.

So, a last-minute decision I had was to squeeze in Daily Mass later in the evening than I intended. Using the Mass Times app, I saw that there was a 7:30PM Daily Mass at Vietnamese Martyrs just down the highway a ways from my hotel. So, I cleaned up, got in my Corolla, and headed that way.

Vietnamese Martyrs Church

From Googling this church, I saw that it has interesting architecture done in a very Asian way. It almost looks like a Chinese temple or something!

When I arrived, I actually walked the grounds a little bit to check out the outsides of the church. I then followed some other Daily Mass goers into their little chapel that they use for Daily Mass (I guess, because we didn’t use the main church).

Once inside the chapel, I could hear the drone of chanting in Vietnamese. It took me a minute, but I realized they were praying the Rosary. In chant. In Vietnamese. Maybe the last decade or two, I decided to discreetly whip out my phone and Google the Rosary prayers in Vietnamese so I could somehow follow along. Man, I realized I’m not used to making Vietnamese sounds, lol.

After the Rosary, we had Daily Mass. Obviously also in Vietnamese. I downloaded the readings in my iBreviary app in English so I had that at least. Yeah, I had no idea what the homily was about…

Haha, after Mass, one of the elderly Vietnamese men greeted me and asked me, “Are you…Vietnam”? Eh? I responded with “Uhhhhhh -flustered-, I’m American…but Filipino.” He just smiled and continued walking. Lol ok…

I headed back to my hotel, but grabbed some food at the salad drive-thru in front of my hotel. Salad and Go needs to come to Texas! It’s gourmet salad at reasonable prices–to go!

Saturday (August 25, 2018)

This was kind of a rough day because I got up at 2:30AM in order catch a coaching call for an online men’s group that I’m part of. I gave myself 30 minutes to wake up and attempt at finding a place I could have a video conference without disturbing other guests or being awkward in the lobby. I ultimately ended up in my rental Corolla because the WiFi was good enough even in the parking lot! Haha.

After an hour of that coaching call, I did some more reading and probably took a brief nap. At about 6AM, I decided to go for another swim since that’s when the pool opened. Then breakfast at 7AM. One thing I love about being a Hilton Honors elite member is getting more premium breakfasts included with my stay. And my pancakes and omelette were delicious!

The main thing this morning was to hit up Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral for Daily Mass.

Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral

The Cathedral is actually relatively close to Vietnamese Martyrs that I had gone to the night before. I arrived with about 30 minutes to spare so I spent that time continuing to read Consoling the Heart of Jesus.

I was a little impressed at how many showed up for Daily Mass on an early Saturday morning, but it turned out most of the Mass attendees were primarily there for Confession afterwards, haha. That’s cool though.

The one thing that stood out to me from this Mass was the homily. The priest gave an impassioned homily tying the Gospel of the day to the sex abuse scandals but less from the evil of sex abuse perspective, and more on the damning aspect of teaching falsehood because that tied in with the Gospel more closely. Either way, his homily was fire, and I could tell that he’s just as angry and frustrated and sad about the current mess our Church is in.

After Mass, I stayed in my pew continuing to read for almost another hour. I felt awkward because I was in the center part of the church with confession lines on either side of the church from me, and it felt like people were watching! Maybe I was being paranoid, but whatever.

The Cathedral also has a gift shop that I lightly browsed through on my way out. While it was tempting to buy stuff, I knew I wouldn’t really have the room to carry it back with me because all I took was a backpack.

From the Cathedral, I headed out west again to Tempe, AZ to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens.

Desert Botanical Gardens

So, up until this point, I had done a lot of driving across Phoenix. I feel like an essential aspect to a pilgrimage experience is to do a lot of walking, often in uncomfortable situations.

I like plants, and desert vegetation is intriguing to look at because they seem otherworldly to the typical trees, shrubs, and flowers we have in north, central Texas. Therefore, the Desert Botanical Gardens seemed to make the most sense to go out for a long walk in the heat and to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation as expressed through prickly and succulenty things.

For a single adult, it costs $24.95 to get in.

I also brought my DSLR with me to Phoenix because I’m a hobbyist photographer. You can check out highlights on my personal Instagram account.

Walking around the Desert Botanical Gardens was really cool because they have several trails highlighting different plants. Unfortunately, as time went on, walking around became increasingly more difficult due to the rising temperatures. I had to stop for a water break a few times and to seek shade.

On one of the trails, I accidentally dropped my smartphone tripod and realized it once I had left the trail. The trail is a half-mile loop, and I had no good sense of where I might’ve dropped it. I did backtrack and was able to find it, untouched! Awesome! I found it AND I got more steps in, haha. St. Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost things, is my homeboy.

In the butterfly garden area towards the entrance of the Gardens, I encountered a man with a ginormous telephoto lens on his camera and his wife with binoculars. I guess they were trying to photograph some of the hummingbirds and butterflies buzzing around. I encountered them on another trail later, and I guess they had seen me snapping shots with my DSLR and therefore called me over, but to do so quietly. And I did. The man pointed up, and up in the tree was an owl!

I thought that was pretty cool, but I thought it was a little weird to me because it was in the middle of the day knowing that owls are nocturnal. I also wasn’t TOO impressed at the sight of an owl because I’ve had my fill of hanging out with owls while out in Japan two years ago at an owl cafe.

After getting tired of walking around and being out in the sun, I decided to head out and perhaps find some lunch. I originally intended on hitting up Hole-In-The-Rock, which is right next to the Gardens. It’s a touristy trail with an iconic hole in the rock. But it was too dang hot by the time I ended my time at the Gardens, and I wasn’t equipped or energetic enough to withstand more time being out in the blazing sun.

My next goal was to visit St. Mary’s Basilica downtown for the 5PM Vigil Mass. I was indecisive about where to eat, but ultimately ended choosing Whataburger. The novelty of enjoying a Texas burger chain in Arizona seemed like a cool idea at the time. So off I went and enjoyed that to enjoy the taste of home, haha.

St. Mary’s Basilica

I finished up with lunch a little early and drove downtown. I had a rough time finding parking because I tried shopping around for cheap parking prices. Looking back now, I probably should’ve done metered parking versus using a garage. Garage prices were a little higher this day due to a sporting event. Of course, the Basilica has its own parking garage, but it is well-marked that it’s only for basilica employees so I had to seek other parking options.

The convention center had available parking across the street from the basilica, and I ended up parking there. It felt shady because there weren’t a whole lot of other cars. I didn’t want to get mugged! Thankfully that didn’t happen.

Since I arrived super early for Mass, I decided to go check out the basilica’s gift shop. Same story as with the cathedral–cool stuff, no room to bring any of it home. And then, I needed to use the restroom, but it wasn’t immediately obvious to me if the basilica had public ones available. I opted to go hit up a nearby Hyatt hotel a few blocks away, haha. The air conditioning was glorious inside of the hotel, so I actually sat in the lobby there for a little bit. Then I walked back to the basilica.

St. Mary’s Basilica is the oldest church in Phoenix. It has a cool mix of southwestern architecture mixed with European, and inside it’s beautiful too. It’s run by Franciscans.

I went inside to look around for a bit, then I chose a pew to continue praying and reading until Mass. Some others were inside for Confession before Mass, and other people were walking around checking out the basilica taking pictures.

Then we had Mass!

Also, I should mention that you can receive a plenary indulgence for making a pilgrimage to this basilica. You can do the things below in addition to the usual requirements for a plenary indulgence of going to Confession, praying for the Pope’s intentions, and receiving the Eucharist.

With St. Mary’s Basilica, that pretty much ended my pilgrimage in terms of places to go visit. On my way out, I realized that most everyone used the basilica parking garage so I guess I could have also. Whoops…

I debated internally whether I should find food downtown, but since I felt tired and still full from Whataburger, I didn’t want to stick around, especially when there were sports fans around. I didn’t feel like dealing with all that. On top of that, I didn’t want to go down into the parking garage later in the evening. I decided to just go hit up with Wal-Mart near my hotel and maybe grab some things to go*.

Once back at my hotel, I attempted at reading some more but ended up accidentally falling asleep for a few hours.

*Side note: I’m loosely following a lower carb diet that lets me have one cheat day a week, which is Saturday for me. The cheat part is that I can have anything and as much as I want. Still feeling full from Whataburger and a big breakfast earlier in the day, I just wanted more of a sweet snack and a drink. So at Wal-Mart, the only food I bought was a $3 cake and a $4 small carton of boxed red wine. Wow, the wine knocked me out ultimately, but it was quite delicious and paired nicely with the red velvet cake I bought, haha. I definitely saved money going to Wal-Mart versus spending time at a bar downtown.

Sunday (August 26, 2018)

After falling asleep with all the lights on, my book and journal still open, I finally woke up around midnight. Well crap. My intention was to get through or finish the book and to pack. I packed, and then went back to bed.

For like an hour.

I had to wake up at 2AM to shower and check out. Why? Because I needed to give myself time to refuel my rental car, go to the airport, return my rental car, bus over back to the airport, check in, and go to my gate.

Getting gas that morning was super, super shady. I chose a QT about 8 miles away from the airport, but I didn’t realize it’s in a shady-looking part of town. First of all, some of the Hispanic food places had full parking lots with music and people walking around near the gas station. Tight-shorted women were trying to talk to people at the gas station. It didn’t feel safe, and I got out there as soon as I could.

I returned my Corolla, checked-in, got to the gate and chilled. All this early morning stuff was to make sure I arrived at my gate before the 5:20AM departure. I ended up with about 45 minutes to spare.

Then it came time board the plane. Flew for a few hours, and I was able to sneak in an hour nap. Arrived back home in Texas. And that was that!

Stats and Achievements

Flights

• DFW to PHX: upgraded to First Class
• PHX to DFW: upgraded to First Class
• +1736 miles flown, roundtrip
• Status+1736 EQMs (Elite Qualifying Miles)
  • +2 EQSs (Elite Qualifying Segments)
  • +152 EQDs (Elite Qualifying Dollars)
  • +1872 award miles (redeemable award miles)

Because of my Executive Platinum status with American Airlines, I get complimentary upgrade requests on domestic flights. And it so happened that those upgrades got confirmed a few days before I left. Having the bigger/nicer seats helps, but I find the most benefit in being served a light meal. This helped cut food costs because food was included in my being in first class.

Status-wise, I’m trying to hit Gold, which is the lowest-tier for AAdvantage. I don’t have business trips to amplify my elite status-earning potential. Therefore, I’m #GoingForGold2018. My next international trip should definitely help me meet Gold’s requirements. I just need ~600 more EQDs!

Car

• 295 miles driven

Like I said, I was driving across town a lot. Half the battle in designing my itinerary was trying to figure out how to minimize driving back and forth.

Self

• ~25000 steps / ~10 miles walked
• 80% complete of Consoling the Heart of Jesus
• 2x swims with drills
• 150+ pictures taken (a lot aren’t worth posting…)
• Fasted from:
  • Watching movies on plane, TV/movies in hotel, and Netflix on devices
  • Taking hot showers
  • Listening to music/podcasts in car and on plane
• Prayed for:
  • 51 people by name
  • 11 specific prayer intentions

TOTAL COST: $437.53 / 17,000 Hilton Honors points

• Travel
  • Airfare: $190.40 for Economy Class
  • Rental Car: $89.08
  • Parking: $12.00
  • Gas: $21.13
• Lodging
  • Hotel: $78.88 / 17,000 Hilton Honors points
• Food and Other
  • Restaurants/Fast Food: $21.09
  • Entertainment: $24.95

I was really happy to find sub-$200 roundtrip tickets because those don’t happen often when flying American Airlines. I saved money also on the car rental by using AAA since I’m a member. The parking could have been $0 had I realized that I could have parked at the basilica’s garage. Hilton has a flexible pay option where you can use almost any combination of cash and/or points. I opted to do mid-way for both cash and points so as not to burn through either.

Food was pretty minimal in cost, I think, and then the entrance to the Desert Botanical Gardens wasn’t as cheap as I would have liked. I could have avoided the Gardens altogether and opted to go on some of the actual hiking trails around the Gardens since those trails are free, but oh well.

TOTAL TIME: ~55 hours

• Left for airport 5AM Friday
• Arrived home 10:30AM Sunday

Very full weekend. Thankfully, I get every other Friday off so pulling off a weekend pilgrimage somewhere far while still having time on Sunday to take care of things at home was a major plus. I actually attempted at taking a later flight on Sunday using same-day standby (free for Executive Platinum members) so I didn’t have to wake up so, so early on Sunday. And in trying to pursue that, I learned that same-day standby isn’t granted for flights that have confirmed upgrades, which happened to me. Otherwise, I’d have to call the service desk for them to back out my upgrade, and then apply same-day standby to another flight. I decided not to mess with it. Challenge accepted with a super early Sunday morning start.

Response

Considering that I’m writing this a week after the fact, I’ve had some time to reflect on how I should respond to the fruits and consolations/desolations of this pilgrimage.

First of all, I think the biggest thing for me spiritually was going through Consoling the Heart of Jesus. The main point of the book is to console Jesus’ heart, which suffers from His Passion and us not being a real friend to Him being with Him in his suffering. Fr. Gaitley puts all this in a new perspective for me on how to be in relationship with Christ as His friend. I also realized that in this difficult time for the Church, consoling His heart just absolutely needs to happen so me reading this book now is so timely.

Since I’m not done reading the book, my response is definitely to finish it. My struggle will be committing time to do so on my own without giving myself a retreat or pilgrimage context to do it in.

I don’t know that this pilgrimage and retreat helped resolve the personal things I wanted to pray about, but I guess time will tell. Certainly, spending time with Jesus is refreshing and a good thing when confronting my own struggles.

One thing about asking for prayer requests for the pilgrimages I go on is that I don’t do a good job about following up with special intentions. Occasionally people let me know how things ended up, but most times they do not. I’m happy to say that my visit to the St. Peregrine Shrine was helpful and hopeful for one prayer request I received! Praise God!

From a practical perspective, being able to pull a weekend trip with flights, car rental, and hotel for less than $500 is pretty good. I could have eliminated more costs if I leveraged staying with people I know who live in Phoenix or if I didn’t visit the Desert Botanical Gardens. Also, I probably could have saved some on the cost of airfare if I leveraged using my dad’s flight benefits. I’m glad I was able to do this pilgrimage/retreat/trip to Phoenix now that I’m tracking time and costs for this blog as it gives me a good baseline for comparison for future weekend excursions.

When I arrived home, I knew I wanted to return to Phoenix sometime soon in order to visit friends and check out some of the other churches. Who knows–maybe I’ll be back sooner than I expect!

Thanks for reading this pilgrimage report! Check out my previous ones:

• Pray for Vocations – June 2018
• Clear Creek Abbey – June 2018
• St. Patrick’s Day – March 2018

For you–I highly recommend reading Consoling the Heart of Jesus. Grab yourself a copy right now and take it with you for your next pilgrimage or free weekend!

Resources:

• Desert Nuns/Our Lady of Solitude Monastery
• St. Peregrine Cancer Shrine
• Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral
• Vietnamese Martyrs
• St. Mary’s Basilica
• Desert Botanical Gardens