Pentecost Sunday was even more special than usual this year for Catholics in the Rio Grande Valley – residents and visitors alike. The San Juan Diego Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage began in Brownsville with hundreds of people setting out together from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral after Mass to accompany the Blessed Sacrament in procession. “Today is the great day of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the Body of the Church,” said Bishop Daniel E. Flores as the special 8 a.m. Mass began. “It is a good day to be sent out, especially as pilgrims, for the Spirit sends us forth to give witness to Christ our Savior.” Among those on the journey is a group of young people planning to make the entire journey from Brownsville to Indianapolis – the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage (NEP) Perpetual Pilgrims. “A Perpetual Pilgrim is one of the pilgrims who will be doing the entire route,” said MacKenzie Warrens, a graduate student studying atomic physics at Rice University in Houston. Warrens said she first heard about the National Eucharistic Revival and Pilgrimage from her father in Kansas City. “When I found out more about it, I was like, ‘This is so cool! I want to be a Perpetual Pilgrim!’ So I took it to prayer, discerned, applied. Here I am!” The San Juan Diego Route of the procession resumed Monday in San Benito, and made its way through Harlingen, La Feria, Mercedes, and Weslaco Monday and Tuesday; on Wednesday, the procession was set to reach the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine for a concluding Mass before the pilgrimage left the Valley for Kingsville, Corpus Christi and the Houston area until they reach their final destination of Indianapolis Indiana. Mackenzie Warrens summed up her own experience. “This entire diocese has been a huge gift, a huge blessing. Everyone here is incredibly welcoming, hospitable and generous. We are quite frankly, overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone here,” she said. “It’s been an absolutely beautiful start to this pilgrimage, and I’m super-excited to let the Lord has in store, watching him move and work in people’s hearts so far. “We’re only on Day Four, and the Lord is already changing hearts. He’s left an impact on this diocese, and he’ll continue to change the world and the country.