Do you have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage?

In 1878, Rev. Hilary Maurice Vigo wrote, in his book, The Immaculate Conception: The History, Trials, and Triumphs of the Work of God at Lourdes: 

"From the earliest ages of the Church there have been pilgrimages -- that is to say, devotional and penitential journeys from one's own home to distant countries and towns, there to visit the holy places upon which Heaven has shed its choicest favors, to pray before the relics of the Apostles, and of the Martyrs, or to meditate on divine truths in some renowned sanctuary. Hence do we find the pilgrimages to Rome, to the tombs of the Apostles, to Jerusalem, to St. James of Compostela, in Spain, and to the House of the Blessed Virgin in Loretto, crowned with holy celebrity.... How consoling to see the railroads [keep in mind that this book was released in 1878, we can now add "airplanes"] contributing, in the hands of Providence, to the glory of God and of His Holy Mother, and serving, as the Church prays in the benediction she pronounces upon them, to make the faithful run more rapidly in obedience to the laws of God, and in the way of His Commandments!"

As it turns out, the saints on today's calendar are St. Marius and Companions. St. Marius and his wife and sons went on a pilgrimage, and ended up giving their lives for an act of charity!

"Marius, a nobleman of Persia, with his wife Martha, and two sons, Audifax and Abachum, being converted to the faith, distributed his fortune among the poor, as the primitive Christians did at Jerusalem, and came to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles. [circa 260 A.D.] The Emperor Claudius was then persecuting the Church, and by his order a great number of Christians were driven into the ampitheater, shot to death with arrows, and their bodies burnt. Our saints gathered and buried their ashes with respect; for which they were apprehended...." And for this act of charity, the whole family was martyred for the Faith.

~ Butler's Lives of the Saints, edited by Thurston & Attwater, imprimatur 1953.

What a special grace it is to be able to go on a pilgrimage, to show our faith openly, to visit the special places that are sacred to the history of Our Lord on earth, to His Mother, and to the Saints! It floods the pilgrim's heart with graces and consolations, and makes the Truth real to our children. If you have a chance to go on pilgrimage this year, make the sacrifices that it takes to go! You won't regret it...

Our Lady particularly said that she wanted the people to come in processions to Lourdes. And they do, to this day, by the millions each year...