Keeping vigil with the Lord in Oklahoma — the Seven Churches Visitation, Tulsa style

"It is a beautiful way to spend Holy Thursday evening, where we are in the garden with Jesus."

When Father Jon Fincher returned from seminary in Rome, he wanted to bring a taste of the eternal city back with him to Oklahoma.

Instead of bringing wine tastings and pasta recipes to parish dinners, though, he hoped to spark in his home diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma the observance a historic tradition without much local traction — St. Philip Neri’s Seven Churches Visitation.

The Seven Churches Visitation dates back to the 1500s, when Counter-Reformation missionary Fr. Philip Neri began leading a pilgrimage through the streets of Rome, after the Holy Thursday Mass, with pilgrims praying at Rome’s seven basilicas’ altar of repose.

For the past five years, the Diocese of Tulsa has organized its own Holy Thursday Seven Churches pilgrimage, outlining an itinerary of churches with tabernacles of repose at which pilgrims might pray after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Faithful pray at the altar of repose at Christ the King Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Courtesy of Father Steven Ditzel.

“I had the idea that if we could get seven churches to be open for the same hours on Holy Thursday, so that the faithful could go around and adore, it’d be kind of cool,” Fincher told The Pillar.

In his day, Neri made stops at the four major basilicas and at Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, St. Lawrence Outside the Wall, and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love. In total, the route covered 12 miles.

The pilgrimage became a popular Holy Thursday/Holy Week devotion in Rome, with Neri inviting pilgrims to meditate on Jesus’ agony in the garden, and on the seven places he went before the crucifixion, including the houses of Annas and Caiaphas, the court of Pilate, and the palace of Herod.

Today, it remains a popular pilgrimage in Rome during Lent. The devotion has spread beyond Rome, as priests and laity around the world make their own Seven Churches Visitations on Holy Thursday night, praying at different altar of reposes around their dioceses.

In Tulsa, before Fincher returned, a few people would make quiet pilgrimages, but there was not a cohesive effort at organization or invitation.

Five years ago, diocesan priests began the pilgrimage, albeit small, with Fincher inviting his parishioners to make the brief pilgrimage to other nearby churches.

“That first year I was at Christ the King Parish, and then we just got six other parishes around us to participate. Then we took a group of people from our parish along and prayed together,” Fincher said. “That’s kind of how it all began.”

Each church decorates the altar of repose differently, with many imitating a garden by decorating the surrounding area with flowers, bushes and even small trees. This conveys waiting in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus. The pilgrimage, Fincher says, is a beautiful way to meditate on Christ’s agony in the garden and his final days.

“It is a beautiful way to spend Holy Thursday evening where we are in the garden with Jesus as he is about to be arrested and die on the cross,” Fincher said. “I love that we can set that time aside and just be with Him in the garden.”

Father Steven Ditzel, the parochial vicar at Christ the King parish, too has fallen in love with this Holy Thursday tradition. Whether he is on the road with pilgrims, or praying at his parish, he sees immense fruit from participating in this tradition.

“This pilgrimage gives us the opportunity to enter into that paschal mystery with the Lord to keep watch with him, just as he asked the disciples to do,” Ditzel told The Pillar. “We are trying to grow closer to him, particularly in the Blessed Sacrament, which helps us to encounter him along his journey, along his passion, in these most holy days.”

While both priests find participating in the Seven Churches Visitation spiritually edifying, every year they are impressed by the devotion they see from the laity.

“Observing the faith of the people, and seeing their own lived faith through their own participation in spending time with the Lord has been very spiritually edifying,” Ditzel said. “Seeing the faithful gather helps me enter into prayer over the fact that we are together in this journey on this night towards Calvary.”

Every year, the pilgrimage grows in popularity, as people return year after year, inviting their friends to participate in this devotion.

Parish organizations, like young adult groups, will coordinate rides between the churches. This year, Ditzel is renting a 12-passenger van to transport young adults to the different sites, while Fincher, a chaplain at Bishop Kelly high school, is coordinating a group through the school.

“It seems like each year it gets a little bigger, even parishes do a little bit more with their decorations each year,” Fincher said. “You see more parishioners participating every year and it is becoming more of a set tradition in the diocese.”

Kendall Brown, a 22-year-old parishioner at Christ the King, has been making the Seven Churches Visitation for the past three years. She learned about it as a college student at the University of Tulsa, when a missionary invited her to make the pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage has become an annual tradition, and she invites a new friend or two to join her every year.

“With all of the festivities of Holy Week and preparing our hearts for Easter with Jesus, it can be a bit chaotic. This pilgrimage is a beautiful opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ agony and give us a chance to mourn and just prepare for what is to come, while meditating on the depth of Jesus’ sacrifice for us,” Brown said.

She has noticed that the pilgrimage has become immensely popular with her peers, with many young adults participating. At every church, she sees it filled with other young adults traveling between stops.

It is the accessibility and ease of the pilgrimage that makes it attractive for young people, Brown says.

“The Seven Churches pilgrimage is a small taste of what is out there because there’s a lot of people who may not have access to embarking on larger pilgrimages, such as ones that are out of the country,” Brown said. “It’s something that’s a little bit of a smaller scale that is more accessible.”

Young people are also drawn to the tradition of the pilgrimage, said Adam Pittman, a 28-year-old parishioner at Holy Name Cathedral. He has made the pilgrimage for the past three years and looks forward to it every Holy Thursday.

Every year, he sees more and more young people making the trek.

“It is this new spiritual practice and expression for many people, so it feels new but it is clearly something old,” Pittman said. “The altar of repose is nothing new. It’s got the tradition of the Church. And it kind of has that ever ancient, ever new kind of flavor.”

Many young people see it as a beautiful spiritual practice to undertake with friends. Large groups will drive together and after the seventh church, many young adults grab food or will frequent a local Irish pub to enjoy a pint before the Good Friday fast begins.

“To be able to see what is within the Tulsa community and what other parishes there are to offer is another great part,” Brown said. “It’s just a beautiful thing to be able to see that there is a much bigger community out there of Catholics than some people may realize.”

That taste of the universal Church adds to the pilgrimage feel, as parishioners visit different parishes and witness how those churches observe the Triduum through the unique altar of repose design.

“The Seven Churches pilgrimage shows that we’re not just one parish, we’re not just isolated in our small communities, but the Lord is present to each of us in all of our parishes,” Ditzel said.

While seeing the universality, traveling with friends, or grabbing a pint afterwards might be fun, that’s not the heart, nor the highlight of the evening. Entering into the mystery of the Triduum, keeping watch with the Lord marks the evening.

“Being able to watch and pray in the garden with Jesus that evening, to have that garden experience prepares your heart for what is to come,” Fincher said. ”It helps us enter into the right mindset for the Triduum.”