The following blog entry was submitted by seminarian Jeff Walker:

As you read this blog entry, I am in the midst of a pilgrimage "In the Footsteps of Our Lady and the Saints in Catholic France."  I have been anticipating this wonderful blessing of traveling with 50 of my brother seminarians and priests from St. Joseph College Seminary to visit the holy sites of France .  It's tempting to think that people don't really go on pilgrimages in this day and age.  Maybe some people think a "pilgrimage" is simply a "more holy" way of talking about a vacation.  That's certainly not the case with this pilgrimage to France.  In fact, looking at the schedule, this pilgrimage is so busy that it might be anything BUT a vacation.  We'll be visiting eleven different cities in just eight days in an attempt to visit the birth and burial places of Saints as well as two sites of Marian apparitions: Lourdes and La Salette.  Eleven cities in eight days is quite a work out!   So what's the point?  Why take all of this time, money, and energy to travel all around France--and not even swim in the Mediterranean or see the Mona Lisa?  I think the point of this pilgrimage is to become a saint.  Now, I'm not anticipating to come back from France absolutely perfected in holiness and ready for canonization; but as we discern our call to priesthood, it's important to keep in mind that we are all ultimately called to sanctity.  We're called to be saints!  This sanctity that we're called to is not just a theory or an ideal.  It's very real and has been witnessed throughout the history of the Church by Saints:  Saints who were real people, who lived real lives, who really intercede for us, and who really serve as models of the Christian life.  Visiting the places where these Saints lived and died really helps us to understand that reality.   In preparation for the pilgrimage, the seminary community has been especially devoted to studying the lives of some of the Saints whose history we will encounter in France. Many of us read "Maurice and Thérèse: A Story of a Love," which is a collection of letters between St. Thérèse of Lisieux and a young seminarian named Maurice.  We've come to know St. Thomas Aquinas, not just as a master theologian and philosopher, but as a man rooted in prayer and spirituality.  We've heard the incredible story of the Curé D'Ars, who is the patron Saint of diocesan priesthood. The Saints have truly begun to come alive for me recently.  No longer are they just characters from books and holy cards.  They are my companions on the road to holiness, having already attained that which we all someday hope to achieve.   Fundamentally, our vocation is a call to holiness.  Priesthood, religious life, marriage, and the single life are all ways of pursuing that holiness.  I'm in the seminary today because I believe that God's plan for my holiness is wrapped up in diocesan priesthood for the Diocese of Toledo.  God is calling others to holiness through marriage, lay ministry, or consecrated life.  We are all called to be saints!  The trick is to open our eyes and ears to how God is calling us to holiness.