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PLYMOUTH -- Sharing a van with Jesus can be daunting.

Since May 24, Mary Carmen Zakrajsek and eight other pilgrims have been traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard in a van with a tabernacle bolted to the floor. In the tabernacle is the Blessed Sacrament, which they are bringing to the U.S.'s most historic cities for the One Nation Under God National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

"It's humbling to be called into such a close proximity with the Eucharist," Zakrajsek, 26, told The Pilot.

On June 26, the van stopped at Pilgrim Memorial State Park along the Plymouth Waterfront to kick off the pilgrimage's weekend in the Archdiocese of Boston. Archbishop Richard G. Henning greeted the pilgrims and led hundreds in adoration just steps away from Plymouth Rock. Zakrajsek, a native of Indiana, had never been to Massachusetts before.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I love seeing the water and seeing the red, white, and blue on our drive in."

The pilgrimage has taken her and her fellow perpetual pilgrims to 15 dioceses in 11 states and Washington, D.C. The bolted-down tabernacle can be outfitted with a monstrance for exposition inside the van.

"I wanted to be with the Lord, and I wanted to deepen my faith and share the truth and the joy that comes from the Eucharist," she said.

The extensive traveling has been tiring, she said.

"Even a dry prayer is still a prayer," she said. "Even my exhaustion is still an offering to the Lord, and an opportunity to unite myself closer to him, and to really rely and depend on him to be the one that helps me give of myself."

Welcoming those who came to adore the Blessed Sacrament, and thanking the perpetual pilgrims for their witness, Archbishop Henning said the assembly had come to adore the greatest beauty the human eye can behold.

"Welcome to Boston," he said. "It is a beautiful thing to be in this place, Plymouth, which has a 400-year-old history of welcoming pilgrims."

The Eucharist, he said, is Jesus's way of keeping his promise that he will always be there for his followers. The archbishop told the assembly to pray for the peace and the prosperity of the U.S. as they passed Plymouth Rock.

"On this 250th anniversary of the United States of America, we are here in one of the places where the American story began," he said.

He also told the assembly to think of another rock, the rock Moses struck to bring forth water in the desert. That rock was a prelude to the coming of Jesus, "that rock that gives us life."

During adoration, local children who recently received First Communion knelt directly before the Blessed Sacrament. Nine-year-old Leah Silvia, who received First Communion at St. Joseph Parish in Kingston, wiped dirt off her knees under the lace of her white dress.

Leah told The Pilot that receiving First Communion was "awesome." Her mother, Kathy Silvia, brought Leah and her siblings, Anne and Luke, to adoration in order to demonstrate an "active faith."

"It's the Body and Blood of Christ," she said. "I think that it's amazing showing people that they have, we have a sense of community, and showing people that our faith is united."

After adoration, the hundreds of faithful embarked on a Eucharistic procession to St. Peter Church in Downtown Plymouth. The Blessed Sacrament, held aloft by Archbishop Henning, was escorted by a phalanx of priests.

Countless cell phones were raised to record the moment. As the procession filed slowly past Plymouth Rock, the archbishop raised the monstrance in blessing.

The procession passed the waterfront, lined with boats bobbing in the harbor on one side and packed restaurants and Pilgrim-themed gift shops on the other side.

The sung refrain "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom" repeated as Archbishop Henning climbed the steps of St. Peter's and displayed the Eucharist to those crowded below. The church quickly became packed with worshipers, all kneeling before the monstrance. So many people came that the lower church was also filled with the faithful, watching a livestream of the Mass above them.

In his homily, Archbishop Henning spoke of "true worship" and contrasted it with examples of idolatry in the Bible: The original sin, when humanity thought "we can be our own god;" the Tower of Babel, when men "would make themselves false gods" in a futile attempt to reach Heaven; and the golden calf, which the Israelites worshiped because it gave them the idea they could "master their own fate."

"Idolatry is fundamentally about the failure to recognize the truth of who exactly is God," the archbishop said, "and that idolatry is often driven by the smallness of our understanding, our fears and insecurities."

True worship is to worship God himself, through the offering he makes through his son Jesus and the Eucharist. God gave us the Eucharist, Archbishop Henning said, so we may turn away from false idols and toward "true worship."

"The Lord pours out upon his disciples the gift of the Spirit to strengthen us, to console us, to guide us," he said. "And he feeds us with this gift of his body and blood, so that we may not be afraid."

After Mass, Archbishop Henning said the First Communicants and their "young faith" was the "greatest delight" of the Lord. The first day of the Boston pilgrimage ended with the singing of "God Bless America," which resounded through the church.

"Now if only we could get everyone to sing every song in church," the archbishop joked.