The Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is just around the corner, coming up on Sept. 28. Last year, we friars hosted the pilgrimage for the first time. We felt that with all the chaos surrounding us, knowing we’d face another tumultuous presidential campaign, the best thing to do was to pray. So we decided to invite people to pray the Rosary. It might not seem like a big deal to the world, but praying the Rosary is huge in the eyes of God!
And people answered our invitation in droves. We were amazed by the turnout! More than 3,000 pilgrims came to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The basilica was packed. I met a family who flew out from Alaska. One pilgrim drove from California, making an epic five-day road trip in thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary for his conversion. Another walked from Rhode Island to thank the Virgin Mary for everything she’s done for him. “The Rosary saved my life,” he said.
We premiered beautiful new music commissioned for the pilgrimage and listened to fantastic preaching by Fathers Gregory Pine, OP, and James Brent, OP. Testimonies have not stopped, with people saying how beautiful the pilgrimage was and how much it helped them to pray.
This year’s pilgrimage is going to be even bigger and better. We’ve commissioned a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary, which will be presented and blessed at the beginning of the pilgrimage. We’ll have marvelous conferences preached (Father James Mary Sullivan, OP, my novice master, will be the principal preacher for this year’s pilgrimage), Eucharistic adoration and plenty of opportunities for confession. To finish the day, the Hillbilly Thomists (the Dominican friars’ chart-topping bluegrass band) will play a concert on the mall at the Catholic University of America.
Prayer leads to peace
The pilgrimage isn’t a political rally or movement. It’s not ideological. It’s not a program or a fundraiser. It’s just prayer. We sincerely believe that when we show up for Our Lady, she will show up for us!
Pope Francis says: “The prayer of the rosary is, in many ways, the synthesis of the history of God’s mercy, which becomes a history of salvation for all who let themselves be shaped by grace.” The Rosary tells the story of the life of Jesus, but not just from any perspective: from the Virgin Mary’s perspective. Strengthened by grace, we can see the story of salvation clearly, as Mary saw it, and see those graces playing out, pouring forth in our own lives. Perhaps Archbishop Fulton Sheen puts it best: “If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of Our Lord and of his mystical body, then teach him the rosary.”
Apart from attending Mass, the Rosary has been the most present prayer in my life. I was taught to pray when I was young, we prayed it as a family, and I have turned to this marvelous prayer to surrender my fears and help me through sleepless nights.
Life is filled with reasons to be anxious and worried. And we’re constantly tempted to believe that we can’t impact everything that’s going on around us, like we’re powerless. That’s such a pernicious lie! We can do something; we can always pray. And our prayers make a massive difference.
The Rosary, Pope Francis says, “is a powerful weapon against evil and an effective means of obtaining true peace in our hearts.” For peace in our hearts, for peace in our families, for peace in our communities, for peace in our country, for peace in the world, we must pray! And we must pray the Rosary!
