Last year, the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph held the first annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, and I had the great privilege of taking part in the event. One month prior to the Rosary Pilgrimage, I had just arrived at the Dominican House of Studies as a newly professed student brother. This event made clear that Our Lady’s rosary would be a crucial part of my formation as a Dominican friar.
I had been wearing a rosary at my side for a year. I had been praying the rosary for much of my life, but it was the Pilgrimage that showed me firsthand the power of this prayer. We pray the rosary to contemplate the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I saw this first-hand at the rosary pilgrimage when we prayed the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. The music that was sung, the reverence shown towards our Blessed Mother, and the contemplation of Our Lord’s life in that rosary moved me deeply. But in true Dominican spirit, it didn’t stop there.
Our contemplation of the mysteries moved naturally into preaching. “The most holy rosary,” proclaimed Fr. Gregory Pine, “puts us in contact with Christ, who is the protagonist of salvation.” Seeing the Dominican spirit of preaching for the salvation of souls combined with the five thousand people packed into Our Lady’s Basilica praying the rosary showed me why I wanted to be a Dominican. This event was like entering into the preaching the Dominican Order has been doing for eight hundred years.
I felt as though we were doing battle with Satan. Equipping the faithful with the sword of the rosary to fight the good fight, and run as to win the race, as St. Paul says in 2 Timothy.
We heard the words of encouragement to run so as to win. Fr. James Brent as he called out to all, “Come, pick up your rosary, eyes on Christ…” showing us exactly what Our Lady does when we pray to her in the rosary. She humbly points us towards her son, who is the source of our salvation. She brings us as her sons and daughters to the one who was born of her womb, died in her sight, and rose again. Our Lady knows intimately the joys, sufferings, and glories of Our Lord’s life. On that day, in Our Lady’s basilica, the rosary united all pilgrims who journeyed under her mantle and brought them to her son.
There was a beautifully indescribable spirit at this event. Seeing the Church come together, pray, worship God, and be sent out to proclaim the good news of the Gospel to a fallen world demonstrated the evangelical power of the rosary. This devotion has been promoted through the centuries by many holy men and women, and this event allows us to continue that beautiful tradition. The rosary grounds us in the memory that everything good has its source in God, and reminds us that Our Lady brings us to that source of goodness by simply begging for her intercession.
Last year’s pilgrimage gave me a new appreciation for Our Lady’s gift to the Church. Come share in that joy. I want to invite you to join me and dozens of my Dominican brothers and thousands of other pilgrims at the second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, just one week away on Saturday, September 28th.
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Image: Dominican Friars Media (used with permission)
