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Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

A National Pilgrimage Devoted to Christ and Our Lady

Dominican Friars

A Thanksgiving to Remember

“Remember the marvels he has done” (Ps 105:5). Remember. Last year, when I was a novice, the novice master had us do an exercise he called “singular moments of grace.” The point of the exercise was to compose a list of moments in your life in which God was at work. It was a beautiful way of recalling the marvels God has worked in my life. What quickly became evident was how God’s grace is active in all moments of life, from the most pivotal, life-changing, to the more mundane, everyday experiences. Thanksgiving fills the soul as it remembers the marvels God has done for it. That soul cannot but run to the tabernacle to pour out its gratitude to God for all his incredible blessings.

As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday, we ought to take stock of all the graces God has abundantly poured out in our lives. Saint Paul reminds us, “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7). Everything we have comes from the generous hand of God and the only proper response to his countless blessings is thanksgiving.

A spirit of thanksgiving is what our world desperately needs. The spirit of negativity is one of the most lethal poisons in our world today. One does not have to look far to see the harmful consequences of negativity, invading families, workplaces, and even the Church herself. The antidote to this poison is thanksgiving. Remembering the wonderful things God has done for us fills us with the spirit of thanksgiving, a spirit that is necessary to change our hearts and the hearts of those around us. Do not underestimate the contagious power of thanksgiving!

Holidays can be a source of stress for many people. There is so much to do, whether it be preparing the big meal, shopping, or traveling. This week leading up to Thanksgiving provides a great opportunity to take some time to remember those singular moments of grace in your life. Write them down and carry them with you throughout the week. Let them culminate on Thanksgiving Day by taking all these moments of grace to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the truest and greatest act of thanksgiving. There is no greater gift than receiving the very body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Prepare a thankful heart for him to dwell in. And never let that spirit of thanksgiving leave your heart.

It’s amazing how something as simple as making acts of thanksgiving can change so much. Being thankful keeps negativity from creeping in. The spirit of thanksgiving keeps life in its proper perspective. Keeping before us the countless ways God has blessed us, allows us to keep our focus on him, the God who infinitely loves us and who is with us through our greatest joys and our deepest sorrows. In the busyness of life, it is easy to forget to be thankful. To be thankful, one must first remember, which entails a diligent effort, lest one forget to remember. Consider adopting a spiritual practice of beginning and ending each day by thanking the Lord for four things. Thankful hearts will change lives.

And remember that, if the Thanksgiving holiday gets away from you, the marvelous season of Advent is quickly approaching. Advent, as it was for last year’s novices, is an incredibly grace-filled time to remember all that God has done for us, which fills our hearts with thanksgiving as we anxiously await the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. May this truly be a Thanksgiving to remember.

This article was originally published in the dominicanajournal.org and was written by Br. Jacob Gerber, O.P..

Photo taken by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P..

The Graces of Pilgrimage

When you take on something like hosting a national pilgrimage for the first time, you can’t really know what the end result will be. But you pray, and you trust, and you hope that your efforts bear the intended fruit. 

So, on the Vigil of the Rosary Sunday, the Dominican Friars decided to invite Catholics from all over the country to join us on pilgrimage—to pray the Rosary, to preach about the Rosary and Our Lady, to hear your confessions, to adore the Lord in Adoration, and to worship him at Holy Mass. 

Over three thousand people flocked to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, to pray with us and with Our Lady. 

For those of you who came on pilgrimage, you can watch this recap of some of what was captured that day. And for those of you who were not able to make it, this video may inspire you to plan to join us for the next Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage—scheduled for September 27, 2025. 

Until then, pick up your Rosary. Eyes on Christ. Pray God to send the Spirit of Truth to lead us all into truth.

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. – The Holy Rosary, Our Recourse on Earth

The Rosary has a way of ensnaring us. But what we come to discover is that in being ensnared, we are saved. Fr. Gregory Pine teaches us that the Rosary asks of us a kind of contemplative stance—because we’re actually “heaven-dwellers” here on earth—we’re all called to be contemplatives. And we can do this by contemplating the saving mysteries of Christ. The mysteries we pray in the Rosary accompany us in this life, ultimately saving us! At his annunciation, Christ is saving. At his visitation, Christ is saving. At his nativity, Christ is saving. At his presentation, Christ is saving. All the way down the line, Christ is saving. And we contemplate these mysteries in union with Mary, the one who enjoys the most intimate union with her Son. She helps us to see joy, to see light, to see sorrow, and to see glory.

Recitation of the Rosary from the 2023 Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

We pray the Rosary and ask for the intercession of Our Lady, “Because the blessed Virgin in her maternal intercession, in her maternal care, she wants to intercede on your behalf so we can rely upon that,” explained Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., during the during  first Dominican  Rosary Pilgrimage.

So as you pray the Rosary today, remember , that you are partaking, “richly of the joy of our Lord through the intercession of the most blessed Virgin Mary,”  Fr. Gregory Pine.

We invite you to pray the Rosary with us, featuring 15 decades of the Most Holy Rosary, including the newly composed Dominican Rosary Litany, by Fr. Michael O’Connor, O.P..

The Rosary is Still the Prayer of the Family

Though the first Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is a momentous event in the life of the Church, it is not the first national Rosary pilgrimage to take place in America. 

On October 30, 1971, thousands of pilgrims led by Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC, journeyed to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. The pilgrimage was a part of Fr. Patrick’s Family Rosary Crusade, a series of national and international pilgrimages dedicated to strengthening families through daily praying of the Rosary.

Fr. Patrick Peyton was raised in a poor, farming family in Ireland that had a strong devotion to family prayer. Every night, his family would kneel together to pray the Rosary together before going to bed. The Peyton family’s dedication to the Rosary strengthened their bonds of love to face the difficulties of poverty, illness, and immigration with trust in the Blessed Mother’s patronage. Fr. Patrick experienced Mary’s patronage in a direct way through a miraculous recovery from tuberculosis after entrusting himself to Our Lady of the Rosary. After his ordination to the priesthood, Fr. Patrick sought to repay Mary’s care for him. 

Recalling his own family, Fr. Patrick began a world-wide campaign to spread the devotion of the family Rosary. He took as his motto, “The family that prays together, stays together.” He spoke to crowds of hundreds-of-thousands about the power of the Rosary to protect and strengthen families, and families around the world responded by dedicating themselves to praying the Rosary every day. Family prayer places God at the center of your family’s life. The practice of praying the Rosary together places your family under Mary’s protection and draws you closer to her son, Jesus. 

Fr. Patrick Peyton was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2017 and his cause for canonization is ongoing. This year is the thirty-first anniversary of his death, but his message that the family that prays together, stays together is one that continues to be proclaimed and to bear fruit through daily family Rosaries. 

When the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage meets in Washington, DC, fifty-two years after Fr. Patrick’s crusade, we will preach to the world that the Rosary is still the prayer of the family. The Rosary is the perfect prayer to protect and strengthen the family’s bonds of love through the intercession of our most loving mother. 

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