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Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

A National Pilgrimage Devoted to Christ and Our Lady

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Uncategorized

Jan 29 2025

Journey to Lourdes

A Line of Pilgrims, A Line of Stories

In the south of France, outside the town of Lourdes, stand thousands of pilgrims, waiting in line before pools of water in the ground next to an otherwise inconspicuous cave. Many of them have come seeking a miracle at these pools, having heard stories of many cures and healings that transpired there. A young woman from Spain, with a broken arm, pushes ahead of a group of American pilgrims. As she argues with the people in line and complains about how long the people in front of her are taking, the priest who leads the American entourage looks back on a similar cure that he witnessed, and how he first came to this place…

A Film, A Trip, And A Prayer

During World Youth Day in Paris, a young electrical engineer decides to make a side trip to a place which he saw in a movie. As a child, he had heard of the miracle of Our Lady of Lourdes through the acclaimed film The Song of Bernadette, which his mother had seen in the theater. As he approaches the grotto, he notices several pilgrims in front of him, making various requests for health, wealth, and happiness in prayer to Mary, the Mother of God. All the while, he wonders what sort of prayer he would make, mindful of the fate of the girl in the movie who saw the lady in white…

A Promise Amid War

In the midst of the Second World War, a Jewish author and his wife are running for their lives. Already forced to flee their native Austria for France, they fear the advancing Nazi troops, who are intent on deporting all French Jews to the concentration camps. Hoping to escape to Spain, they meet with resistance, as the Gestapo has just arrived to barricade the border. Without food or shelter, among the thousands of refugees, Franz and Alma Werfel scramble for a place of refuge. A family informs them that their best chance to find relief is the town of Lourdes. The locals, lay and religious alike, take Werfel and his wife under their care, and as he listens to their stories of Bernadette, he promises to God and to Mary that if he ever makes it out of war-torn Europe alive, he would halt all his other writing projects and sing forth these stories as an act of supreme gratitude…

The Girl Who Saw The Lady in White

On a cold February afternoon, a peasant girl of 14 years is gathering firewood with her sisters for her family to keep warm for another day, while their father continues to look for work. Separated from the group, she comes to a cave that is often used as a garbage dump. What follows is beyond the stuff of legends. In an indentation in the rock, the girl Bernadette sees a woman dressed in white, with a blue sash and yellow roses on her feet, matching the Rosary she carries. Bernadette returns time and again to the grotto, not knowing who the lady is. Yet she follows her instructions to drink from the spring, where there was once only grime and mud, and to have a chapel built on the site. As the lady’s appearances generate controversy, despite the miraculous physical healings that begin to occur through the water, she makes her identity known through a message that the barely literate Bernadette cannot fathom:
“I am the Immaculate Conception.”

By affirming this theological point, defined as dogma by the Church just over three years prior, and after centuries of debate, Our Lady of Lourdes demonstrates how God works his power to heal and to save, both through her and through the elements that surround the apparition. The visionary Saint Bernadette receives the calling to the contemplative religious life, and her story, and that of the miraculous waters, spread throughout the land…

A Vow Fulfilled, A Story Told

Werfel and his wife, after their stay in Lourdes, flee Nazi-occupied France and re-establish their lives in America. There, he keeps to his promise. He composes the historical novel The Song of Bernadette within a year, and his retelling of the stories that comforted him during his time of flight soon become a Hollywood film. The movie’s tagline says it all: “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible…”

A Prayer Offered, A Life Changed

The young man enters the pool, turns to Our Lady, and prays: while others ask for Mary’s help, he offers himself as a gift to the Blessed Mother. The next year, he joins the Dominican Order, whose friars from around the world lead several annual trips to the site of the apparitions and miracles. As leader of the National Lourdes Pilgrimage, he brings many more people the graces of Our Lady of Lourdes, year after year…

Not All Miracles Look the Same

This most recent pilgrimage is no exception, though the graces are not always of the kind expected. After all, more miracles occur during the Eucharistic processions than at the spring itself. Some visitors find insight into their own vocations, and the Spanish woman with the broken arm is healed—not in her bones, but of her impatience—and leaves the grotto with great peace. Her spiritual comfort, despite not finding the cure she had wanted, may be difficult to explain. Yet when the God who operates through humble and unexpected means, such as his own birth in the flesh and the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes, is at work, no explanation is necessary.

Join Us on a Pilgrimage of Grace

As we reflect on the powerful graces of Lourdes and Our Lady’s role in guiding us through difficult times, we invite you to join us on the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. This annual pilgrimage brings together thousands of pilgrims to deepen their faith, pray for healing, and experience the power of the Rosary. Whether you seek personal healing or spiritual growth, the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is an opportunity to answer Our Lady’s call and experience the transformative grace that so many have found before the grotto at Lourdes.


This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Fr. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P..

 

Written by Dominican Friars · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jan 07 2025

A 9-Month Novena for the third annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

The Dominican Friars of the Province St. Joseph are beginning a 9-month novena to pray for the success of the third annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. 

The 9-month novena begins on Saturday, January 25, 2025, and will be prayed every last Saturday of the month for nine months. The friars want the faithful to join them again  in praying for the success of this year’s Rosary Pilgrimage and encourage people to visit rosarypilgrimage.org to get the novena prayer card sent to them and to view monthly video reflections on the Rosary.

Last year’s Rosary Pilgrimage, held in September at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., “was another great success,” said Fr. John Paul Kern, O.P., Executive Director of the Dominican Friars Foundation, “and we want this pilgrimage to bring more and more people together each year to deepen devotion to Our Lady and her Rosary, to pray with the friars and to lead many souls to Jesus through Mary.” 

The second annual pilgrimage brought 3,200 Catholics from across the country together for a day with great preaching by the friars, praying of the Rosary, Adoration,  and Holy Mass. At the end of the day-long pilgrimage at the Basilica, pilgrims were treated to an evening concert on the lawn of The Catholic University of America by the Hillbilly Thomists, who were wrapping up their summer tour with their new album, Marigold.

“There have been so many graces received on this day of Pilgrimage two years in a row now and Our Lady wants to continue to give us these graces this next year,” said Fr. John Paul. “So, begin praying with us now, every last Saturday of the month, for the success of the third annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, and then join us for the next Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C.”

Written by Dominican Friars · Categorized: Uncategorized · Tagged: Dominican Friars, novena, Rosary

Jan 01 2025

Join Us for the 2025 Novena & Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

May the peace of Our Lady be with you. As we begin this new year, we invite you to mark your calendars for the third annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 27, 2025, in Washington, DC, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

There are many ways to participate in this powerful event! Begin by praying for the Rosary Pilgrimage—that many hearts will be led to Jesus through Mary. Spiritually, the Pilgrimage begins with a 9-month novena starting January 25, 2025. We encourage you and your loved ones to join us by praying the Novena prayer on the last Saturday of each month. You can find the prayer on the 2025 Dominican Rosary prayer card.

card mock up 25
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Please help us spread the word! Invite your family, friends, fellow parishioners, your pastor, and ministry leaders to sign up individually or as a group on the website.

Follow, like, and share @DominicanRosary on social media to stay connected.

Visit this site regularly for updates, monthly videos, articles on the Rosary, and other inspiring content.

Written by Dominican Friars · Categorized: Uncategorized

Dec 19 2024

The Joyful Mystery of Christmas: Praying the Rosary with Love

I find it hard to believe that almost three months have passed since the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 28th.  That day was such a joy-filled occasion of God’s grace.  I continue to thank the Lord, and the Dominican organizers, for the opportunity to be the principal preacher for the day but I realize too keenly that none of the day would have been possible if it were not for all the sacrifices of our many benefactors and all the organizing done behind the scenes.

It is this theme of “behind the scenes” preparation that can help us celebrate Christmas with joy this year in a new way—not because it is going to be a perfect Christmas with all the presents arriving and wrapped on time, or because the pork crown roast was the best we’d ever had—but rather because this Christmas we are going to meditate on all the “behind the scenes” work that God accomplished so that his Son could be born for our salvation.

In the Joyful Mysteries we meditate on the primacy of the Incarnation; from the Annunciation all the way to the Finding in the Temple, it is about the importance of our Christian belief that an individual human nature was taken up by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and He made it his own.  Christ’s human nature is particularly revealed to us by his body and his human Soul.  He truly became one of us, and remains one with us today.

"The Adoration of the Shepherds" by Domenico Ghirlandaio

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year and even more as we pray the Joyful Mystery of the Lord’s Nativity throughout the year, especially on Mondays and Saturdays, we call to mind all that God did to bring about that Birth:

    • The oracles of the prophets echoing through the centuries pointing to the Messiah.
    • The kings of Israel and Judah who reveal the blessings bestowed upon the faithful and the harsh judgment meted out to those who abandon God.
    • The great figures of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who longed to become a nation great in the sight of the Lord, more numerous that the sands of the shoreline.

And through these figures and every event of the Old Testament God prepared the world to receive his Son—not as a conquering hero—but as a little baby boy—who simply wants to be held in the arms of each believer.

Christmas is a joyful mystery not because of those presents or the pork crown roast but because of what God has already done!  He invites us into his joy by praying the Rosary with love for Him.

I heard a Christmas hymn this year that I never heard before—it’s called “Nativity Carol” by the famous British composer, John Rutter.  The last verse captures the joy of Christmas:

Love in that stable was born
Into our hearts to flow;
Innocent dreaming babe,
Make me thy love to know.

Christmas joy is found in that stable, not in anything that we do.  God opens our hearts to receive Him, and if it seems at times that He is using a crowbar or a jackhammer to crack us open, it’s only because we have become stubborn and closed to his will.  We need his love in order to survive.  The innocence of this Christ Child draws us into the one dream we share with Him, to be with God forever in heaven.

“Make me thy love to know” is not just a mystery for Christmas, but of each day of our lives ahead. 

Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year!  See you at the next Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 27, 2025!

Fr. James Sullivan, O.P.

Written by Fr. James Mary Sullivan, O.P.
Fr. James was the principal preacher at the 2024 Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. He is a Dominican priest of the Province of Saint Joseph (eastern United States). Fr. James holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Dominican House of Studies and a Licentiate in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America, both in Washington, DC. Fr. James has served as Prior and Pastor at Saint Dominic’s Church in Youngstown, Ohio and at Saint Louis Bertrand Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He has taught systematic theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary—Dunwoodie, in Yonkers, New York, and homiletics at Mount Saint Mary Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Ohio. After being Novice Master for his Province for four years and for 65 novices, in 2014 he went to Rome to serve as the Director of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College. Since 2018, he has served as a Spiritual Director at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, as Pastor of Saint Pius V Church in Providence, Rhode Island, and as Director of Spiritual Formation at Our Lady of Providence Seminary, also in Providence. At present, Fr. James is Prior of Saint Dominic’s Priory in Washington, DC.

Written by Dominican Friars · Categorized: Uncategorized

Dec 12 2024

A Moment of Grace: The Salve Regina

Experience the beauty of the Salve Regina as sung by the Dominican Friars during the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. This hymn, a timeless tribute to Our Lady, reflects the heart of our mission: drawing souls closer to Christ through Mary.

Your support makes this possible. By donating today, you help sustain the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage and bring the light of the Rosary to more hearts.

Together, let us continue to honor Our Lady and spread the beauty of the Rosary.

Written by Dominican Friars · Categorized: 2024, Uncategorized

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Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
141 East 65th Street
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Tel: (212) 744-2410
info@rosarypilgrimage.org

Media Inquiries: Kevin Wandra
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KWandra@
CarmelCommunications.com
The Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and promotes the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary.

This event is supported by the Dominican Foundation of Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph, Inc. a NY State tax-exempt corporation under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with tax ID # 26-3273636.

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