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Aug 08 2024

Introducing the Dominican Friars of the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

About the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

The second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is a full-day event at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28, 2024, hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph and local charters of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, and welcomes Dominican Friars, Dominican Sisters, members of the Rosary Confraternity, and everyone who wants to come from across the country. It is the second time this event will be held. The Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage began spiritually with a nine-month novena that started on Jan. 27, 2024.

Meet the Friars

Fr. James Sullivan, O.P.
Principal Preacher
Fr. James Sullivan, O.P., is a Dominican priest of the Province of Saint Joseph (eastern United States). He 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. Sullivan 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. Sullivan is Prior of Saint Dominic’s Priory in Washington, DC.

Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress, O.P.
Promoter of the Holy Rosary & Main Celebrant
Joseph-Anthony Kress, O.P., entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2010. He made his solemn profession on August 9, 2014 and was ordained a priest on May 21, 2016. In the spring of 2010 he graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a Bachelor of Arts and subsequently received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology and Masters of Divinity from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. Fr. Joseph-Anthony has served as the Chaplain to Catholic Hoos at the University of Virginia since February of 2017. He is a co-host of the Godsplaining podcast alongside four of his Dominican classmates. Over the years he has worked in overseeing large-scale liturgies which include World Youth Day Krakow, National Eucharistic Congress, USCCBConvocation, Fr. Emil Kapaun Homecoming, and Amazing Parish conferences. A native of St. Clairsville, OH, he is the youngest of three.

Fr. Dominic Verner, O.P.
Homilist
Fr. Dominic Verner, O.P., was ordained to the priesthood in 2016 and served as assistant chaplain at Providence College before earning his Ph.D. in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame. A native of Indiana, before entering the Order of Preachers, Fr. Dominic earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a Master’s degree in Philosophical Studies from Mount St. Mary’s University. At the University of Notre Dame, he wrote his dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas’s ethics of honor, and now as an Assistant Professor at Providence College, his research and teaching interests especially concern Thomistic virtue theory and how honor, reputation, friendship, and glory motivate virtuous action. Fr. Dominic also serves as team chaplain to the Providence College Field Hockey team and enjoys leading Bible studies with students and leading pilgrimages and service trips to help students encounter Christ.

Aug 01 2024

The Rosary: A Private or Public Devotion

In 1961 Venerable Patrick Peyton gathered 550,000 people in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to pray the most holy Rosary. This was a tremendous victory for promoting the praying of the Rosary as well as family prayer. Ven. Patrick Peyton was known for the maxim, “the family who prays together stays together.” He believed that the praying of the Rosary would bring so many graces into family life. Since that day in 1961 though, devotions like the Rosary have been argued to remain as private devotions so as to not shove religion into people’s faces and cause them discomfort.

This begs the question, what kind of devotion is the Rosary? It seems like the Rosary has a private devotional life for people. People pray it when they’re on their way to work, when they’re in eucharistic adoration, when they’re in a time of great need, and many other times. There is an intimacy involved in the Rosary that is brought about by private recitation. A person can come to know the Blessed Virgin Mary through the Rosary. Still, more importantly, a person can come to know Jesus Christ more intimately through the Rosary. The private recitation of the Rosary allows one to reflect on the words and mysteries they are praying at their own pace. All of these are good things, but do they warrant the keeping of the Rosary as a private devotion?

The Rosary has another dimension to it that can only be seen when it is prayed in common. The Church offers a plenary indulgence for those who “devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful, and in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose” (Manual of Indulgences). Ven. Patrick Peyton also asked families to pray the Rosary together, and not in their own separate rooms. What is it about the public or group recitation of the Rosary that is different from the private recitation?

Praying the Rosary in a group gives a person the opportunity to enter into the 3 vows religious brothers and sisters take of poverty, chastity, and obedience. A person enters into obedience by following the pace of the group praying. The pace may be slower or faster than what a person is used to. A person enters into poverty by losing control of how the group might be praying the Rosary. There might be devotions that a group adds to the praying of the Rosary that a person may not think are necessary, but this is how that group has come to pray the Rosary. A person enters into chastity through the mind while praying the Rosary. St. Thomas would call this spiritual chastity. He says that if the human mind delights in union with God, and not union with things contrary to God, this is spiritual chastity.

The public praying of the Rosary can also evangelize the world. This is why St. Pope Paul VI said that the Rosary is the “compendium of the gospel.” The general life of Christ can be explained with these simple beads that we use to pray and those beads are a helpful tool to explain to those who do not believe in Christ.

To conclude, the Rosary cannot be contained to being either just a private devotion nor can it be contained to being just a public devotion. It is both. The Rosary has transformed many people into saints. And the Rosary has the power to transform us into the saints that God has made us be.

This article was written by Br. Jerome Masters, O.P..

Photo by John Osterhoudt.

Jul 26 2024

Join The Hillbilly Thomists for a Pilgrimage Like No Other

We are excited to announce that our favorite bluegrass band The Hillbilly Thomists will perform at this year’s Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 28, 2024, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.! The concert will be at 7:00 pm in the evening at the Catholic University of America Mall next to the Basilica at 7:00 PM.

“We’re elated to join our brother Dominican friars, as well as Catholics across the United States, for this year’s Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage,” said Fr. Justin Bolger, O.P. “It’s a tremendous blessing to perform for pilgrims in honor of Our Lady.”

Watch the Hillbilly Thomists’ video announcement regarding their performance at the Pilgrimage.

“We’re excited to add our band of friars, the Hillbilly Thomists, to our second annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage this year, said Fr. John Paul Kern, O.P., Executive Director of the Dominican Friars Foundation and the Rosary Shrine of St. Jude. “Being able to enjoy this concert at the end of our day-long pilgrimage honoring Our Lady is an extra opportunity to savor the graces of the pilgrimage and to spend time just enjoying great music and the good company of Catholics from all over the country.”

The Hillbilly Thomists are a band of friars of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). After playing music together for several years, they released their self-titled debut album, “The Hillbilly Thomists,” in 2017, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart and mostly consisted of bluegrass standards and Americana favorites. In 2021, they released their second studio album, “Living for the Other Side,” on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. A year later, the friars released a third record, “Holy Ghost Power,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard bluegrass chart. The Hillbilly Thomists’ fourth album, “Marigold,” is scheduled to be released this July. Watch the recently released video for the new album’s debut single, “Justify You”.

This year’s Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage will include hours of Adoration, opportunities for Confession, a Mass held in the Upper Church at the Basilica, recitation of the Rosary and a day full of conferences on the Rosary preached by the Dominican friars.

Jun 24 2024

The Rosary’s Essential Element: Contemplation

In the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Venerable Patrick Peyton wanted to increase devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. To foster this devotion, he would lead Family Rosary Crusades where he coined the phrase: “The family that prays together stays together.” Eventually, in 1971, he wrote a letter to Pope Saint Paul VI asking the Rosary to be elevated to a liturgical prayer like the Liturgy of the Hours. Many similar requests that were received by the Holy See prompted Paul VI to promulgate the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (On Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary) which was issued on February 2, 1974, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an intrinsic element of Christian worship.
Pope Saint Paul VI, Marialis Cultus

This Apostolic Exhortation is split into three sections: the liturgy and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the renewal of devotion to Mary, and reflections on the Angelus and the Rosary. In his reflection on the Rosary, Paul VI reminds us that the Rosary is “the compendium of the entire Gospel.” It is a “Gospel prayer” with a rich history that the popes have written numerous times such as Pope Saint Pius V, who “established the traditional form of the Rosary.” According to Paul VI, the Rosary makes us oriented to Christ, by its structure. “The litany-like succession of Hail Mary’s becomes in itself an unceasing praise of Christ…” In the Hail Mary, we call to mind the Savior of the world who is the fruit of Mary’s womb. Paul VI suggests that the name of Jesus was inserted into the Hail Mary to “help contemplation and to make the mind and the voice act in unison.”

Many will argue that the Rosary is not a commandment of God, nor is it found anywhere in Scripture. Why then pray the Rosary when you can go to God directly? Paul VI provides a good response to this argument both from the Rosary being a “Gospel prayer” (as stated above), but he also discusses, what he calls, the “essential element in the Rosary.” Contemplation. The Rosary without contemplation is “a body without a soul, and its recitation is in danger of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas and of going counter to the warning of Christ: ‘And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words’ (Mt. 6:7).” By its nature the Rosary invites us, through the intercession of Our Lady, to contemplate the mysteries of Christ’s life. Starting with the angelic greeting of Gabriel to Mary to the Nativity of the Lord, to his public ministry, to his sufferings in the last days of his earthly life, to finally “the glory of the Risen Lord which fills the Church.” Paul VI beautifully says that “this contemplation by its very nature encourages practical reflection and provides stimulating norms for living.”

Paul VI invites us into three ways the Rosary could be recited. The first is private where there is an “intimate recollection with the Lord.” The second is in community, whether that be among family or in groups, “to ensure the special presence of the Lord.” The third is publicly where “the ecclesial community is invited.” Paul VI gives special consideration to the second way, specifically the Family Rosary. He says that after the Liturgy of the Hours “the Rosary should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite.” As the Second Vatican Council calls the family “the domestic church” so Paul VI invites all families, as Patrick Peyton did, to pray the Rosary as a family. “Families which want to live in full measure of the vocation and spirituality proper to the Christian family must therefore devote all their energies to overcoming the pressures that hinder family gatherings and prayer in common.”

Although Pope Saint Paul VI did not give Venerable Patrick Peyton exactly what he asked for in making the Rosary a liturgical prayer, he provided a wonderful reflection on how “the Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an intrinsic element of Christian worship.” Because she points us to her son, who is both her savior and our savior. I recommend reading Marialis Cultus in its entirety and reflecting on how your devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary has led you to Christ through her intercession.

This article was written by Br. Jerome Masters, O.P..

Photo by Fr. Lawerence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)

Jun 21 2024

Progressive Solemnity

June may be the greatest month of the year. School is getting out, temperatures are going up, and the Church celebrates a whopping five solemnities. That’s right, five of the holiest days of the year happen in June: Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, the Nativity of John the Baptist, and Saints Peter and Paul. With all these wonderfully important days in the month of June, it’s a good time to talk about progressive solemnity—a liturgical system ordering our whole hearts and minds to God.

In the Church’s liturgical calendar, certain days are designated to be celebrated in a special way. The greatest of these days are given the title solemnity, in proportion with what they celebrate. These include the Annunciation, Corpus Christi, and Easter, the highest solemnity of the year. Then come feasts, which are reserved for special saints and events, but do not quite reach the level of a solemnity. An example of a feast is the Conversion of Saint Paul, celebrated on January 25. While feasts and solemnities are fairly rare throughout the year, memorials are much more common, recognizing many saints and events. The great month of June begins with a memorial: Saint Justin Martyr. Finally, there are ferial days which do not have a particular celebration (the root feria comes from Latin and signifies “day of the week”). They encourage us to enter more deeply into the current liturgical season, whether it is Lent, Christmas, or Ordinary Time.

Progressive solemnity demands higher celebration for higher occasions, and this is given concrete expression in the liturgy. For example, on feasts, a Gloria is sung at Mass, and on solemnities we recite the Creed as well. Not only that, but the music is often more beautiful, the prayers more distinctive, and the vestments more ornate. Outside of the liturgy, a community or family might enjoy a nice dinner or host an event to commemorate the occasion. Many parishes exemplify this by having a big celebration on their patronal feast day. In fact, when a parish celebrates its patron, that memorial or feast is elevated to the level of solemnity. These elements show that the day being celebrated is for all the people of God—liturgical feasts are not just for clergy or inside the walls of a church, but they add festivity to our whole lives.

Progressive solemnity is quite familiar to us if we think about it. To give an example, a couple’s preparation for their wedding may be painstaking, but the day of the wedding is all the sweeter for it. In the same way, when we prepare for and celebrate holy days with greater care and attention, we actually enter more deeply into the spirit and prayer of the Church on those days. Practices, such as attending Daily Mass and praying the divine office, are great ways to become more familiar with different saints and occasions throughout the year. Following a liturgical calendar online or a publication like Magnificat is also helpful. One way to put this into practice is to pick an upcoming solemnity, and try doing something special to prepare for it: extra prayers leading up to the day, a work of charity, or even fasting the day before. Then, when the day arrives, do something to celebrate: go to Mass, say a rosary, eat some ice cream, or call a friend. These external practices actually help focus our heart on what is being celebrated and enhance our prayer life.

It’s not always easy to feel connected to the holy days throughout the year. Thankfully, progressive solemnity is an easy starting point for anyone interested in living more closely to the Church’s prayer. By practicing progressive solemnity we can better attune ourselves to the rhythm of the Church and so offer our whole minds and hearts to God.

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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)

This article was originally published in the d ominicanajournal.org and was written by Br. Roland Wakefield, O.P..