Pilgrimage at a Glance:
1h35 From La Ferté-Choisel to the farm ‘ Les Charmes’
Chapter prayer on setting off. Reminder of why we are on pilgrimage, the spirit of the pilgrimage, the undertakings of the pilgrim.
Simple presentation of the theme for the day. The Holy Spirit and His gifts for the Church. Putting it in the context of the overall theme of the pilgrimage: Come, Holy Ghost.
FIRST MEDITATION: THE SPIRIT OF FILIAL PIETY
Dear pilgrims, this morning, by the grace of God, we learn more about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. We have successively meditated on the Spirit of truth, true Paraclete to us, who not only spreads the love of God in us, but also helps us to sanctify our souls. In this new meditation, we will see what we need to manifest a spirit of filial piety.
Jesus, through his incarnation and the cross, gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who unites us with the Father. He makes us sons of God. “But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.” (Jn 1:12)
The entire mission of the Son is to manifest God’s fatherhood.
Jesus, in fact, concluded his priestly prayer with these words: "Just Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee. And these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have made known thy name to them and will make it known: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (Jn 17:25-26)
God resolutely desires the salvation, the justification, of men. Saint Paul tells us that this justification comes only from God. And it is realized in Jesus Christ through His blood shed on the Cross in an act of obedience unto death.
Only he, Jesus Christ, God and man, gives us the justification that sets us in peace with God. Saint Paul exclaims that if we are sons of God, united in Firstborn by the Holy Spirit, we are heirs of glory. We inherit hope.
Recitation of the Rosary: The Joyful mysteries
1h15 From Les Charmes to Parc Fougères (From Charms Farm to Fern Park)
Meditation : ‘The Holy Spirit, soul of the Church’.
Rosary: continuation with hymns and songs
Meditation : ’The Church, light of nations by the gifts of the Holy Spirit’.
1h25 From Parc Fougères to the Race Track at Rambouillet
SECOND MEDITATION: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
The Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian mystery is the unity of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is given to us in order that we may be united to the Father and the Son by that same Love which united Them to each other. We are not united in the same capacity, but we nonetheless are given a share in Their great Love and Happiness.
How does the Holy Spirit act? Saint Paul uses the expression “those who allow the Holy Spirit to act in them,” and not “those who act under the influence of the Holy Spirit.” The passive voice is used to express the mode of action of the Holy Spirit who takes the initiative and that of the sons of God who agree meekly to his movement by the effect of filial love that the Holy Spirit produces in them.
Rosary : The Sorrowful Mysteries
Presentation : ‘The Holy Mass and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.’
MASS at RAMBOUILLET
Mass is prayed in the woods. The priests set up crude confessionals at the base of trees, and charge through the underbrush to distribute Communion to the thousands of faithful.
LUNCH HALT
2h10 From the Race Track at Rambouillet to Batonceau
THIRD MEDITATION: HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE SPIRIT OF FILIAL PIETY
1. The primacy of the interior life
St. Therese of the Child Jesus followed the little way of childhood by discovering the Scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are children of God when the face of the Father illuminates our soul by the Holy Spirit, the Light that deifies.
2. In the family
The children owe respect (filial piety), gratitude, docility and obedience to their parents, contributing to the advancement of harmony and sanctity of all family life.
As partakers in the divine fatherhood, parents are responsible for the Catholic education of their children and the first to announce their faith. They have the duty to love and respect their children as persons and as sons of God.
3. In the civil society
Those subject to authority should regard their superiors as representatives of God, offering their loyal collaboration for the right functioning of public and social life.
The citizen is not bound in conscience to obey when the prescriptions of civil authorities oppose the demands of the moral order: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29).
4. In the Church
Christians must develop a true filial spirit towards the Church. Indeed, the Church gives us the sacraments so important for our sanctification: baptismal grace, mercy of God, nourishment of the Word and of the Eucharist of the Lord.
Rosary : continuation with hymns and songs
Presentation : Christendom. Introduction to the sermon of Dom Gérard of Le Barroux. Invite chapter members to later read the text page 127 of the French pilgrim booklet.
1h20 From Batonceau to Emancé
Rosary : The Glorious Mysteries
Presentation : ‘Consecration to Our Lady’ We have a special filial devotion to Mary. “[I]n a wholly singular way she cooperated (...) in the work of the Saviour... For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.” (LG 61). Dear Pilgrims, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we truly behave like children of God.
Presentation : Purity before marriage. Invite Chapter members to read the text in the pilgrim booklet.
1h30 From Emancé to the campsite at Gas
Presentation. ‘Eucharistic Adoration’
Rosary : continuation with hymns and songs
BENEDICTION AND ALL NIGHT ADORATION OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT
Exhausted does not adequately describe the blistered, bone-weary, frozen-jointed state of the pilgrims, yet they drag themselves to an altar set up beneath a tent in the twilight, to kneel in the growing dark, damp chill before their Lord. Guardian Angels of the pilgrims, they are praying for you and your intentions tonight. Please remember to pray for them.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS GIFTS FOR THE CHURCH
Under the patronage of Saint Pius X
St. Pius X was plucked by God from a humble childhood and entrusted with the most illustrious position on earth. This gentle saint, inclined to contemplation rather than public minstry, possessed a mighty spirit, and left to his spiritual children a thunderous legacy. This pope, a deadly enemy of Modernism, is an obvious patron of this pilgrimage, which has as its goal the return of the Church to her Traditions; the triumph of the Old Faith over the sickness that is Modernism. May the prayers and protection of this champion of Tradition be with the participants of this pilgrimage on the Feast of Pentecost!
Michael J. Matt | Editor
Michael J. Matt has been an editor of The Remnant since 1990. Since 1994, he has been the newspaper's editor. A graduate of Christendom College, Michael Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Church and the modern world. He is the host of The Remnant Underground and Remnant TV's The Remnant Forum. He's been U.S. Coordinator for Notre Dame de Chrétienté in Paris--the organization responsible for the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres, France--since 2000. Mr. Matt has led the U.S. contingent on the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the last 24 years. He is a lecturer for the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. He is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly delivers addresses and conferences to Catholic groups about the Mass, home-schooling, and the culture question. Together with his wife, Carol Lynn and their seven children, Mr. Matt currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.