One solitary soul, ripe in his young age softly closes his
front door and steps onto the darkened Roman streets. He too is pressed on by a
longing – an infinite desire he can’t seem to ever fully satisfy. His heart simultaneously
seeks silence from the world and the noise of Heaven. Oh to hear His voice, to enter into His intimacy.
The road is long, 25 kilometers (around 15 miles) and the
night is cool, but the mood is peaceful and the desire strong. His objective is
simple: remain. In the next several hours from sunset to sunrise he will make
his journey passed both the noise of Roman night life and the dead silence
beyond the walls. He will make seven brief stops, all hallmarks of the Faith
that leads him on. Invisible to the human eye he will have Divine Company each
step of the way.
Prayer and offering; giving glory to God the Most High;
interceding for the souls yet journeying in this life and those enduring
purification for the next; communion with the saints gone before us; and
penance for his own shortcomings, a young Philip Neri not yet priest and not
yet saint takes up the ancient tradition of the Pilgrimage of the Seven
Churches – a tradition again reinstalled around 10 years ago and currently lead
by those who now follow his rule of life.
On the night leading to the 100th anniversary of
the first apparition of Our Lady in Fatima, I too took part in this all night
pilgrimage with 3 of my sisters and around 600 others. Setting out on foot a
little passed 8 pm after celebrating the Holy Mass together in the church
founded by St. Philip Neri, we walked in his footsteps and those of many others
saints. The seven churches unevenly spaced along this route include: St. Peter’s
Basilica, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, St. Sebastian, St. John Lateran, Santa
Croce, St. Lawrence, and St. Mary Major.
It was a night to forever remember. Gathered together for
the shared desire of those of St. Philip Neri listed above, the spirit of the
pilgrimage was richly felt and lived. Focusing on our identity as children of
the Father, we journeyed with Christ in his trip from the Garden of Gethsemane
to Calvary. We prayed for strength against the vices all around us in our daily
lives and for the raining down of the gifts of the Holy Spirit with which to
combat them. And we gave testimony to the One always eager to claim us as His
own walking in an unmistakable mass of voices lifting to the Heavens in vocal
prayer or song cultivating also moments of absolute silence and personal
prayer.
With each step our identity as sons and daughters deepened
in as much as we became more and more brothers and sisters. Under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary united as Church we endured all aspects of a
true pilgrimage symbolizing the course of the human life. From moments of
light-hearted joy to heavy fatigue, we were given the opportunity to remember
what, or rather Who, is at the center of our lives. Walking in the dead of
night past active bars or the contrastingly calm countryside, we find ourselves
yet again reoriented towards the real goal of our lives: that of Holiness.
Our guide, Fr. Maurizio Botta, never tired of reminding us
that to grow in holiness means to grow in our being children of God, and we
become children of God following His Son who is the only one who reveals to us
the Father. Contemplating the seven effusions of blood Christ suffered for us
in His Passion, we reflected heavily on His doing of the Father’s will. On the
cross, in the gravest of human suffering, Jesus calls God “Father” and accepts
His will. This is what it means to call God “Father”: to accept all in trust
from the loving hands of the One who loves us infinitely and unconditionally.
After the days of physical effects of this pilgrimage are
long gone (and of those I expect not just a few), I hope those of the spiritual
kind long remain. It was such a simple act in reality, what we did last night. There
was no glamour or limelight. The only cause of the attention we attracted was
our sheer number of participants. I was humbled by the realization that I too
often live my “daily life” disoriented from my true goal. That which we live
(worries, struggles, joys…) is only worth it in as much as it brings us into a
greater intimacy with the Son who reveals to us the Father and breaths upon us
the Holy Spirit. We must live every moment WITH Him praying unceasingly as He
implores us to do. No moment is too small or difficulty too great to invoke His
presence.
The graces I perceive to have immediately received from this
pilgrimage are: a greater sense peace; joy of being in communion with the
saints, both present and in the making; and a reorientation towards to true
goal of my life and center of it all, that is holiness and my relationship with
the Holy Trinity.
It was a sincere blessing for me to live this night of
simplicity, poverty, and fatigue in intercession for those I hold in my heart
and to give glory to Him to whom all honor and glory are due.
“He who wants anything other than Christ, does not know what he wants.”
– St. Philip Neri
