PILGRIMAGE & DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
Before returning home, the seminarians spend the last days of the summer program in Spain. These days provide an opportunity to make a final pilgrimage to reflect on their experience from the previous weeks– how it will strengthen them as they return home and to the seminary– and to seek the special intercession of Our Lady, Mother of priests.
As Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The Second Vatican Council invites priests to look to Mary as to the perfect model for their existence, invoking her as ‘Mother of the supreme and eternal Priest, as Queen of Apostles, and as Protectress of their ministry’. The Council continues, ‘priests should always venerate and love her, with a filial devotion and worship’.”
This year, the Class of 2018 will arrive in Spain on June 30th and will visit the shrines of:
Our Lady of Montserrat
https://www.montserratvisita.com/
Our Lady of Torreciudad
http://torreciudad.org/
Our Lady of the Pillar
https://thecatholictravelguide.com/destinations/spain/zaragoza-saragossa-spain/
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF THE PRIEST
“Every aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary as to the human being who better than anyone has corresponded to the vocation of God; who has become the servant and disciple of the Word up until conceiving in her heart and in her flesh the Word made man in order to give him to humanity; who has been called to educate the unique and eternal Priest, docile and submissive to her motherly authority. With her example and through her intercession, the Blessed Virgin continues watching over the development of vocations and of the priestly life of the Church (71).
“To her, the Mother of the Eternal High Priest, we want to entrust our priestly vocation, received with the imposition of hands on the day of our ordination, with which we are given the unmerited gift of being Alter Christus.
“To her, who keeps her priests in her heart and in the Church, we want to entrust our pastoral work and the abundant harvest of the Lord.
“To her, who welcomed us from the beginning, who protected us in our formation, we raise our petition, that she may accompany us in our priestly lives and ministries.”
His Eminence Norberto Cardinal Rivera
Archbishop Emeritus of Mexico City