The month of May is a time of Marian pilgrimages for Regnum Christi members! This year, our pilgrimage was extraordinary. This past academic year two Scriptural images captured values we share in our community: the first was the Upper Room, where the apostles gathered around Our Lady in prayer invoking the coming of the Holy Spirit in that first novena before Pentecost. For us, this summarized our desire to contemplate and share our spiritual goods. The second image was the Visitation because it moved us to seek intentional encounters and to be ardently evangelizing as Pope Francis has encouraged each one of us.
When we began the year we did not know whether Mater Ecclesiae College would continue. We identified with the apostles, praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to guide them. Now as the year is coming to a close, we find ourselves even more united in prayer in the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit has made it clear that we need to close the College and the 14 of us who have served here, are awaiting new assignments.
Our chosen site of pilgrimage was to Mary, Star of the Sea– fitting as nearly all of us will leave the Ocean State. One of my companions, Jana Crea, worked to make it very meaningful for us in the context we are living. She chose five songs for the rosary that invoke Mary under the title of Star of the Sea. We contemplated five scriptural mysteries that were manifestations of the Holy Spirit: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation, Jesus’ Baptism and then, the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Jana offered a reflection before each decade, on how those mysteries spoke to our community in welcoming the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
One person guided by and docile to the Holy Spirit can collaborate in God’s desire to make all things new. We did not go very far to reach the site of Mary, Star of the Sea, but it was a renewed experience of a Marian pilgrimage that each one of us will take with us to our new communities wherever we go!
