Three questions on the streets of Rome

The “pilgrimage of the seven churches”: a path of faith and gratitude to discover the people that is the Church.

20240930 Cdf Pellegrinaggio Delle 7 Chiese 3 Grande
Seminarians walking along the streets of Rome as they participated in the “pilgrimage of the seven churches.”

For a while now, we have proposed a pilgrimage at the beginning of the year of seminary, to place our vocations in the hands of God and to sustain in prayer the many intentions that our friends entrust to us.

The route is known as the “Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches”: it was thought up by St. Philip Neri who at night, together with the young men who followed him, would gather to pray in the seven Jubilee churches of Rome.

He would leave from Santa Maria in Vallicella, go to St. Peters and St. Paul Outside the Walls, heading then to St. Sebastian and St. John Lateran, with a stop at Holy Cross in Jerusalem and St. Laurence until he finally arrived at St. Mary Major.

All in all, it is 25 kilometers in which the pilgrims are helped to remember the great saints that marked the origins of the Christian community: from the first pope, Peter, to Paul, the first missionary, and then to the first martyrs all the way to Mary, Mother of the Church.

This year, returning to Rome after a period of formation in Mexico, I experienced a fresh desire to go on pilgrimage with my brothers, in the wake of St. Philip, to entrust to God the Church, our Fraternity and the seminary.

Walking along the streets of Rome, while I watched the lines of cars stationary at traffic lights and the many persons who passed us by quickly, with headphones in their ears, I asked myself: who are we? Where are we going? For whom are we doing this?

We were walking alongside the persons with whom Christ came to encounter us

What came to mind was The Tidings Brought to Mary, in which one of the protagonists, Anna Vercors, when asked by his wife why he wants to leave everything to go on pilgrimage in Jerusalem, he responds to her: “We are too happy. And the others are not.” And then, in front of her who challenged him by asking how he could walk a pilgrimage by himself, he clarifies: “It is not only I. An immense people exults and departs with me.”

Returning to our pilgrimage, when in moments of silence I would look at the other seminarians and the friends who accompanied us, who came from different parts of Italy and the world, I thought that we too, like Anna, were walking alongside the persons with whom Christ came to encounter us and who elicited our desire to follow Him, the great people that is the Church. While then I concentrated on the mysteries of the passion of Jesus, as St. Philip recommended in his meditations, I experienced a profound gratitude for the fact that He wanted to give His life for me; and so, I desired to offer the difficulty of the journey, so that the many persons who are going through moments of difficulty, or who are simply searching for meaning in their life, can encounter Him and welcome Him in the heart. Those three questions now found a more clear response: we are those who have been saved and walk in life together, to encounter the Savior, expecting and embracing all of those who God desires to add to our company.

Related posts

View all
  • Meditations

Welcome like children

In the House of Formation, the discovery of the meaning of welcoming.

  • Donato Contuzzi
Read
  • Meditations

The Short Way to Heaven

On the evening of Christmas, the Pope opened the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Peter, kicking off the XXV Ordinary Jubilee in history. In this article, the path that brought us here.

  • Daniele Federici
Read
  • Gallery

Mass of St. Charles

A celebration to exchange Christmas greetings with friends, relatives, and benefactors.

  • Milan
Read