Marie Reine du Canada

August 31, September 1 and 2

Theme for 2024: "Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows"

Saturday: Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows

Sunday: Saint Bridget of Sweden

Monday: Blessed Émilie Tavernier

Marie Reine du Canada, a lay-led apostolate of St. Clement Parish, Ottawa, organizes the annual three-day 100 km pilgrimage on foot from Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie to Notre-Dame-du-Cap shrine at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Que.

A pilgrimage is a journey made to a holy place or shrine for the sanctification of the pilgrim; with the purpose of venerating a saint or martyr associated with the site; to pray to God; to ask for supernatural aid; to give thanks for favours received; or to discharge a religious obligation. The arduous journey, offered joyfully to God, represents our spiritual pilgrimage to the Heavenly City.

Mass is celebrated each day of the pilgrimage in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite, the traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. Our chaplains are priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter (www.fssp.org), canonically established by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988. The late Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, expressed the desire that the Tridentine Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal of il papa buono, Blessed Pope John XXIII, should flourish and continue to enrich our spiritual lives, particularly among the young and on pilgrimages.

“Let me say this plainly: the Holy Father wants the ancient use of the Mass to become a normal occurrence in the liturgical life of the Church so that all of Christ’s faithful – young and old – can become familiar with the older rites and draw from their tangible beauty and transcendence. The Holy Father wants this for pastoral reasons as well as for theological ones.” — Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, Address to the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, London, 14 June 2008.

Mass is celebrated in parish churches along the route — in Berthierville, Maskinongé, sometimes in Lanoraie, and in the historic Small Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape at Cap de la Madeleine, with the permission of the parish priests and the OMI at the shrine.

At least two priests are normally available to hear confessions in French and English throughout the pilgrimage, en route, in camp, or before mass.

Can't come for the whole pilgrimage? Come join us on Monday for the picnic and closing Mass.