May 18, 2025
I remember very vividly, the weekend of May 18-19, 1963. My mother made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Hope in Essex, New York, a 2-hour drive from Montreal. She went with the Ladies of St. Anne. All parishes in Quebec have the Ladies of St. Anne. Each year, they made a pilgrimage. Sixty-two years ago, it was to Essex.
My father and I went to get mom when the bus pulled up to the parish, late Sunday night! Mom leapt down the bus’s steps. “We have to go back there to the Shrine!” And we did. From ‘63 till the Shrine closed in ‘71, we travelled every second Sunday to the Our Lady of Hope Shrine. We would spend the day. My father, who worked two jobs, always returned refreshed.
I mention this, because when the Archbishop was here to celebrate May 1, St. Joseph the Worker Feast Day with us, there were many people here who made a pilgrimage to our shrine here in Lowell. I hope they felt as refreshed from visiting our shrine on May 1 as my father and mother felt when they visited Essex, NY. Instead of Essex, NY, people come here to Lowell, MA.
On other days, usually the weekends, we have had groups of pilgrims visit us. Some are groups of young people. Sometimes they are novices. We have a group traveling all the way from Maine to visit us in another week!
I pray that as people visit our shrine they find refreshment for their souls as they journey through the Jubilee Year. I hope they keep coming here after the Jubilee. We welcome them like the Oblates welcomed my family all those years ago in Essex, NY.
I pray for you, you pray for me.
And remember, “Hope does not disappoint.”
