The pilgrimage of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté concluded this Monday of Pentecost in Chartres with a solemn pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke according to the traditional Roman rite. Before nearly 20,000 pilgrims from various countries, the American prelate delivered a homily marked by a call to fidelity, perseverance, and the defense of Catholic tradition amid the contemporary spiritual crisis.
The Paris-Chartres pilgrimage, already one of the great symbols of the resurgence of traditional Catholicism among young Europeans, once again broke participation records this year. In a context marked by restrictions on the ancient rite following Traditionis Custodes, the phenomenon continues to grow and increasingly attracts young people distant from the Church, large families, and converts.
“We do not yield to discouragement or despair”
At the heart of his preaching, Burke recalled that the Christian life is a pilgrimage toward the eternal homeland and encouraged the faithful to remain steadfast in the face of the spiritual crisis of the world and of the Church itself.
“We renew our response to every personal spiritual crisis we may go through, as well as to the spiritual crisis of the world and of the Church,” the cardinal affirmed.
In the face of discouragement and confusion, Burke urged perseverance in the “good fight” of the faith and remaining united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the most pure heart of Saint Joseph.
“We do not yield to discouragement or despair,” he proclaimed before the pilgrims gathered in Chartres Cathedral.
Saint Joseph, guardian of tradition
One of the most significant moments of the homily came when the cardinal presented Saint Joseph as protector of the Church and custodian of Catholic tradition.
“Saint Joseph is the protector of the Church, the guardian of holy tradition, of holy doctrine, of holy liturgy, and of holy discipline,” Burke affirmed.
The prelate’s words were interpreted by many pilgrims as an implicit defense of the traditional liturgy, precisely in a pilgrimage where the Tridentine Mass remains the main spiritual and pastoral axis.
The Chartres phenomenon continues to grow
The pilgrimage to Chartres is consolidating year after year as one of the most striking phenomena of contemporary European Catholicism. What for decades was considered a small traditionalist enclave has become a massive manifestation of young people and families drawn by the traditional liturgy, the sense of the sacred, and doctrinal clarity.
While part of post-conciliar pastoral care spent years trying to adapt the liturgy to the modern world, the success of Chartres seems to show the opposite phenomenon: thousands of young people who discover, precisely through the traditional rite, a gateway to the Catholic faith.
Below, we present the homily delivered by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Your annual days of pilgrimage have reached their destination: the altar of Christ’s sacrifice in this historic and magnificent house of God dedicated to Christ God the Incarnate Son and to His Virgin Mother. By pilgrimaging to a holy place, the oldest and most efficacious of spiritual oceans, you have left your ordinary life to meet Our Lord in an extraordinary place.
In doing so, you have rediscovered the extraordinary character of your ordinary life. Because you live in Christ, and according to the promise He made to the apostles at the moment of His ascension to the right hand of the Father, you have received the grace of the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. The same sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles in the Upper Room was poured into the hearts of some three thousand faithful at Pentecost through the ministry of the Apostles.
In today’s Epistle we heard how, through the ministry of Saint Peter, the Holy Spirit descended upon the members of the household of the pagan Cornelius in Caesarea. By that same ministry exercised by the successors of the apostles, the same gift of the Holy Spirit, from the day of Pentecost and throughout the Christian centuries, has been poured into the hearts of countless faithful; it has been poured into your hearts from the glorious and pierced Heart of Jesus. By undertaking a pilgrimage, you will have discovered the truth that your days on earth are a pilgrimage toward your true and eternal dwelling in heaven, and that the struggles, fatigue, and sufferings of your earthly pilgrimage are for eternal good.
Let us remember each day the words of Our Lord to Nicodemus in today’s Gospel: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” The pilgrimage brings the grace that allows us to joyfully accept the trials of daily life in Christ, offering to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that celebrate His name.
By pilgrimaging to a holy place, you have sought to cooperate more fully and perfectly with the grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in your soul. To fulfill your missionary vocation, your call to be collaborators of Christ in divine truth and love. For the salvation of your soul and those of your brothers and sisters who, like you, are called to live in Christ through the profession of faith and the reception of the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation.
The practice of your pilgrimage includes the encounter with Christ in the sacrament of penance for the forgiveness of your sins and the renewal of the baptismal grace of the Holy Spirit in your hearts. And it now culminates with your participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice of Our Lord, through which He makes sacramentally present His sacrifice on Calvary and its incomparable fruit: His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, the Bread of Heaven that nourishes the life of the Holy Spirit in us throughout all the days of our earthly pilgrimage toward our eternal dwelling in heaven. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady, has drawn your hearts to her Immaculate Heart, which is one with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, her divine Son.
Our Lady, Mother of God and Mother of grace, knows what our hearts most deeply desire. She knows what we need most. Especially in moments of weariness, doubt, confusion, and temptation.
She draws us to herself, as she did with the servants at Cana, and leads us to her divine Son, to His Heart, with this maternal and firm counsel: “Do whatever He tells you.” She is our infallible guide in fulfilling our mission, in the portion of Our Lord’s vineyard that He entrusts to us.
While day after day we unite our hearts to her Immaculate Heart, she leads us to Christ so that, like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and all the saints, we may be His love in the Church, especially in the family, the first cell of the Church’s life. The devotion of the pilgrimage is particularly powerful in grace for the knowledge and acceptance of our vocation, of God’s plan for us from the moment of our baptism, whether in marriage and family, in consecrated life, or in the ordained priesthood. The extraordinary character of our ordinary life is marked in a particular way by the maternal solicitude and guidance of Our Lady.
Saint Joseph, true spouse of the Virgin Mother and virginal father of Jesus, has protected your path of pilgrimage throughout our earthly pilgrimage. He protects the path by which Our Lady leads us to her Son, who alone is our salvation. He is the protector of the Church, the guardian of holy tradition, of holy doctrine, of holy liturgy, and of holy discipline.
The guardian through whom the life of Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit, is in fact transmitted to us from apostolic times until today. Saint Joseph, whose heart is entirely faithful, generous, and pure, with a paternal solicitude toward us, in particular toward Our Holy Mother, securely guards our path by fulfilling all that Our Lord asks of us, above all by responding to our vocation. Serving God the Father by the grace of the Holy Spirit that flows in our hearts from the glorious and pierced Heart of Jesus.
Saint Joseph, always faithful, generous, and pure in his virginal love for Our Lady and for us, protects our path. In every trial and tribulation, and especially at the moment of our death, we should keep in mind the prophetic instruction of the Pharaoh of Egypt when the people were dying of hunger and responded to the distressed people: “Go to Joseph; do whatever he tells you.” These words refer to the patriarch Joseph, a figure of Saint Joseph.
Thus, in her wisdom, the Church teaches us, in our distress, to turn to Saint Joseph, true spouse of the Virgin Mary and virginal father of the Savior. “Ite ad Ioseph,” “Go to Joseph.” Fidelity, generosity, and purity of heart find their source in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. They find their most perfect human model in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
They find their most perfect guide and protector in the most pure Heart of Saint Joseph. The glorious and pierced Heart of Jesus, the glorious and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the most pure Heart of Saint Joseph are united in perfect unity by their participation in the truth and divine love of the Most Holy Trinity. In giving thanks to God for the many blessings granted during these days of pilgrimage, I express on behalf of all of us my sincere gratitude to Philippe Darantière, president of the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté Association; to Étienne Touraille, director of pilgrims; to Abbot Jean de Massia, general chaplain; and to all those who have worked with such constancy and excellence to make this pilgrimage rich in graces possible for you and for the many souls for whom you have prayed during the pilgrimage.
I wholeheartedly thank His Excellency Bishop Philippe Christory, Bishop of Chartres, for the warm welcome in this historic and living diocese. I am personally very grateful for the invitation extended to me to celebrate the solemn pontifical Mass today. Through the pilgrimage, we renew our response to every personal spiritual crisis we may go through, as well as to the spiritual crisis of the world and of the Church.
We do not yield to discouragement or despair. With hearts united to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and under the paternal protection of the most pure Heart of Saint Joseph, we thus rest securely in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We fight, according to the words of Saint Paul, the good fight.
We keep the course and preserve the faith, confident in the promise of eternal life that Our Lord reserves for all those who have loved His coming. Let us now unite our hearts, united to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and under the protection of the most pure Heart of Joseph, to the glorious and pierced Heart of Jesus, opened for us in the Eucharistic sacrifice. While Our Lord nourishes us with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, let us return to our ordinary life deeply aware of its extraordinary character.
The Heavenly Father, the sacred Host, sustains us throughout the pilgrimage of life and leads us to its destination: our eternal dwelling with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The hour of the wedding of the Lamb, in the company of the angels and the Virgin Mother of God, with Saint Joseph and all the saints. Happy to have made this pilgrimage in honor of Our Lord and His Virgin Mother, Our Lady of Chartres, let us pray each day:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, guide us on our way.
Most pure Heart of Joseph, protect our way.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.