As we have mentioned before, there are certainly a significant amount of distinctive features of the Mount Royal experience. Yesterday, we embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. We confusingly but miraculously - and partially through the benevolence of the parent - pile into as many vehicles as needed, then travel 20 minutes north of the school to a LaSallate shrine. It is a great sacrifice that the entire school offers in thanksgiving to the prayers of Our Lady, who continues to lovingly watch over our school community. We were also asked to pray in a special way for the shrine itself, which attests to the power of prayer, especially the power of youthful prayer.
Upon arrival, we ate lunch together, and then we prayed the rosary as a school on the grounds of the shrine. During lunch, the hall was filled with children of every age, newborns to young men and women. Some of the older children were sharing the new life given to their families with their peers, a trademark of our school. We are indeed very open to life! Parents travel with their newborns, and the entire school community embraces them with open arms.
The recitation of the rosary was a magnificently holy and reverent occasion! Each grade level led a decade, and as we finished walking around the life-size rosary beads at the shrine, we continued the thank Mary for her graciousness in a spirit of prayer. Afterwords, students and classes traversed the hillside, pausing to look at the various marian statues that are scattered throughout.
We would like to thank all those parents who sacrificed their time and energy to help us move our prayerful students to the shrine. We also extend a note of gratitude to our students, who willingly offer this spiritual sacrifice each and every year.
We hope to have some images of the pilgrimage available shortly!