For four days, from October 2nd to 5th, we participated in the diocesan pilgrimage to experience the Jubilee in its most traditional form: a visit to Rome's major basilicas, passing through the Holy Door.
Led by our bishop and the vicar general, we crossed the thresholds of the four basilicas, acknowledging our desire to receive mercy and grace. At the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul, we renewed our profession of faith, in the form in which it was transmitted to us by the Church. Other particularly poignant moments were the visits to the basilicas of Santa Prassede, which preserves the remains of nearly two thousand martyrs, and San Pietro in Vincoli, with the chains that held the apostle during his imprisonment. All these extraordinary places took us back in time to the beginnings of the Church, when the consistent witness of so many Christians enabled the message of salvation to reach us today.
As Father Daniele Baldi emphasised at the end of our trip, a pilgrimage to Rome during the Jubilee Year is always a significant experience in the life of every Christian, but even more so for those of us who choose to participate as a diocesan group. The opportunity to experience the pilgrimage together with our bishop and, in a certain sense, representing the entire diocese has strengthened our personal connection with our local church and with the individuals who comprise it.
The many new faces we had the opportunity to meet are, in fact, among the most beautiful memories we take home from this journey: so many different stories, but all marked by an encounter with the Risen One. From our conversations with each of them, wonderful testimonies emerged of how we can be transformed every day by an encounter with the Lord, who calls us to follow him. In the stories of some priests about their own ministry or that of other priests, and in the memories of a couple about the many years of marriage spent side by side, we saw in all its clarity and beauty that baptismal vocation, realised in each of us in a unique way, which we, in our journey of discernment, are slowly learning to discover. In short, we return home after this pilgrimage decidedly enriched by the grace received both in the Jubilee rites and in the encounters with so many brothers and sisters who share our faith within our own diocese and whom, for this reason, we now feel surprisingly close to.
In the foreground are Alessandro (a fifth-year seminarian), Luca (in preparatory studies), and Angelo, one of the university students who lives in the fraternity of young people in the seminary.
Photo gallery
