Catholic Family Fun | Rosary Priest | prayer | Family Rosary Pilgrimage
Welcome back to the HFCM pilgrimage journal!
If Day 2 was a sprint up a mountain and Day 3 was a crash course in riverfront history, Day 4 gave us exactly what a group traveling with toddlers, teenagers, and grandparents needed: a bit of a later start and a morning meant for catching our breath.
Looking back across our journey so far, it is truly amazing to see how intentionally God has been working on this retreat. We came here on a pilgrimage, and the first thing He impressed on us at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré was the grandparents and the vital role they have in Catholic life. Then, at Our Lady of the Cape, it was the Mother who brought back her children as their faith faded. And today, our stops brought our hearts directly to the Father and his essential role in protecting and providing.
All of these family members; grandparents, mother, and father, ultimately existed to serve a child, who continues to shape history for us all.
Our slower morning kicked off at Mount Royal Park. It was a chilled-out environment that allowed everyone to simply enjoy the sunshine. We spent the first part of our time hanging out at the playground with the kids, watching the ducks have an absolute ball on the sunny pond while smiles broke out all around.
The pavilion on-site offered a mix of coffee, ice cream, and other snacks, but after a mild negotiation, our family settled on hot chocolate. I know… on a sunny day, your brain naturally screams for a cold treat. But when the young ones outnumber the parents, you pick your battles… My wife and I let them have the win. To be fair, it was delicious.
Just as we were settling in, word broke on our WhatsApp group chat: “You have to see the city lookout!” Naturally, a mini-frenzy broke out in different pockets of our larger group, everyone suddenly on a mission to catch a glimpse of Montreal from the elevated heights of Mount Royal. We managed to take every single wrong path the park had to offer.
As the morning sun beat down, the kids grew impatient, and we were just about ready to throw in the towel. We decided to gamble on one last path based on some incredibly rough directions dropped into the chat. We climbed higher and higher until, finally, the tops of skyscrapers began to rise above the tree line. We had made it.
The view over Montreal was absolutely spectacular, and in an instant, attitudes flipped from near despair to pure joy.
With our park adventure conquered, we headed toward our main destination. But first, we had to survive Montreal traffic. We spent a solid 20 minutes jamming in and out of tight lanes, navigating a sea of orange roadwork cones that stretched on for ever. When we finally reached the epicenter of the backup, we found the culprit: what looked like 40 workers and a two-mile traffic jam, all gathered together to fill a pothole.
I might be wrong, and I might be exaggerating a little, but that was definitely the parental perception from my vantage point! Fortunately, just around a few more corners, an image appeared that made us instantly forget about the city's infrastructure quirks. Rising majestically into the sky was St. Joseph’s Oratory.
The Oratory is a human achievement of epic proportions. It’s a massive 10-story structure that feels a bit like a majestic underground bunker in certain areas, complete with giant escalators that feel like they are taking you straight up to heaven.
Standing before it, it is awe-inspiring to realize that this is the largest church dedicated to Saint Joseph in the entire world. Its massive dome is the second largest of its kind in the world, surpassed only by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and the basilica itself stands as the most visited religious site in all of North America.
It was a deeply fitting way to cap off the final major milestone in our holy trek through French Canadian territory. What started on Day 2 with stories of French sailors shipwrecked on the banks of Quebec City has led us here, to the towering legacy of a humble French Canadian Brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
The story of how this place grew is one of relentless, expanding faith. It began in 1904 when Brother André built a tiny, simple wooden chapel on the side of the mountain, barely big enough to hold a handful of people.
As the crowds of pilgrims swelled, the structure underwent multiple variations, growing into a larger stone crypt church in 1917, before work finally began on the monumental basilica we see today, which was completed in 1967.
But our favorite part of the architectural history is a story from the very beginning. When Brother André first looked out over the land where he dreamed of building a magnificent shrine to honor his spiritual father, they lacked the funds. Undeterred, Brother André took a small statue of Saint Joseph, placed it completely unprotected outside on the side of the mountain, and boldly prayed for him to “put a roof over his own head” to protect himself from the harsh Canadian snow, rain, and blistering sun.
Saint Joseph answered that prayer in a massive way.
From Old Quebec to Mount Royal, these stories perfectly trace the great faith arc of the French in Canada. This trip has been a perfectly planned pilgrimage to give those of us who participated an understanding of the deep spiritual roots of Catholicism in France, roots that crossed the Atlantic and bloomed in the wilderness of the New World.
At the core of this history is a magnificent devotion to the Holy Family, beautifully intertwined with the legacy of Blessed Basil Moreau. He founded the Congregation of Holy Cross in France in 1837 in the painful aftermath of the French Revolution. Looking out at a broken, fractured world, Father Moreau’s explicit goal was to rebuild society in the image of the Holy Family, using Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as the ultimate template of how to live, support one another, and serve.
The French pioneers who came to Canada held those exact same faithful, family-centric beliefs. They poured that vision into the soil of Quebec, and the jaw-dropping fruits of that vision can be seen towering directly over Montreal today.
The human catalyst for all of this was Saint Brother André Bessette. He was small, frail, and suffered from chronic stomach issues his whole life. Orphaned at a young age when his parents died, he was left with very little education and was rejected by various employers because he was simply too weak to perform manual labor. When he entered the Congregation of Holy Cross, his superiors didn't know what to do with him, so they gave him the humblest job available: the doorkeeper at Notre Dame College. Brother André jokingly used to say, "When I joined this community, my superiors showed me the door... and I stayed there for forty years."
Having lost his earthly parents so young, Brother André completely accepted Saint Joseph as his spiritual father. We all need a strong father figure in our lives, and St. Joseph became a true, protective provider and the absolute best friend to Brother André.
From that little school doorway, Brother André changed Canada. Armed with a quiet faith and his massive devotion to his spiritual father, he began welcoming the sick, rubbing them with oil from a lamp hanging near a statue of St. Joseph, and praying with them. Miracles started happening, and hundreds of people were healed. Today, inside the grand basilica, the testimonies are literal; there are walls covered in the crutches, canes, and braces left behind by those who walked away healed.
Beyond the grand architecture, our time at the Oratory was made deeply personal and sacred thanks to our incredible tour guide for the day, Father Jomom. A close friend of our own Father Boby for the past 30 years, Father Jomom welcomed us like family. He celebrated a beautiful, intimate Mass just for us in a private chapel, blessed our group with the traditional Saint Joseph oil, and granted us a rare, monumental privilege: the opportunity to venerate a first-class relic of Saint André himself.
Enclosed in a glass case, this precious relic, a piece of Saint André’s actual heart, travels all across North America to bring healing and hope to the faithful. Today, we thank God that our paths aligned so perfectly, giving us the immense privilege of spending time with Father Jomom and holding our families close in the presence of a saint's heart.
Standing inside the Oratory, it was impossible not to see the parallels between Brother André and our own retreat patron, Venerable Patrick Peyton.
Both men were counted out by the world due to their health. Brother André was deemed too weak for religious life, while Patrick Peyton contracted a severe case of tuberculosis as a young seminarian that nearly took his life.
When medicine failed them, both men turned entirely to the intercession of Christ's family… Patrick Peyton to the Blessed Mother through the Rosary, and André to Saint Joseph.
Against all human odds, both went on to build global spiritual legacies from absolutely nothing but pure trust in God.
As the day drew to a close, we were given one more treat from heaven. Because the Oratory sits so high on the northern ridge of Mount Royal, it boasts one of the highest vantage points in the entire city, facing perfectly West.
As the sun started to set, an incredible thing occurred. Crowds began to gather out on the massive, sweeping stone steps that led up to the basilica. People come from all walks of life for this… pilgrims with rosaries in hand, local college students, photographers setting up tripods, and families like ours winding down from a long day.
A distinct, collective hush falls over hundreds of strangers as the sky turns a fiery blend of orange, pink, and deep violet.
For our family retreat, it was a moment of peace. Looking out over the city as the sun dipped past the horizon, it felt like God was setting His own final seal on the day… a visual reminder of the majesty of the Creator, watched from the house built by His humble servant.
Tomorrow brings our final day of this incredible journey before we point our wheels back toward home. We’ve got one more day of family chaos, and spiritual renewal ahead of us.
HFCM Pilgrimage: Day 4 Complete.
Saint André of Montreal and Venerable Patrick Peyton, pray for our families!