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Heritage Talk: Eucharist and Pilgrimage: The Great Intercessory Prayer
February 20 @ 5:15 pm
Easter Sunday 2024 marked the centennial anniversary of the celebration of the first Public Mass held inside the National Shrine. The celebration of the inauguration of the liturgical life of this grand and noble votive church in honor of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, will be celebrated throughout 2024 and 2025.
Join us in the Crypt Church for the 5:15 p.m. Mass on Thursday, February 20, 2025, as Reverend Monsignor Vito A. Buonanno, Director of Pilgrimages at the National Shrine, gives a homily titled: “Eucharist and Pilgrimage: the Great Intercessory Prayer” as part of our Heritage Talk Series.
Following the event, the presentation will be made available for viewing on the National Shrine’s Website and YouTube Channel.
More about the speaker:
A native of New York, Vito Anthony Buonanno was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1981. During his years in Brooklyn, Monsignor Buonanno’s ministry was that of associate pastor and pastor; a member of the Diocesan Art and Architecture Committee; Interim Director of Liturgy (2005-07) and Associate Director of Liturgy (2007-09). Monsignor Buonanno also helped the Diocese of Brooklyn in planning, coordinating, and assisting at several diocesan pilgrimages to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Monsignor Buonanno was appointed Director of Pilgrimages at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, in 2009. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named him a Chaplain to His Holiness with the title “Reverend Monsignor.” For the last sixteen years, Monsignor Buonanno has guided and facilitated pilgrimages to the National Shrine from dioceses across the United States, religious communities, Catholic organizations, and schools.
More about the session:
The focus of any pilgrimage is prayer, specifically the celebration of Eucharist. The oldest pilgrimages, second only to those to the Holy Land to walk the paths of Jesus, are the Marian pilgrimages. The faithful journeyed to the place of miraculous images and apparitions to offer prayers of intercession, thanksgiving, and devotion.
Little has changed over the centuries. What is different, unique, about pilgrimages to the National Shrine, is that the pilgrim is offered the opportunity to pray at “pilgrimage sites” from around the world in one location: a world of Marian devotion under one roof.
The chapels and oratories of the National Shrine are filial in that each relates to the mother shrine in the country of its origin. Each chapel or oratory is adorned with either a certified exact copy, or an heirloom replica, or an original work of art depicting the Blessed Mother. When crossing the threshold into one of the chapels or oratories, the pilgrim enters not only a new space but also a different ethos by virtue of culture, ethnicity, and spirituality. The journey into each chapel or oratory is a pilgrimage unto itself, a pilgrimage within a pilgrimage. Whether a pilgrim to Jerusalem or a pilgrim to Mary’s Shrine in Washington, D.C., each discovers the same basic truth: being a Christian is a pilgrimage and Eucharist is our prayer.
