Title: Family pilgrimages: where to go, how to live them, prayers

Setting out on a pilgrimage alone makes it possible to live a special moment in union with the Lord and to disconnect from the everyday. But going as a family also allows for a beautiful encounter with Christ—differently, to be sure. It is a true moment of communion, sharing, and sometimes mutual help to experience with your parents, your children, or your brothers and sisters. Making a pilgrimage as a family is the chance to spend time only with your loved ones, without friends or the usual activities, and to refocus on what is essential. You can talk about the past year, family events underway, a difficulty or a problem one family member is facing. A pilgrimage therefore makes it possible to talk, to pray, sometimes to walk, but above all to entrust to God our prayers and the people we love.

Places for a family pilgrimage

There are many places of pilgrimage to do alone, as a couple, with friends, or as a family, in France and around the world. Dioceses regularly organize local pilgrimages for families—particularly the dioceses of Chartres or Bordeaux. You should check the parish or diocesan website to find out when they are organized. Mont-Saint-Michel and Rocamadour are major places of pilgrimage in France, particularly loved by pilgrims. Families can, of course, take part in these. But be aware that the number of steps to climb to reach the sanctuaries at these two magnificent places can be a barrier for young children.

Here are other national pilgrimage sites to do as a family:

Lourdes, in Occitanie

Lourdes welcomes between 4 and 6 million pilgrims every year. Its renown is due to the thousands of miraculous healings that have taken place there, including 70 healings that have been officially recognized. The great pilgrimage of August 15, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an opportunity for families to be together, make beautiful memories, and pray to the Mother of the Savior. There are activities organized for children and teenagers, from 6 months to 18 years old. They can even become volunteers, altar servers, or choristers. Parents can of course team up with their children—especially teens—to help the sick or people with disabilities. These moments strengthen family bonds.

Cotignac, in the Var

Called the Village of the Holy Family, Cotignac witnessed an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, holding the Child Jesus in her arms, on August 10 and 11, 1519, and of Saint Joseph on June 7, 1660. It is therefore quite natural that this village became the place of choice for families wishing to make a pilgrimage. The brothers of the Community of Saint John, established at the Saint Joseph du Bessillon sanctuary, regularly welcome pilgrims and people on retreat. There is a second sanctuary, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, called Our Lady of Grace. Cotignac is a place where couples hoping for a child come in great numbers to entrust their longing to the Lord; the ex-votos left there bear witness to the great number of children born following the pilgrimage!

The pilgrimage of Saint Mary Magdalene

Inaugurated in May 2022, this pilgrimage route was created by the Association of the Saints of Provence in order to honor Saint Mary Magdalene and all the virtues she embodies. The route crosses the key places of her ministry before she withdrew as a hermit into the Sainte-Baume grotto. The departure point is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and the arrival is Saint-Maximin. The route is 222 kilometers long and consists of ten stages. Families can walk in the footsteps of this great saint by splitting their itinerary to suit all ages.

The Tro Breiz

This 700-kilometer pilgrimage in the heart of Brittany allows pilgrims to walk in the footsteps of the region’s seven founding saints. Families can absolutely do this pilgrimage because the elevation gain is not very significant in Brittany. It therefore does not pose a major difficulty. Moreover, since the pilgrimage passes through towns, families can rest there and do it in several stages (there are thirty). Pilgrims therefore pass through Tréguier to pray to Saint Tugdual, through Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo to pray to the eponymous saints, in Dol for Saint Samson, in Vannes for Saint Patern, in Quimper for Saint Corentin, and in Saint-Pol-de-Léon for Saint Pol-Aurélien.

The Ways of Saint James of Compostela

For a weekend or for a longer vacation, the Ways of Compostela are ideal itineraries for the family. They are dotted with inns and delightful towns and villages to discover. The GR65, also called the Via Podiensis, is perfect for a first pilgrimage on these legendary routes, notably thanks to the fact there is a pilgrims’ hostel every 10 kilometers. The full GR is 770 kilometers and can therefore be split up to suit all levels and ages. The departure point is Le Puy-en-Velay. It is a chance for pilgrims to visit villages listed among the “most beautiful villages of France” or the “oldest villages of France.”

Two beautiful prayers for making a family pilgrimage

Asking the Lord for gentleness

To make a peaceful pilgrimage with your family, here is a short prayer to recite as a family to ask the Lord to make us gentle, in his image:

“Lord, give me a listening heart.
Give me a tongue that knows how to say ‘thank you.’
Give me a hand that knows how to reach out to forgive.
Give me eyes that know how to see the beauty that is growing.
Give me patience and wonder.
Give me the grace to express my desires and needs and to know how to welcome those of others.
Teach me to love and to let myself be loved.
Make the families of the earth places of communion, forgiveness, and gratitude.
Thus abundant life will spring forth according to your design.
Amen.”

Prayer for the family

“God, who are the origin of the family and who willed it to be a place of love and of life, grant to all the families of the earth to resemble the one you gave to your Son, to be united like it by the bonds of your charity, and to be open like it to the calls of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

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