Taken from the Booklet, Welcome to Notre Dame by Thomas F. Murphy Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, 1963 Devotions at the Cape Cap-de-la-Madeleine, or as it is most affectionately known, "the Cape", is a place of pilgrimage and devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. Usually a pilgrimage is made up of a number of devout people who go in a group or body to visit a certain place of devotion and who follow a prescribed course of pious exercises and devotions at that place. However, the pilgrimages to Our Lady of the Cape are different; insofar as people do go in organized groups and singly, that is where the similarity ends, because at the Cape there are no set exercises or rules. No one tells you when to pray or where. The times of the Masses are posted at the doors of the Church in French and English, as well as the hours of the other devotions that take place. After that it is left to the individual to fill in the details. This may seem to be very lax, but it is far from it, because after a few hours spent looking around the grounds and becoming familiar with their layout, a spirit of contentment settles on you and the worries that you brought with you to the Shrine seem to have been relegated to a very dim spot in your memory and an urge to pray comes in place of the worries you thought so important a short while ago. The grounds here are simple but beautiful in their simplicity. Simple because the Guardians of the Shrine have never attempted anything grandiose; simple because the planning is based on shelter from the wind and sun. Simple because in its simplicity one feels that here is a place especially set aside for those who have come to pay homage to Our Lady of the Rosary. The walks are so arranged that some part of the Shrine is always visible, reminding you that the Shrine is the center of attraction and the only one here. As you walked around you will have noticed the lake with an island in the middle. This is St. Mary's Lake and on the island in the lake is a statue of Our Lady of the Cape standing on a high pedestal. The lake is about the size of a football arena with its sloping grassy banks. On the island you will notice that the flowers are piled high to Our Lady's feet and this is the case from early Spring to late Fall------the flowers piled high paying homage to Our Lady with their colour and fragrance. This lake is the focal point of the Candlelight Procession that takes place each evening after the 9 p.m. Mass sung at the Basilica High Altar. But candlelight processions, you say to yourself, are the same everywhere, whether it is in Lourdes or Spain or Ireland or even in your own parish church. But here there is a difference and people who have visited all Shrines of note have agreed that this is the only place where the candlelight procession is different------a difference which is very hard to describe. Solemn? Yes! Dignified? Yes! Beautiful? Yes! But the difference still is there and I think that this difference is the feeling that this is what you have always wanted to do.   EVENING PROCESSION   Perhaps, tonight as you walk in the procession by torch light, you may feel some reason for this difference, but if you do, remember that each pilgrim in the procession is also experiencing the same feeling. After the Missa Cantata is finished the people leave the Basilica and as they leave they get their procession candles at the church doors. The Altar boys lead the way with the Crucifix. Lighting their candles the pilgrims form a procession and start through the grounds towards St. Mary's Lake. As they march, a hymn is sung and then a decade of the Rosary is recited, and here you relish and realize how wonderful it is to hear the different languages being used as the Rosary is recited. Slowly the procession wends its way through the grounds and makes its way to the lake and around the lakeside walks. The procession come to a standstill by the lakeside and the statue of Our Lady on the island is etched out in a brilliant light and then a Tableau takes place on the island. Three little children are brought to the island in a boat and these little children enact the Tableau. Usually, it is about the Gospel of the day or some event in the life of Our Lord and Our Lady or some apparition of Our Lady. When the Tableau is finished one of the children offers to Our Lady a bouquet of flowers on our behalf and here we feel at this moment that our prayers and requests are being placed at the feet of Our Lady by the innocent children. Then the procession restarts and slowly wends its way back to the church, which is now in semi-darkness. The people enter and take their places in the pews and along the aisles and crowd into the Shrine church and into the Annex. Yet as they enter, they have an air of expectancy about them. Then from the organ come the strains of the most beautiful hymn that I can listen to "Mother, at your feet is kneeling". Softly the music fills the church and then a young pilgrim sings the words in French and in English. As each verse finishes, extra lights come on in the church, at first around the statue and then gradually until the whole church is glowing in lights. When the hymn is finished I can safely say that there will be many wet eyes in the church. Don't say that it could not happen to you, because that is foolish. I know, because I said that very same thing and found that, along with other people, my eyes were wet with tears at the end of the hymn. There is nothing wrong with that feeling. In fact, it would do us all good if we experienced that kind of feeling more often, because then we could, perhaps, see the world in a better perspective. The lights are all on in the church and the priest goes to the pulpit and recites the last decade of the Rosary, which is usually recited with your eyes closed to keep out distractions. Then at the seventh Hail Mary the priest pauses and asks you to say the last three Hail Marys as you would were it your last three minutes on earth. Here you really feel the power of prayer and how close you are to our Blessed Mother. Then the priest and the other priests that may be present stand and give their blessings. Then you go to the Altar rails and venerate the Relics presented there. And with a final goodnight to Our Lady, you leave the church quietened and with a great respect and reverence for our religion which can give us such precious moments. But that is not all. Tomorrow you will go again through the same routine, if you will allow me to call it that. But it will be different, because you will derive something different from the experience tomorrow. Perhaps, as you make the Way of the Cross, you will come to realize that here was the greatest sacrifice of all and that little cross you have been growling about now seems to be a veritable sprat in the ocean of crosses; that all the crosses you could ever have would not even amount to one iota of all the sufferings depicted before your eyes. So you get to thinking and from thinking you get down to analyzing yourself and then you will leave with the thought that if you take all the crosses which come your way and mentally add them up against this the greatest cross of all, you will always take them gladly and go your way with a princely bearing knowing that you are following in the footsteps of Him Who made this first Via Crucis so many years ago and Who made it possible for us to accept our crosses so gracefully and smilingly. THE SPELL OF THE CAPE Then again, you will walk around St. Mary's Lake or sit beneath the shade of the trees, contemplating the years of your life that have passed by and the ones that are to come. Then you will realize that some of these years have been spent so badly that you are ashamed of them and of the way you have misspent them. Slowly but surely the spell of the Cape has crept into your blood and your mind and Our Lady has started to work on you. Across the air come the sounds of the Rosary which the people are saying in the church and again your mind realizes that here is the greatest prayer of all and you start to think of the many times you have said the Rosary. Yes, said the Rosary. But did you ever PRA Y THE ROSARY? Well, as you listen to the prayers coming over the loudspeakers, you start the Rosary too, but this time you are taking it easily and quietly and beginning to think about the decade as you pray. Then before you realize it, you have risen from your seat and started to the north side of the grounds where the beautiful replicas of the Mysteries of the Rosary stand. All the fifteen mysteries are there and you start with the first and slowly say the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary" but with a difference because now you realize that each decade has a meaning and you meditate on that meaning. On and on you go until all the fifteen Mysteries are said and it took such a small amount of your time. Thus it is all day, each day, at the Cape. You become engrossed in your spiritual welfare and you forget all the small things that were worries to you before you came here. Here you have found peace of mind and spiritual solace and fortitude to face the few things that the world can throw your way. In fact, you wonder why you ever did worry because now you have someone else to do it for you------Our Lady takes care of them all and that leaves you free to pray to Her every day and every minute of every day. You find that you get a familiarity with Her and rightly you realize that this is the only way to live your life------placing all your trust in Our Lady and giving Her all your problems. Then when things Her help to you and assist you through the waters of peril. HOW TO PRAY How many of us say "I prayed to Our Lady" or "I asked Our Lady for such and such", and then follow up with "my request was not granted". Of course not, because what you asked for was not for your good or you did not have faith sufficient. I learned to pray at the Cape. Yes, I learned to pray. After all these years of reading prayers and saying the Rosary, I found the real way to pray and, above all, the real way to pray the Rosary. Our Lady wants us to ask Her for things, for graces, for favours, but She wants us to be humble about it and not demanding, as if we had a right to these things we are looking for. Our Lady will give us what is good for us, but She has added another rule to the way of praying. To get you have to give------that is the other rule. Only by telling Her you will do something for Her, something that demands sacrifice, in return will She grant your request. Tell Her you will help someone else when the chance comes your way, like helping that neighbour of yours who has rheumatism or that elderly person who walks to church each Sunday. Perhaps you know a "Shut-in" who would welcome a visit or that lonely person who would like a drive in the country when you go on a picnic or drive. Go out of your way to do things for people, help people when they need help. Give of yourself to others and give until it hurts. Then you can go to Our Lady and say to Her: "Our Lady of the Cape, I have a little problem which requires your attention. I know you will help me because you know I need help." Having placed your problems in Her hands you will have your answer if it is for your good. And having placed your problems in Her hands you have shown that you have indeed the true faith. The Pilgrim Statue "Have statue------will travel". That would seem to be the motto of the Guardians. As mentioned before the statue already has made some impressive journeys. In 1947, the Pilgrim Virgin went to the Ottawa Marian Congress and to the Pacific Coast of the United States. Then from 1949 to 1953, She toured all Canada in preparation for the 1954 Marian Year. In 1961, a Pilgrim Virgin journeyed to the Marian Congress in Argentina, but no matter where She went there was always a great and rousing welcome for Our Lady's statue and the priests who accompanied Her. It would seem as if Our Lady got tired waiting for the people to come and visit with Her and instead, She came to the people. There were reports from all sides of the wonderful favours and graces that were received by the people and there were also many reports of physical cures. Truly, Our Lady had come down to the people when they did not come to Her Shrine in sufficient numbers. It is a pity that we do not realize this and do not make it the object of our efforts to visit the Shrine every year or at least every other year. To me there is no place like the Cape. In fact, I call it my second home and feel that each time I come back to visit the Shrine that I am going home again. To me there is no vacation which I could have which would equal one hour spent at the Shrine. Here I find peace of mind and can forget all the banal trivialities of our work-a-day existence. Here I get the real perspective of life and the true meaning of what life has to offer us. E-MAIL HOME---------------MARY'S INDEX--------------CHILDREN'S VERSION OF NOTRE DAME DU CAP www.catholictradition.org/Mary/ducap2-5b.htm