Meanwhile there are usually thousands of people who are usually in attendance, with the purpose of sanctification and purification with various intentions which are presented to our Mother Mary, after which such intentions are burnt with the prayers of insensation been said. Nevertheless various activities such as: Procession from the river side, the Opening mass, stations of the cross, exposition and veneration of the Blessed Sacrament, confessions, prayer sections etc.
The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of Mother of God, to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. This very special devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration. The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel”, express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. Marian prayer and piety developed very early in the history of the undivided Christian Church of the first millennium and has been kept alive in a myriad of practices in the both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches. Perhaps the most popular expression of Marian piety in the Latin Church is the praying of the rosary.
Mary is the perfect Orans, a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus' mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope. Throughout the world however there are special places of pilgrimage associated with Marian prayer and piety. Places where the Mother of the Lord has appeared to the faithful, proclaiming the Gospel message to repent from sin and turn to her Son and Savior, Jesus Christ. Associated with each of these places, popular piety has kept alive the vibrant religious sense of the faithful who call upon the Mother of God for her prayerful assistance and maternal protection.
Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer "in Church". Traditionally, the call to pilgrimage came during either a spiritual crisis or an opportunity to fulfill a spiritual obligation. The long walk down what used to be called “the glory road” was meant to give a pilgrim ample time to contemplate deep issues that couldn’t be answered at home. Today, the call may even be more intense because life has become so frenetic that most of us claim not to have enough to think about spiritual issues on the traditional level, but also other deep concerns, such as failing marriages, job crises, or the general malaise. The cry for pilgrimage is an antidote to our over-amped lives.
Therefore the Church in Ijebu-Ode Diocese took up this spiritual exercise by journeying on a Pilgrimage to seek the intercession, face and, favor of our Mother Mary because Pilgrimage' is a wide-ranging topic touching on many aspects of human existence, signifying not only a physical journey to a special place, but also an inner spiritual journey and indeed life itself.
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