300 motorcyclists and many pilgrims gather for the1st Saturday of September 2025 at La Salette
Friday, September 5, eve of the1st Saturday of the month. The organization ” Perpetual Rosary for the World “a member of the Alliance des 1ers samedis du mois, arrives at La Salette. Like the knights of old, who prepared for a night of prayer, the members of the Chapelet Perpétuel set out for a night of complete adoration. On the eve of the ninth first Saturday of the Jubilee, their prayers soar in the silence of the night, attracting many graces to Her who is the mediatrix of all graces.
Saturday, September 6, it’s 1:55pm. In the village of Corps, located in the valley 15 km from La Salette, the engines begin to hum. One after the other, the Motards Chrétiens de Notre Dame start up their machines. Gathered in the main square, the 300 Motards Chrétiens de Notre Dame, riders and passengers, prepare for the procession up to the sanctuary of La Salette, 1850 meters above sea level.
Father Louis Marie Gay, chaplain of the Motards Chrétiens de Notre Dame, leads the pilgrims on his 1200 GS. At 2pm, the signal is given and they begin to climb the winding road behind their chaplain to solemnly celebrate the1st Saturday of the month up there, and console their heavenly Mother where she wept just over 175 years ago.
As we wind our way through the winding roads, the shrine comes into view. Proud descendants of the ancient horse pilgrims of yesteryear, our 21st-century biker pilgrims are no less moved, and their prayer is intense. At the top, the iron mounts are parked in order at the foot of the basilica. The other pilgrims, pedestrians, have already arrived. The hour of the1st Saturday in September is about to ring at La Salette, and it’s time to get ready.
The choir gets ready for rehearsal: choirmaster, organist, flutes and soprano prepare songs to the glory of Notre Dame, including the three great Ave Maria by Schubert, Gounod/Bach and Caccini. After a reminder of the first Saturdays of the month by the coordinator of the Salve Corda Alliance, the rosary is launched. Faced with the statue of Our Lady of La Salette in tears, the “Je vous Salue Marie“, offered in reparation, pierce the silence of the Basilica in deep emotion to console Our Lady.
At the end of the rosary, Father Louis Marie begins mass, during which communion of reparation is performed, the second act requested by Our Lady for the 1st Saturdays. At the end of mass, the Basilica once again falls silent, and the faithful carry out Our Lady’s third request: to keep her company for fifteen minutes, meditating on the mystery chosen for this1st Saturday: the crowning with thorns. This time dedicated to our heavenly Mother ends with a Salve Regina.
Sunday, September 7th. At the end of Sunday morning mass, helmets and motorcycles will be blessed, before the Motards Chrétiens de Notre Dame set off again, each to where their duty of state awaits them. Consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary from the outset, it’s no coincidence that circumstances have placed the Association des Motards Chrétiens de Notre Dame at the heart of the ninth first Saturday of the month of Jubilee 2025 at such an important shrine. With this act, they added another stone to the edifice of peace, the peace announced by Our Lady of La Salette in these words:
“Then there will be peace, God’s reconciliation with mankind; Jesus Christ will be served, adored and glorified; charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious, poor, zealous and an imitator of the virtues of Jesus Christ”. (Our Lady to Mélanie Calva, visionary of La Salette, September 19, 1846).
Meanwhile, on the same day in Rome, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis were canonized. The latter had seen Sister Lucy of Fatima in a dream, telling him: “The practice of the first Saturdays of the month could change the destiny of the world. On the evening of Sunday September 7, the lunar eclipse gave the star a reddish hue, sometimes called a “blood moon”, showing that the struggle for world conversion and peace is not over. There are still three first Saturdays of the month to go before the 100th anniversary of Notre Dame’s request, on December 10, 2025.
Let’s pray that the Holy Father will be sensitive to the bikers’ prayer and fulfill Our Lady’s request: to make an official act to recommend the 1st Saturdays of the month throughout the Church.
