BOSTON -- Approximately 2,000 people from 17 ethnic communities across the Archdiocese of Boston filled Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica (Mission Church) in Boston on April 7 to unite in a common devotion to Divine Mercy and the Blessed Mother.

The event, Walking with Mary, was held on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday. The day began with a procession into the Basilica led by an image of the Divine Mercy and Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, while attendees waved white handkerchiefs in celebration. Eucharistic adoration was held, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet was prayed in five languages, followed by the Rosary in seven languages.

The culmination of the day was the procession with 14 statues or images of the Blessed Mother lavishly decorated through the streets of Roxbury Crossing. Procession participants, holding flags and banners representing their native or ancestral countries, sang the Ave Maria as they walked.

The day ended with music, addresses from Cardinal O'Malley and Father Michael Harrington, Chaplain for Ethnic Communities, and a period of prayer, devotions, and reconciliation.

Now becoming a tradition in the archdiocese, the inaugural Walking with Mary event was held in 2016 in celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.