Some people think that motorcyclists are not trustworthy people, that we are a subspecies of road gorillas, lovers of noise, addicted to the effluvium of leather and gasoline, masqueraders of the road, or allegedly involved in the most heinous crimes. And nothing could be further from the truth. What's more, it is probably the group that has the most solidarity on the road.
More than ten years ago, we formed a peculiar motorcycle club. It was in July 2006 when a few friends came up with the idea of traveling from Madrid to Valencia to attend the visit of Benedict XVI on the occasion of the World Day of Families.
The authorities pointed out some difficulties of access to the place of the event in case of arriving by car, so, given our common fondness for the world of motorcycles and its countless advantages, the night before we decided to make the trip on two wheels, which finally allowed us to attend the Holy Mass almost in the front row. It was a first trip, in which we had such a good time that we decided to repeat it at least once a year.
We thought that a good reason could be to honor the Virgin Mary by visiting one of the many shrines dedicated to her to pray the Holy Rosary. That was it, and in May 2007 we chose the shrine of the Virgin of Sonsoles in Avila as the destination of our first motorcycle pilgrimage. That was the beginning of Motorromeros, an adventure that over time has curdled into a large club of bikers that to join just have to meet three conditions: have a passion for motorcycles, devotion to the Virgin and have participated in a motorromeria.
Since Spain is the land of Mary, as St. John Paul II defined it, we have visited many shrines and wayside shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary, traced many curves and prayed many Hail Marys. And this has allowed us to strengthen bonds of friendship that go beyond our common hobby.
We mainly make short trips that take up Saturday mornings with destinations near Madrid, but once or twice a year we make weekend trips that have taken us to places like Covadonga, Aránzazu, Torreciudad, El Pilar, La Virgen de la Cabeza, El Rocío, Lourdes or Fátima. We have also made pilgrimages to Santiago on several occasions, and now we are embarking on a Camino de Santiago in stages from Roncesvalles, which God willing we will conclude in the Jubilee year.
On the other hand, as the motorcyclist is generally a friend of secondary roads rather than highways, we have seen many beautiful places that make up the Spanish geography and that otherwise we would never have come to know.
It was with great joy that we received the news of the dedication of the year of St. Joseph by Pope Francis, because for some years now we have had him as our patron and we entrust ourselves to him. We have made him our patron for two main reasons. The first, because he was deeply in love with Mary, and in that we want to imitate him, and the second, because he had a faithful donkey for his journeys. We -to use the biker jargon- ride a "donkey" and, just for that reason, we are somewhat like him.
In addition to St. Joseph, from the beginning we have experienced the protection of the Archangel St. Raphael, patron saint of all motorcyclists. He has helped us out of so many messes that, if we were to write them down one by one, I don't think that even the world would not contain the books that would have to be written. To tell one of them, we are in the habit, at the beginning of each outing, of praying the "biker's prayer" to him, invoking his protection.
In 2013, on the occasion of the Jubilee Year for the canonical coronation of María Santísima de la Esperanza Macarena, we went to Seville to visit her. On the way back, we made a stop in Cordoba, where we stopped at the cathedral to celebrate the Eucharist.
The good thing about riding a motorcycle is that you can park at the very door of the place you are going to, and so we did, seeing no sign or signpost to prevent us from doing so. However, when we left the cathedral, we were surprised to see a prescription from the Municipal Police on each bike. Apparently, it was forbidden to park in the vicinity. On that trip, it so happened that, in our haste, we did not say the prayer to St. Raphael when we left, and as we saw the fines I told the Padre that this unpleasant surprise could only be due to our fatal forgetfulness. He agreed with me and, being Saint Raphael the guardian of Cordoba and having a monument a few meters from the cathedral, we went there to repair our mistake and invoke his help. That was the hand of a saint, or rather the hand of an angel, because as we concluded with the amen, two municipal motorcyclists appeared in a side street and stopped exactly at the foot of the Archangel where we were. I went to them to explain the situation, and they removed the fines, which we thanked the patron and allowed us to conclude the route happily. Since then, we have never ceased to invoke him on every outing. We had better.
In any case, the one who protects us the most is Mary, and not only from mishaps on the road, which thanks to her we have almost never had, but because she has brought each one of us a little closer to Our Lord, as she always does. We always go to Him and return to Him through Mary.
Since the beginning of this madness, the club has always been linked in some way to the sacrament of marriage, because throughout our brief history there have been many times when arriving at a house of Mary we have happily found a wedding. For this reason, we decided to incorporate a new tradition to the club, that of escorting the daughters of all motorcyclists who decide to approach the altar to get married. So we did a few months ago with Joana, daughter of Alberto, who was surprised to find a good group of bikers at the door of his house when leaving for the church. Her father was about to leave his daughter in the wedding car to join the escort with tails included.
And continuing with the escorts, we have proposed to the organizers of this fantastic initiative of Mary to escort the Virgin in Madrid next October at the end of her pilgrimage through Spain at the Cerro de los Angeles.
When we heard about the event we thought that, if it were to be held, we would be honored, and if you finally give us your consent we would love to be able to accompany you.
We are already more than a hundred members of the club, and if there is one thing we are convinced of, it is that the love for the Virgin and riding a motorcycle help a lot to reach a good destination.
