By Jay Sorgi • Posted June 12, 2026

Msgr. James Oliver is used to long bike rides, but for the second consecutive year, St. Bridget Parish in Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood is using the prayers and stamina of their pastor to raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund major capital expenditures for the parish.

He prayerfully rode more than 120 miles in ideal conditions on Saturday, May 30 in “Pedal for the Parish,” an effort to raise $60,000. That amount would equal the amount he raised for his first fundraising ride in 2025, Ride for the Rectory.

“People are getting on board, parishioners certainly have contributed, and that’s an awesome blessing,” said Msgr. Oliver.

He said the ride aims to fund the refurbishment of the outside of the community house for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia. The order has served at the parish since 1888, and the sisters living there now work in education for adults and young people.

The money raised will also help fund work inside the church, including its doors and vestibule.

You can donate to Pedal for the Parish here.

This 120.6-mile route involved multiple laps of a route approximating that of the upcoming Philadelphia Cycling Classic. Their 14.4-mile loop travels near or alongside the Schuylkill River and includes a 235-foot elevation climb.

His route took him and nine friends at various times past the Philadelphia Museum of Art, down to the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, around Logan Circle, across the river on the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Bridge, past traffic for the Roots Picnic in Fairmount Park, and throughout parts of East Falls.

Msgr. Oliver admits his speed around these landmark locations in Philly would not match the world-class athletes who will take their bikes out on a similar ride.

“We were not doing Olympic pace. We weren’t going quite as fast as those women and men that will be riding in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic.”

Yet Msgr. Oliver’s fundraising rides take advantage of a lifelong love of biking. He took the 189-mile ride on the Benedictine Trail in Italy in younger years, and has cycled between each end of Florida.

He said his training improved from last year’s ride. It took him along the Schuylkill River to Phoenixville and back. It led him to ride his bike back and forth to the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in center city for the ordination of eight priests for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in May. He rode into Rittenhouse Square from his parish on other days.

Mgsr. Oliver said he wanted to focus on keeping his eyes in two places: Ahead of him, and on Christ, particularly through the Blessed Mother.

“The rosary is a great prayer. You can rattle off the Hail Marys,” he said. “Our minds so often wander, so you’re (instead) meditating on the birth of Christ, the agony of Jesus on the cross.”

His 15 hours of riding often saw painful moments, the kind that tested his body and spirit, and that led to riders accompanying him taking a fall on the route.

“A couple of times I really felt, ‘Can I go on?’” he said. “I thought of Jesus on the cross and thought, ‘I can go on.’ You’re riding, not for yourself, but really for others.”

Those others included many who asked for prayer intentions, people whom Msgr. Oliver said wanted to ride with him but couldn’t, people who had leg operations, and people who had lost their lives from cancer.

The prayerful ride extended to those who accompanied him on the route.

“There was one lady as we started, and she’s a good rider herself. She joined us for a lap. She said to me, ‘Father, I’ve ridden in group rides a lot of times, but I can’t say that I ever prayed before a ride,’” he said.

“I said, ‘God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You began and finished your ride with a prayer.’”

Msgr. Oliver also discerned part of what he would share the next day in the pulpit, saying that he let ideas for his homily “bubble up” in his mind to pray with the Trinity during the ride.

Perhaps the prayers helped his physical condition for his faithful duties the next day, as he said he “felt fine for Mass,” but he really started feeling fatigued later that day as he continued post-ride hydration and refueling.

That comes balanced, however, by how he felt God present on his ride, both in prayer and in accompaniment by parishioners who joined him, the people whose hearts he joins in his ministry.

“In the end, the real hope is that through it all, if they hear about Pedal for the Parish, knowing Jesus is really our goal,” he said. “Knowing God’s unfathomable love for us, that’s really the goal.”