Saturday, September 30, 2017

and in joy and in peace...

...we went on pilgrimage to Walsingham. We were sent off following Mass at London Bridge, with the traditional ...blessing "May Our Lady and all the saints pray for you, an may Almighty God bless you..." and a sprinkling with holy water...and we packed everything into the coach, including a massive water-carrier - of which more later.

It was a cheerful journey. We in LOGS, the Ladies Ordinariate Group, have become a real team over the past five years, and it was joyful to be celebrating our first half-decade of friendship and  prayer and work and good humour together...

The Pilgrim Bureau, Elmham House, is welcoming and extremely comfortable. It has been my home on many a visit, notably this summer, and it was good to be back again. Our first evening was spent, after supper, simply relaxing together, enjoying a local pub, meeting other friends. The next morning's Mass opened a wonderful day. A morning of talking and planning, an overview of recent work - and of the work of the past five years - with ideas for the immediate future and for 2018, our projects for schools, our meetings and events.  For this, we gathered in the agreeable surroundings of Dowry House, run by the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham,  and concluded with time together in the lovely chapel there.

Then, in golden mellow September sunshine, we walked the Holy Mile to the Shrine, praying the Rosary. We had brought petitions with us from the parish, and added of course our own, and left them all  in Mary's good care in the Slipper Chapel. We lingered in the peaceful atmosphere of the Shrine - which I last visited when it was teeming with the buzz of hundreds and hundreds of young people at Youth 2000, and then tumbling with hordes of young families at the New Dawn event. I thought then that it was at its most delightful when busy with all these pilgrims - but somehow in peaceful September light it had a glow that held a glory of its own...

And then we picked blackberries from the hedgerows on the way back - agreeing that it was the last opportunity to do so as it was Michaelmas the next day...

And more. This has been a wonderful few days.In all sorts of ways, a time of refreshment. And then, on our final day, we filled the great water-carrier with holy water from the shrine and brought it back to London...

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