The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Joseph Shaw has written a series of posts about the walking pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham which was held by the Latin Mass Society for the first time this year: See his posts from 20-22 August. He also has plenty of photos at his flickr set . Above you can see Fr Alex Redman walking in the pilgrimage in cassock, cotta and stole. Hardnut! If you have done a walking pilgrimage, you will know what I mean. Fifty miles might sound simple but it is enough to do your feet in comprehensively if anything is slightly out of kilter, and any minor discomfort can magnify over the miles. Paul Smeaton got the idea going for the Pilgrimage so congratulations to him for pulling it off and to the walkers for doing the distance. You can bet that this will become a much loved and cherished tradition among them. If you do actually walk for a reasonable distance in a spirit of penance and prayer, there is something very moving about reaching the pilgrimage destination. Here the pilgrims have reac...

Every afternoon at Lourdes, there is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament. At the closing Benediction, the Bishop who leads it takes the Blessed Sacrament around to bless the sick. I understand that this is in fact when many of the accredited miracles of Lourdes have happened, as well as when people go to bathe in the waters. As with all the major events at Lourdes, everything is impeccably organised with the sick, elderly and disabled firmly being given priority and recognition being given to the different groups in an imaginative and appropriate way. For example, the young people working hard on the various diocesan pilgrimages get to carry banners and flags, and to help in marshalling the crowds. The arrangements also make for reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. There is a quite moving period of silence before Benediction: silence is moving when it is 10,000 people or more being silent. The Tantum Ergo is sung and the Bishop says/sings the Corpus Christi collect. Unfortuna...

This afternoon, we took the local bus to Bartres, where St Bernadette spent two periods of her childhood. Above you can see the sheepfold used by St Bernadette which is a few minutes' walk from the village. (I posted some information last year under the title St Bernadette and Bartres ). In the village itself, you visit the house where St Bernadette stayed, and the parish Church where she was cared for pastorally by Fr Ader. Fr Ader's departure to try his vocation with the Benedictines was the occasion for St Bernadette to return to Lourdes in early 1858 to continue her preparation for Holy Communion. It was during this time that the seventeen apparitions of Our Lady occurred. She received her first Communion on 3 June 1858 which was the feast of Corpus Christi. Tomorrow is the 3rd of June and is again the feast of Corpus Christi. We will be privileged to celebrated High Mass in the Crypt of the parish Church on the date and feast day on which St Bernadette received her...

As it is the summer half-term break, I am in Lourdes as customary, with some pilgrims from the parish. This year, we are joined by Fr Charles Briggs and some parishioners from St Mary's Chislehurst, and Fr Bernard McNally. This means that we can have High Mass - as we did this morning in the Crypt Chapel of the Parish Church; the people there are always very helpful and hospitable. We will have High Mass again tomorrow for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Yesterday, Fr Briggs celebrated a Low Mass at which I gave some catechesis along the lines of the practice of Pope St Pius X when he was a parish priest. This need not be too intrusive (I hope) but is a way of helping people to participate spiritually at the Mass. Yesterday's Mass was the votive Mass of St Bernadette and today we celebrated a votive Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes. As usual, our pilgrimage coincides with the large diocesan pilgrimages from Birmingham, Middlesbrough, and Plymouth. On Monday, Fr Briggs and I met Ar...

I am happy to publicise details of this ACN Pilgrimage and recommend it to you: Aid to the Church in Need UK – Annual Walsingham Pilgrimage of Grace – Saturday, 22nd May 2010, Feast of Saint Rita of Cascia Please join us as Aid to the Church in Need remembers suffering Christians around the world with our 2010 Pilgrimage to the Roman Catholic National Shrine in Walsingham. ACN is organising coaches from London Victoria. Should parishioners wish to join us at Walsingham, travelling independently or, perhaps, organising coaches from their locality they are very welcome to do so. For those who would like to join us on this Pilgrimage and would like more information there is a booking form downloadable from the ACN website. You could also contact us on 020 8642 8668.

The Day with Mary team is running a pilgrimage to Italy from 3-11 September, taking in Rome, Collevalenza and Assisi. The chaplain will be one of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate so you can be sure of sound spiritual direction throughout. I had to get the pdf converted to a jpeg to post here ( click to enlarge ). Here is a link to the pdf of the poster at Scribd . Contact for further information is Trevor Downs .

Thanks to NLM, I was just reminded of another great event I missed over the weekend: the annual pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres. The pilgrimage takes place each year, starting on from the vigil of Pentecost at 6am on Saturday outside the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame in Paris and finishing on Monday with Mass in Chartres Cathedral. The three day walk covers 75 miles so it is quite a gruelling pace. The walkers are divided into "chapters" each with one or more priests to hear confessions and give spiritual direction en route . A note at US section of the the Notre Dame de Chrétienté website points out: This pilgrimage originated in the 12th century, with interruptions for the various wars our European brethren seem to find themselves in from time to time. Scouts and Guides are very much in evidence, many of them carrying flags: Here is a great shot of the Pilgrimage winding though the French countryside: and another of the procession for Mass in the forest: I spotted a few...

After the torchlight procession, we were able to look at everyone's photos thanks to a card reader and laptop. Thanks to Wendy, Mac and Greg for sharing theirs. Above is a photo from yesterday afternoon's picnic which was followed by a game of rounders and then the Rosary at the Grotto. After the Rosary, I was allowed to bring the group of children closer for a blessing. Yesterday was also an opportunity to catch up with Fr George of Blogging Lourdes . Sadly, he is soon to be leaving. At his blog, there is a series of posts about the altars in the Rosary basilica. It is a pity that smaller groups (or individual priests) are not allowed to use the beautiful altars for Mass. We have our Mass this morning in the St Gabriel Chapel and then a lunchtime departure for Toulouse airport and our flight home. Say a prayer for a safe journey.

Our Missa Cantata this morning in the crypt of the parish Church of Lourdes was assisted by the superb acoustic of the chapel. I hope to get some photos from Wendy later. We managed quite well with the portable kit that we brought along, including a lightweight self-assembly set of six candlesticks. Afterwards, we spent some time at the statue of the parish priest of Lourdes at the time of St Bernadette. There was a girl of about St Bernadette's age for our reconstruction but as she is taller than I am, a younger girl played the part of St Bernadette while I played the part of Fr Peyramale. At first, he prudently rejected St Bernadette's story of the "beautiful lady": there were many such stories circulating at the time. He was converted when St Bernadette told him that the lady said "I am the Immaculate Conception." He knew that St Bernadette, who had very little formal instruction in the faith, could not have made this up. Afterwards, the boys pinched my ...

Above is a photo from of our "catechetical Mass" by Mulier Fortis (see her blog for other posts about our Lourdes trip.) Many of us went to the baths in the afternoon and others today. Several of the children told me today that this was their most important experience of Lourdes. After Mass, we did the Stations of the Cross - many thanks to Wendy for her photos. You can see above that one of our young pilgrims did the Stations barefoot - he remembered going barefoot for the Holy Mile at Walsingham and just took off his shoes and socks without any prompting; they were put on again to run down the hill at the end. Here we are at the foot of the Stations, at the Celtic Cross - the parents wanted a photo of me and all the children: One young server got a shoulder-carry from Mum for part of the torchlight procession in the evening: At the end of the procession, I joined the clergy for the blessing, led by Bishop McGough, Auxiliary in Birmingham. Here is a view of the pilgrims ove...

Today has been rather overcast in Lourdes with drizzle most of the day so I haven't tried to take a lot of photos. I said some office in the Crypt Chapel and then a private Mass while most of the group were doing the tour "In the footsteps of St Bernadette." The guides who run these walking tours are to be commended for their work which is always much appreciated by pilgrims. In the afternoon, most of the group went to the baths before an afternoon "catechetical Mass" - Low Mass with hymns and some catechesis for the children at various points in the Mass. Plenty of silence too, of course. We followed this with a somewhat penitential Way of the Cross. The Stations at Lourdes are very striking with figures about twice lifesize. They were helpful in catechesis for the children at various points. I haven't got a photo of my own so here is one from Fr Lawrence Lew's Lourdes Flickr Set . At various points in Lourdes, there are signs telling you not to do var...

And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Rev 11.19) Well we didn't have an earthquake, thanks be to God, but on the road out of Toulouse, the coach was hit by golfball-sized hailstones. Having negotiated that, we arrived a little late for dinner at the Hotel D'Angleterre in Lourdes. Apparently the Gave has overflowed its banks in the last couple of days. I'll try to get some photos of the river in spate tomorrow. There are 12 children and 18 adults in the parish group for Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen. Fr Charles Briggs is with us so we will be able to have a "catechetical Mass" and perhaps High Mass one day. We strolled down to the grotto after dinner with children waving the parish flag and singing various songs. They particularly seem to like "God bless our Pope" which will probably be the anthem for this year. We manag...

The Tyburn Pilgrimage this afternoon started opposite the Old Bailey at the Church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, a 13th century foundation. The Church still has the hand bell that was rung at midnight outside the condemned cell; several of our martyrs would have heard it. From here the martyrs were dragged on the hurdle through London to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. The first station was at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place , built in 1276 by the Bishop of Ely as the private chapel for his London house. Restored the Catholic worship in 1876, the Church is the one modern London link with medieval Catholic England. Next was St Anselm and St Cecilia's, Kingsway . This Church was built in 1909 to replace the old St Cecilia's which, as Chapel of the Sardinian Embassy, was the first public Catholic chapel to be opened in London after the reformation, during a period of partial toleration under Charles II. The parish priest, Fr David Barnes kindly gave me a copy of a beau...

The Irish St Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association reports on three pilgrimages to honour the Year of St Paul, in Arran Quay, Dublin ( see picture ); Kildock, Co. Kildare; and Vicarstown, Co. Laois. (See Holy Year of St Paul ). They each include Mass celebrated in the "Gregorian Rite" Keep an eye on the St Conleth's blog for further information.

The blog of the traditional Catholic Family Alliance has a report with photographs of the recent Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Lourdes , led by Fr Andrew Southwell. An interesting detail is that although it proved difficult to make arrangements at the shrine for the usus antiquior , the parish Church was more welcoming and the Missa Cantata was sung in the crypt of the Church on several days of the Pilgrimage.

The other day, a million people gathered for the Youth Pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, about 40 miles west of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Many of the pilgrims walked for 18 hours to get to the shrine. The Catholic Culture website has information about Our Lady of Lujan  and there is also a good piece at the  SSPX Canada website . The statue was originally intended for another village but various providential miracles of nature and grace ensured that the statue stayed at Lujan which became a place of pilgrimage. Here is a photo of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in blue vestments. This year, he criticised "those who do not listen to the grievances of the people", widely understood as a reference to the present government of Argentina.

For the third year running, Sr Hyacinthe OP has led a group of young people on the John Paul II Ely to Walsingham pilgrimage - a 50 mile trek - asking Our Lady to pray for the New Evangelisation in England and Wales. The time on the route was spent singing, praying, popping blisters, sleeping in tents or on Church floors - anyone who has done a walking pilgrimage knows the drill! They are all back safely now and looking forward to next year's pilgrimage. Here is a photo of the group outside the Church of the Annunciation at Walsingham: ... and here's a photo from the Mass at Ely Cathedral the start of the Pilgrimage. (The rather incongruous statue above the altar is of Our Lady.) There are more photos on the Facebook group John Paul II Pilgrimage: Ely to Walsingham

The Pilgrim's Path (Blogger Sancti Jacobi) is a blog devoted to pilgrim spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, open to one and all interested in the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago.

After lunch today, Fr Briggs and I paid a visit to the parish Church to say the prescribed prayers at the font where St Bernadette was baptised. Next to the Church is a statue of my hero, Mgr Peyramale so I took the opportunity of getting a photo of Fr Briggs standing next to the great man. Near to the Domaine , there are wheelchair lanes painted in the roads. These have been extended this year and there is a new one painted just outside our hotel. The wheelchair lanes are used by conventional wheelchairs but also by the odd bath chairs that are a feature of Lourdes. Here you can see something of Lourdes outside the Domaine with its shops and restaurants catering for the 6-8 million people who visit each year between April and October: This afternoon, we did the Stations of the Cross. I went with the children and the confidently mobile up the Espelugues Hill while Fr Briggs led the stations in the new Way of the Cross in the prairie opposite the grotto. On the way down from the hig...