Walsingham and Carmel

Looking forward to the annual Carmelite pilgrimage to Walsingham on Saturday 28 June.  This pilgrimage has been struggling for numbers in recent years, which is more than a shame because Walsingham is a Marian shrine: is Our Lady not the patroness of the Carmelite Order?  The original shrine was believed to be a replica of the Holy House in Nazareth, where Mary received the Annunciation from the Angel Gabriel.  Because the only building that survived the Reformation is the tiny Slipper Chapel, the heart of any pilgrimage is the Holy Mile (the walk from the chapel to the village), and therefore the shrine lacks the atmosphere of a place like Lourdes, with its unforgettable grotto by the river and the baths and the magnificent church.  But this very lack of atmosphere can send us inwards in deeply Carmelite fashion so as to make it a truly spiritual pilgrimage.  In addition it is salutary for us to be reminded - by the very absence of the original building together with the presence of a single surviving stark arch from the Benedictine church in the village – of what deep wounds the Reformation left in our culture.     

Intercessions:

Brian Davis – cancer

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him) - cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David - housebound

Sophia – blind infant