February 2012

Pilgrimage is on the increase. More and more people make pilgrimages; perhaps they walk to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, or travel to Walsingham in Norfolk or Lourdes in France or one of a host of other holy sites. There are many holy places in our border country, like Patricio just north of Abergavenny. Each day our own Cathedral welcomes many pilgrims. It was the second most important mediaeval pilgrimage centre in England with people flocking to the shrine of St. Thomas Cantilupe, elected Bishop of Hereford in 1275. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" records some of the stories told on the way to the most important shrine, that of St. Thomas Becket.

Our Epiphany season reminded us again of the journey/pilgrimage of the Wise Men to the infant Christ where they "fell down and worshipped". But T. S. Eliot in his poem "Journey of the Magi" stressed, what all pilgrims know to be true, that it's not just the arriving that matters but also the journeying itself. The poem begins: "A cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of the year for a journey and such a long journey."

Journeys give us time to turn aside, to step out of our normal routines and reflect, to ask again the "big questions" about our lives. Journeys give us the opportunity of meeting others, for strangers to become friends, for us to see things through different eyes, in different contexts and ways, and to live at a different pace.

St. Paul wrote about our being citizens of heaven and pilgrims here on earth. The pilgrimages we make point to the bigger pilgrimage of our lives to God. Pilgrimages resonate with all the language that we use about our Christian faith as "the Way", a journey, about our "becoming", changing, about movement, with our constant need for being redeemed and transfigured.

My wife, Kathy, and I shall be leading a diocesan pilgrimage for young people (age 15 - 29) from 11th - 20th August to Taize in south Burgundy, (details: www.hereford.anglican.org/churchgoers/taize_2012). As I write this, Bishop Alistair is on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Whether you have been on a pilgrimage yourself, or are planning one, do take the time to reflect on the journey of your life, not only its goal, but also the steps you are taking to get there, and the fellow-travellers you meet on the way.