#Lockdownpilgrimagechallenge - the Last of the Series
I appear to have run out of destinations I can reach in the proscribed hour's exercise. These two places were only in range because I took to my bike. It was good exercise but it did not feel to be as spiritually satisfying as having the ground beneath my feet and walking.
The first point of call was All Saint's, Horstead.
In the normal course of events I would have celebrated the Easter here last Sunday, by invitation of the Vicar; and, because he would have a week off after Easter, I would have taken the service there next Sunday too. A great privilege for someone who was part time Rector during the 1980's. Today, I had come to the churchyard to see how the Conservation Churchyard was doing and visit the graves of those I love - many of whom I had buried.
There's Noel, the organist; Peggy, his cousin; my faithful eight o'clockers, Ivy Preston, Mrs Grogan, Annie Petit...... I won't go on other than to mention my children's beloved babysitter Bubbles Andrews; and my beloved curate, Fr. Dennis, whose retirement ministry was chaplain to the Recruiting Sergeant pub. Oh and I can't forget my in-laws ,whose ashes are interred close by an empty niche that once held a much visited image of Our Lady of Pity.
The Lord alone knows how many bodies this particular God's Acre holds, all buried in the faith that "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Before getting back into the saddle, I gave them the Easter Greeting that should have been theirs last Sunday.
Once, before bridges spanned the River Bure, there was a ford close by the church. On the other side is another much visited pilgrim destination at Hautbois. Pilgrims on their way from visiting the True Cross at Bromholme and the shrine of St. Margaret of Hoveton at St. Benet's to Walsingham would have come this way. My route took me slightly up river to where the earliest bridge was established . To-day it is known as Mayton Bridge, a corruption of
Maiden's Bridge - i.e. our Lady's Bridge. I was going to the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
There was a pilgrims hospital here and a popular shrine to the pilgrim saint, Theobald. The church is ruinous, as you can see, but the Easter good news remains just as true today as when it thronged with pilgrims.
This is the faith that links you and I now, with them then. Part of the attraction of pilgrimage for me is the sense of walking the same path as they and to draw on their experience and insights as we tread the same paths. They are our fellow pilgrims and we travel to the same eternal destination. This is Epistle to the Hebrews country, all summed up in the quotation, "Here we have no abiding city, but we look for one that is to come." (Hebrews.13.14)
Before I remounted my bike, I stood in the churchyard and proclaimed the Easter message for their benefit as well as mine and asked them of their charity to remember us in these strange times. I was back home in just over the hour.
See also
Comments