Annual Pilgrimage to Lourdes
Journeys are something that mark the experience of everyday modern life
for large numbers of people. Journeys to work, journeys as part of a
working life, journeys for holidays; the list can go on.
For centuries, some journeys were made for more special reasons and to special and significant destinations. Surprising, as it may seem in the twenty first century, vast numbers of people still make such journeys and these journeys are pilgrimages. Possibly more people in the world go on pilgrimages now than at any other time in the history of the world. Essentially, a pilgrimage is a journey to a holy or special place and undertaken for reasons of devotion, thanksgiving or even penance.
Whatever the motive, a pilgrimage is a journey, which meets a deep spiritual and emotional need and is made out of the recognition that there is more to life than just the humdrum daily grind of existing. A pilgrimage is a sort of model, a symbol and a metaphor for the human realisation that we are all on a journey, a journey through life. For a week in each August people from this diocese will join with several hundred other English pilgrims who are making a pilgrimage to Lourdes where they will join thousands of people from all over the world.
It is place where, in 1858 a fourteen-year-old girl called Bernadette received several visions of the Virgin Mary. Although Lourdes is now often associated with miraculous healings, this is not the reason why the vast majority of people go there. They go for many reasons, but whilst there, grow in the realisation that in their witnessing of the love and care shown by so many people towards those who do suffer terrible illness or handicap; they see a vision of what the world could to be like.
It is a place where a person can live the liturgy in a way meaningful to them and under the patronage of Our Lady, come a little closer to the Person and mystery of Christ. Make a pilgrimage. It could just change you life!
Deacon Trevor Jones, Pilgrimage Director
Deacon Trevor can be contacted by writing to: 21 Burton Place, Taunton, TA1 4HE
Tel: 01823 270935
Email: trevor@jones2554.freeserve.co.uk
For centuries, some journeys were made for more special reasons and to special and significant destinations. Surprising, as it may seem in the twenty first century, vast numbers of people still make such journeys and these journeys are pilgrimages. Possibly more people in the world go on pilgrimages now than at any other time in the history of the world. Essentially, a pilgrimage is a journey to a holy or special place and undertaken for reasons of devotion, thanksgiving or even penance.
Whatever the motive, a pilgrimage is a journey, which meets a deep spiritual and emotional need and is made out of the recognition that there is more to life than just the humdrum daily grind of existing. A pilgrimage is a sort of model, a symbol and a metaphor for the human realisation that we are all on a journey, a journey through life. For a week in each August people from this diocese will join with several hundred other English pilgrims who are making a pilgrimage to Lourdes where they will join thousands of people from all over the world.
It is place where, in 1858 a fourteen-year-old girl called Bernadette received several visions of the Virgin Mary. Although Lourdes is now often associated with miraculous healings, this is not the reason why the vast majority of people go there. They go for many reasons, but whilst there, grow in the realisation that in their witnessing of the love and care shown by so many people towards those who do suffer terrible illness or handicap; they see a vision of what the world could to be like.
It is a place where a person can live the liturgy in a way meaningful to them and under the patronage of Our Lady, come a little closer to the Person and mystery of Christ. Make a pilgrimage. It could just change you life!
Deacon Trevor Jones, Pilgrimage Director
Deacon Trevor can be contacted by writing to: 21 Burton Place, Taunton, TA1 4HE
Tel: 01823 270935
Email: trevor@jones2554.freeserve.co.uk
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