01/10/2025
Musings of a Country Deacon
Well, we have passed the equinox and have had sun, rain, and wind – lots of wind. The daffodils and hyacinths paint our town with colour. Welcome to spring.
At saint Mary Magdalen’s we have been busy preparing for the visit from the archbishop, the first visit by an archbishop in twenty years. To celebrate we even changed the time of mass from 8.30 to 10.30 – gasp! Interestingly, he’s not coming to celebrate some big milestone or open a new building, but simply as a pilgrim, just like all the others we have welcomed through this year of jubilee. What does this mean?
A pilgrim doesn’t just come as a tourist. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place, a journey to an encounter with God. It is a physical expression of the metaphor that our life is a journey, a stumbling journey towards an encounter with God.
The archbishop coming as a simple pilgrim, to the extent that an archbishop can, demonstrates that before God, no matter how exulted our position in the world, we are all broken, wounded souls searching for mercy and healing. By the time this is published, the archbishop will have come and gone, but everyone is welcome to come and join us on our pilgrim journey on any Sunday. Mass will be at the normal time of 8.30, however. Archepiscopal influence can only go so far.
Deacon Joe
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