Pilgrimage

The Reverend Dean Atkins, South Cardiff Ministry Area Leader

Porthcawl was the place for us. As children, it was our only annual holiday. A week in Trecco Bay. Through my childhood eyes, it was perfect and, as we walked the coast, we envied the people who lived in the houses which overlooked the sea. Where, we wondered, would the residents of Porthcawl make their holiday each year? Surely, they were on holiday all year round.

Each year, I make the same, familiar pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham but, since my Trecco Bay days, I’ve resisted singling out the people who live in Walsingham as being on pilgrimage all year round, or those who live in many other places to which I’ve made pilgrimage, near and far.

And yet, as Christians, we are always on pilgrimage, which is one reason why we make the smaller pilgrimages in the first place. They reflect the journey we make through life, our eyes set on our homeland of Heaven, although we often make it hard work to get there.

It’s the simplicity of pilgrimage which brings profound rewards. We simply have to leave the house, be determined to get somewhere, our eyes set on the destination, often some holy place of great significance, whilst not forgetting that the journey is itself the pilgrimage.

We can also carve out pilgrimage times in the briefest of moments if we make it our intention to do so. Or we can plan ahead, book with a larger group, invite a few friends, or even travel alone and meander in and out of the lives of fellow pilgrims we meet along the way.

Some travellers and tourists often find their way quite by accident to some sacred place, only to discover they have become pilgrims, if only for the briefest of moment.

In one sense the destination of our pilgrimage may be irrelevant for, as Christians, we are on pilgrimage all year round, although sometimes it is good to leave the house!