4th February 2018 - A visit to Our Lady's House at Walsingham

On this weeks programme, John takes us on an exploration of the Anglican Marian Shrine at Walsingham in England sometimes known as England's Nazareth. We have our weekly look at our saints of the week and other liturgical odds and ends as well as a rather brief look at this weeks gospel.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks full programme on our podcast page HERE;

Anglican Shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham - England's Nazareth

On this weeks programme John has an interview with Canon Stephen Gallagher in which they explore the history of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and its restoration as part of the liturgical patrimony of the Church of England in the 1930's and to the modern day.

The Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham was established in 1061 when, according to the text of the Pynson Ballad (c 1485), Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady. In answer to her prayer, the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth, showed her the house where the Annunciation occurred, and asked her to build a replica in Walsingham to serve as a perpetual memorial of the Annunciation.

This Holy House was built and a religious community took charge of the foundation. Although we have very little historical material from this period, we know that with papal approval the Augustinian Canons built a Priory (c 1150). Walsingham became one of the greatest Shrines in Medieval Christendom.

In 1538, the Reformation caused the Priory property to be handed over to the King’s Commissioners and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken to London and burnt. Nothing remains today of the original shrine, but its site is marked on the lawn in “The Abbey Grounds” in the village. After the destruction of the Shrine, Walsingham ceased to be a place of pilgrimage. 

Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

Our Lady's House, Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

After nearly four hundred years, the 20th century saw the restoration of pilgrimage to Walsingham as a regular feature of Christian life in these islands, and indeed beyond. In 1897, there was a Roman Catholic pilgrimage to the restored 14th century Slipper Chapel, now at the centre of the Roman Catholic National Shrine.

Fr Hope Patten, appointed as Vicar of Walsingham in 1921, ignited Anglican interest in the pre-Reformation pilgrimage. It was his idea to base a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham on the image depicted on the seal of the medieval Priory. In 1922, this statue was set up in the Parish Church of St. Mary, and regular pilgrimage devotion followed. From the first night that the statue was placed there, people gathered around it to pray, asking Mary to join her powerful prayer with theirs. This work of intercession continues to this day.

Throughout the 1920's, the trickle of pilgrims became a flood of large numbers, for whom eventually a Pilgrim Hospice was opened (a hospice is technically the name of a place of hospitality for pilgrims) and in 1931, a new Holy House encased in a small pilgrimage church was dedicated, and the statue translated there with great solemnity. In 1938 that church was enlarged to form the Anglican Shrine, more or less as we know it today. Fr Patten combined the posts of Vicar and Priest Administrator of the Shrine until his death in 1958.

You can read more about the Anglican Shrine here.

You can listen to the interview about Walsingham HERE
Gospel - Mark 1:40-45

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Centre for Liturgy
Sunday Reflections

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 1, 5th week in Ordinary Time

Saints of the Week

February 5th - St Agatha
February 6th - St Paul Miki & Companions
February 7th - St Mel
February 8th - St Josephine Bakhita - International Day of Prayer & Awareness against Human Trafficking
February 9th - Bl Marianus Scotus
February 10th - St Scholastica 

27th September - Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

On this weeks programme we have an interview exploring the Shrine of Walsingham. We have our regular notices and liturgical odds and ends and a short reflection on this weeks gospel.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks programme HERE.


Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

On this weeks programme we have an interview with Tim McDonald who introduces us the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and its ancient history.

The Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham was established in 1061 when, according to the text of the Pynson Ballad (c 1485), Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady. In answer to her prayer, the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth, showed her the house where the Annunciation occurred, and asked her to build a replica in Walsingham to serve as a perpetual memorial of the Annunciation.

You can find out more about the history of the shrine HERE.

You can listen to the interview with Tim McDonald excerpted from the main programme here.

Gospel - Mark 9: 38-43 45, 47-48







Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Sunday Reflections
Centre for Liturgy

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours: psalter week 2, 26th week in Ordinary time

Saints of the Week

September 28th - St Wenceslaus
September 29th - Ss Michael, Gabriel & Raphael, Archangels
September 30th - St Jerome
October 1st - St Therese of the Child Jesus. Also Blesseds Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin
October 2nd - The Guardian Angels (First Friday)
October 3rd - Bl Columba Marmion

24th September - Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham.

You can find our previous posts and also a couple of programmes we have done about Walsingham HERE.

Community of Our Lady of Walsingham - Upcoming Events

The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham are a new religious community set in in the UK in 2004. They are a young growing community and you can find out more about their story and their hopes for the future at their website HERE.
 
As we have some followers in the UK the community recently asked us if we would tell people about some of their up coming events.

'CHRIST AND THE CHURCH NEEDS YOU' 

In this year for consecrated life we invite young men aged 18-40 to dream big and consider a life on the spiritual vanguard. 'Come and See' the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, based in the Diocese of Brentwood, a new religious community founded in 2004. As the male branch begins to take shape you are invited to consider if its spirituality speaks to you.

Dates; 20th-22nd March.
Venue:Abbotswick House of Prayer near Brentwood in Essex.
For further details visit www.walsinghamcommunity.org or call Jim on 01277 373848.

EASTER TRIDUUM
Thurs 2nd - Sun 5th April.

Young adults are invited to join the community of Our Lady of Walsingham as they celebrate the Easter Triduum. Sharing their life and with teaching on lectio divina as a way of praying with the Word of God, make this Easter one to remember.

For further details visit the events page of www.walsinghamcommunity.org or call Sr Theresa: 01277 373848.

September 24th - Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham

September 24th is the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title as Our Lady of Walsingham. The title derives from the belief that Mary appeared in a vision to Richeldis de Faverches, a devout English noblewoman, in 1061 in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk, England. Lady Richeldis had a Holy House built in Walsingham which became a shrine and place of pilgrimage. Back in May 2011 we had an interview with the director of the national shrine which you can read/listen to HERE.

From Godzdogz:

"Walsingham is also a place where English Christians seek unity. It is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox alike. Though the Anglican Church holds this feast on 15 October, as we celebrate this day let us continue to pray for Christian unity. Last year, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established to allow Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining many of their distinctive traditions.

During his visit to the UK in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said the Ordinariate 'should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all'."

 

Further information on this devotion and the history of the shrine and the fact that England is called "Our Lady's Dowry":

• The National Shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham
• Catholic Culture.org
• The Virgin by the Sea - Our Lady of Walsingham

To explain the image of Our Lady of Walsingham:

May 22nd 2011 - 5th Sunday after Easter and Our Lady of Walsingham

On this weeks show we have our regular prayer space, a quick run down on the celestial guides for the following the week, a reflection on this weeks Sunday gospel and at the end of the programme we have an interview exploring the Shrine of Our Lady of Walshingham. 

Saints of the Week

May 23rd - The Martyrs of Cappadocia
May 24th - St David of Scotland
May 25th - St Gregory VII (Pope) and St Mary Magdalen of Pazzi and St Bede the Venerable
May 26th - St Philip Neri
May 27th - St Augustine of Canterbury
May 28th - St Germanus of Paris

Gospel - John 14:1-12

We continue this week through the Easter season with another reading of the Sunday gospel taken from the Gospel of St John. John's gospel can be off putting in the way it is written if we dont take time to slowly read and reflect with it. In some ways it is almost an ideal gospel to reflect on with lectio as you have to slowly make your way through the text and literally "chew" on the images and messages that John is trying to get across in what is sometimes very poetic language.

This weeks gospel is a case in point where almost every line would cause you to pause and just sit with it rather than trying to digest the whole excerpt that is presented for the Sunday liturgy.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me" - in the world we are living in today where we have a serious need for inspiration for the troubles that beset us the message from John's gospel this week is inspiring and hope filled. Jesus is calling us not to be depressed, to trust in God and to have hope even in the darkest moments of our lives. A hard call for christians to trust in the love and mercy of God.


Other reflections on this weeks gospel are availabe from Word on Fire, English Dominicans, Jesuits of Mt St Joseph Bangalore, India.

Shrine of Our Lady of Walshingham

John has an interview that he conducted with the director of the shrine of Our Lady of Walshingham once know as the Nazareth of England.

The Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham was established in 1061 when, according to the text of the Pynson Ballad (c 1485), Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady. In answer to her prayer, the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth, showed her the house where the Annunciation occurred, and asked her to build a replica in Walsingham to serve as a perpetual memorial of the Annunciation.

This Holy House was built and a religious community took charge of the foundation. Although we have very little historical material from this period, we know that with papal approval the Augustinian Canons built a Priory (c 1150). Walsingham became one of the greatest Shrines in Medieval Christendom.

In 1538, the Reformation caused the Priory property to be handed over to the King’s Commissioners and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken to London and burnt. Nothing remains today of the original shrine, but its site is marked on the lawn in “The Abbey Grounds” in the village. After the destruction of the Shrine, Walsingham ceased to be a place of pilgrimage. Devotion was necessarily in secret until after Catholic Emancipation (1829) when public expressions of faith were allowed.

In 1896 Charlotte Pearson Boyd purchased the 14th century Slipper Chapel, the last of the wayside chapels en-route to Walsingham, and restored it for Catholic use. In 1897 by rescript of Pope Leo XIII, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Walsingham was restored with the building of a Holy House as the Lady Chapel of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, King’s Lynn. The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, brought the first public pilgrimage to Walsingham on 20th August 1897. Visits to the Slipper Chapel became more frequent, and as the years passed devotion and the number of pilgrimages increased.

On 19th August 1934, Cardinal Bourne and Bishop Lawrence Youens led the Bishops of England and Wales, together with 10,000 pilgrims to the Slipper Chapel. At this pilgrimage, the Slipper Chapel was declared to be the National Shrine of Our Lady for Roman Catholics in England.

Walsingham was a restricted zone and closed to visitors, but many service men and women showed interest in the Shrine. On May 17th 1945, the American Forces organised the first Mass in the Priory grounds since the Reformation.

The Shrine now attracts some 100,000 pilgrims during the pilgrimage season with about 30 Major Pilgrimages from Catholic, Diocesan or Ethnic groups and Catholic Societies or Associations as well as many parish groups.

"There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me" It is a line that gives us great hope and that there isnt one way for us to get to heaven, each of us is called to live out our own lives in our own way but in communion with the way God is calling us to live to the fullness of live. We can't all be Mother Teresa's of Calcutta or St Francis of Assisi but we are called to live out our lives to the best of our ability. 

It is also gives us hope when we are dealing with grief which we need to think about when we loose a loved one, the image almost that our journey or life task is done and then Jesus comes back and says "come, lets go to my Father's house to your own room and rest for ever".