Following the letter for May to all Catholics from our beloved Holy Father, (see HERE), and in the light of the cancellation of the Lourdes and Chartres pilgrimages, to which members of the Order will thus be unable to go this Summer, and mindful of our inability even to visit Our Lady's altar in our parish churches at a time when we need Our Blessed Mother most, we are very grateful to Father John Hunwicke for the following delightful suggestion for a daily pilgrimage to Her shrines.
This proposal comes from an old Walsingham pilgrim manual from the 1960's, and is based upon Pietatis Mariana Britannica by Edmund Waterton FSA, (a seminal work, originally published 1879, available in reprint, on Amazon and elsewhere), and includes making a Spiritual Pilgrimage to a different English Marian shrine daily for the Month of May. This is something which could be done individually, as a family, or amongst groups of friends on "Zoom", which seems to be taking off as a religious tool.
The Pilgrimage may involve any devotion, such as recitation of a Rosary and Litany, and the prayer proposed below. In you present author's opinion it should involve, if possible, a short walk in the garden, especially where there are roses in bloom, ideally ending before your own statue or painting of Our Lady.
O most Blessed Virgin Mother of God, conceived without original sin, in mind and spirit I visit thy churches, altars, and shrines, venerated by our forefathers in this land once acknowledged as thy Dowry, but more especially today I wish to place myself before thy Shrine at ... ... ... , humbly seeking to be numbered amongst the pilgrims who have sought thee in this place and to receive through thy prayers those graces which have ever flowed from thy Sanctuaries. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Every day there is designated a different Shrine; the first four, starting tomorrow on Friday 1st May, and the next three days, are to, successively, Glastonbury (shrine website HERE), Canterbury (2nd), York (3rd), and Westminster (4th). Father Hunwicke promises to publish the remaining list for the month on that day. We shall keep you posted! Thanks to the Internet, unlike in the 1960's, you can even search their images!
Since most of us have never made a major pilgrimage to many of the great mediaeval shrines of Our Lady in England (a practice much encouraged by our chaplain Mgr Armitage, Rector of Walsingham), it seems that this is a most felicitous fruit of the 'lock-down'!
Several members of the Order will remember Father Hunwicke well, he preached the homily at the High Mass of St John's Day 2017 at Warwick Street (report HERE), which was celebrated by our late friend and Chaplain Dr Antony Conlon, upon whose dear soul may God have mercy through Mary's prayers, as also upon the soul of the late Grand Master. Much learned amusement may be had on a regular pilgrimage to Father Hunwicke's blog HERE!
O Blessed Mother Mary, whose Dowry we inhabit, pray for us!
O Blessed Mother Mary, whose Dowry we inhabit,
come and reign in our hearts!
O Blessed Mother Mary, this is thy Dowry,
come and reign in our land!
O Blessed Mother Mary, whose Dowry we inhabit,
come and reign in our hearts!
O Blessed Mother Mary, this is thy Dowry,
come and reign in our land!
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