We begin our pilgrimage. 18 pilgrims will depart Sunday afternoon May 3 at 4:30 p.m. from the Cathedral Church of the Nativity to begin a 10 day pilgrimage to Wales. We take our place in the great tradition and heritage of celtic "peregrinatio" following long worn paths where pilgrims have gone before so that we might simply yet profoundly grow closer to our God and our Lord Jesus Christ. We are fortunate to be met on our way by spiritual friends who welcome us and nourish us on this journey.
We begin our journey with the companionship and guidance of Esther Moir deWaal, author and spiritual guide. Esther will join us at Belmont Abbey and invite us into a Celtic spirit of discovery. We will be welcomed and led by the staff of St. David's Cathedral Pilgrim Center in historic St. David's Pembrokeshire. We will follow the cross in the small parish church of St. Hwywn's where welsh poet R.S. Thomas served as vicar and wrote his poignant poems. A centerpiece and highlight of our journey will be our joining like thousands of celtic pilgrims before, as will travel to Bardsey Island off the cost of Aberdaron, a destination for many faithful souls on the "longest journey" for spiritual union with Christ. Our steps trace backward on the North Pilgrim's way to the Cathedral of St. Asaph. A holy path of holy discovery we pray.
We invite you to "follow along" on this journey. We invite your prayers, your hearts, your longings, your soul's desires to meet with us the holy one who creates, redeems, and sustains us. Below is our itinerary and a poem written by prolific Welsh poet R.S. Thomas entitled Pilgrimage.
Our itinerary
Sunday May 3 Depart Newark
9:40 p.m. for London
Monday May 4 Arrive
Heathrow, travel to Belmont Abbey, Hereford, U.K.
Tuesday May 5 Esther Moir
deWaal- Dore Abbey, Kilpeck, Esther’s cottage
Friday May 8 St. Hywyn’s- Aberdaron- R.S. Thomas-
Stations of the cross
Satur May 9 Bardsey Island, Late Afternoon to Llandudno
Sun May 10 St. Asaph’s Cathedral –North Pilgrim’s
Way
Mon May 11 Day in Llandudno 4:00 p.m. depart for Manchester
Tue May 12 Depart Manchester 9:25 a.m. arrive
Newark 12:20 p.m.
Pilgrimages by R.S. Thomas
There
is an island there is no going
to
but in a small boat the way
the
saints went, travelling the gallery
of
the frightened faces of
the
long-drowned, munching the gravel
of
its beaches. So I have gone
up
the salt lane to the building
with
the stone altar and the candles
gone
out, and kneeled and lifted
my
eyes to the furious gargoyle
of
the owl that is like a god
gone
small and resentful. There
is
no body in the stained window
of
the sky now. Am I too late?
Were
they too late also, those
first
pilgrims? He is such a fast
God,
always before us and
leaving
as we arrive.
There
are those here
not
given to prayer, whose office
is
the blank sea that they say daily.
What
they listen to is not
hymns
but the slow chemistry of the soil
that
turns saints' bones to dust,
dust
to an irritant of the nostril.
There
is no time on this island.
The
swinging pendulum of the tide
has
no clock: the events
are
dateless. These people are not
late
or soon: they are just
here
with only the one question
to
ask, which life answers
by
being in them. It is I
who
ask. Was the pilgrimage
I
made to come to my own
self,
to learn that in times
like
these and for one like me
God
will never be plain and
out
there, but dark rather and
inexplicable,
as though he were in here.
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