I suspect I’ll have…more to say later today (I’m writing this late Sunday afternoon).
Some quick links from me and then from others:
- We’re celebrating the feast of the Annunciation today. Here’s my post on that.
- If you missed it a couple of weeks ago, do check out my piece on the novel The Damnation of Theron Ware at Church Life Journal.
- New Substack post this past weekend – on First Communion and Confirmation.
- Speaking of Sacrament Season – do consider sharing my books as gifts. Thanks!
- New podcast ep coming later today as well.
- The Power of the Cross is free just for today.
Now:
The Unexpected Journey of Holy Week:
Good Friday was quite another thing.
I saw a church at capacity with New Yorkers wrapt with sorrow and gratitude venerating the Crucified Christ.
There were tears.
And those tears always move me—not necessarily to tears but to reflection—because witnessing the impact of Christ’s presence in another’s life is powerful. And I see that a lot. Like the sacraments, it’s an outward manifestation of an inner Truth.
Moving words and beautiful photographs.
Pilgrimage is a BBC2 series in its sixth season. I don’t know how you can watch it in the US – perhaps BBC America or one of the streaming services – but it sounds intriguing:
Pilgrimage is back with a brand new sixth series returning to BBC Two and iPlayer next month, as seven well known personalities, of differing faiths and beliefs, tackle a modern-day pilgrimage, this time along the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way. Across 3 x 60 minute episodes, Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales* will follow seven celebrity pilgrims, as they take a personal journey along a route that celebrates Celtic early Christian saints, with Bardsey Island the fabled ‘Island of 20,000 saints’, just off the western tip of the Llyn Peninsula – as their final destination…
…Created in 2011, the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way is linked by ancient churches dedicated to sixth and seventh century saints, but also takes pilgrims through outstanding places of natural beauty in the mountain ranges of Eryri, also known as Snowdonia, and the North Wales coast path.
Travelling for two weeks on foot and by bus, the seven celebrity pilgrims start their 220km adventure at Flint Castle on the bank of the Dee Estuary, and follow the coastal path to Greenfield Valley and the official start of the pilgrim way.
The pilgrims will be faced with challenging paths and climbs as they traverse North Wales, tackling the foothills of spectacular mountain ranges, as well as taking on England and Wales’ highest peak Yr Wyddfa, also known as Mount Snowdon. Carrying their own backpacks, they’ll sleep in basic accommodation from a caravan to a climbers’ hut, as well as experiencing an eco-retreat in an ancient oak forest and a Buddhist meditation Centre.
Their final destination is Bardsey Island, or Ynys Enlli, which means ‘isle of currents’. It was a popular destination among early Christian monks and hermits, who believed Bardsey was the end of the world; a place where the distance between heaven and earth becomes intangible and so becomes a place of guaranteed resurrection. Crossing the Bardsey sound is notoriously dangerous, so will the celebrities manage to complete this challenging journey safely?
I love Jenny Holland’s Substack – essays like “Our Lady of the Broom” are why.
Ed Willock was my mother’s neighbour in a small Catholic community called Marycrest, where she grew up with her large family and a group of other like-minded large families who had left the concrete jungle (mostly the Bronx) to homestead in the woods on the New York-New Jersey border. These days the area is quite suburban, but in the 1950’s, for these idealistic young Catholics, it was the deep woods somewhere very far away. The men built their own and each other’s homes, the women raised their many children in tandem, in friendship and neighbourly support.
The Hudson’s — my mother’s family — had ten children. The Willock’s had twelve. Among them were my mother’s best friend, Liz, and a son, Michael, who my mother loved when she was a girl, but who died in violent and mysterious circumstances when still in his teens. The bucolic setting did not save this family from tragedy — Ed Wilock, the father and the artist of the lovely drawing of Our Lady of the Broom, himself died tragically young….
….The poem itself is very apt for the setting I currently am in. “Liturgy of labour” is the perfect phrase to describe what I see the people of this town engaging in right now. The trees and shrubs are being cut back, the outdoor tables in restaurants cleaned down, the bakeries in full production for the big day tomorrow. There is a sense of common purpose, and I love it. Being in a place of tradition and ritual is enormously comforting.
My mother had a small statue of our Lady of the Broom in the kitchen when I was growing up. This is the first reference I have ever seen to her. Thanks.