Transformation in the Spirit
October 7, 2015
This year’s Diocesan Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk saw pilgrims gather from across the diocese to share the devotions at the shrine. Central to those devotions was the Sacrament of the Eucharist that they shared each day in the place referred to as ‘Britain’s Nazareth’.
According to history, a widow, Richeldis de Faverches, was accorded a triple vision at Walsingham in 1061. She had prayed to be allowed to honour Mary in some special manner. In her vision, the Blessed Virgin led her to Nazareth and showed her the little House of the Holy Family which was then preserved beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation. Mary commanded the widow to make another house in Walsingham – and the shrine was born.
The focus of the Diocesan Pilgrimage to The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, was our devotion to and reflection on the great mystery of the Incarnation.
Today, Walsingham continues its ancient ministry to all who truly seek God. It struggles to establish a deep interior life of prayer, and strives to spread its spirit abroad to all people. Walsingham exists in the spirit of Nazareth – loving service to all, deep interior peace based on obedience to the will of God in all things, joy in being the least in the household of God’s Church in order that God, and not us, receive the glory.
