THE P RTAL
March 2012 Coming Home by Arnold Herron
IT WAS one year ago on Ash Wednesday 2011 that we all started to worship at our local Catholic Church. Te welcome we all received was warm and humbling. How fitting that just one year later, Mgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary, led our Tanksgiving Pilgrimage, sponsored by THE PORTAL, to Rome.
A whole week in Rome What a week it was! Nigh on one hundred
members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, together with the Ordinary, spent a whole week in Rome. Mass every day was celebrated at one of the beautiful churches in the city, and on one evening we sang Evensong in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. What an honour for Te Revd James Bradley to lead our evening Office!
We celebrated Mass at the basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore; the church of San Giorgio in Velabro (Newman’s church); Santa Spirito in Sassia; and Santa Maria del Popolo. A day out meant we could celebrate Mass at Santa Speco, Subiaco; and of course, we were able to celebrate Mass in Saint Peter’s itself.
Cardinal Law, and Cardinal Levada honoured us
with their presence at Mass on a couple of days, and Fr Edwin Barnes, Fr Christopher Pearson and Fr Len Black preached for us, as did the Ordinary.
Audience with the Holy Father No pilgrimage to Rome would be complete without
attending a General Audience with the Holy Father. Ours was no exception! Together with over seven thousand pilgrims we all crammed into the hall.
Each group was introduced to the Holy Father,
many sang to him as well! Te pilgrims were of all ages and came from every continent of the world. Tis church is a truly international one, yet each group and nationality is so different in culture.
When our turn came, we sang part of Blessed John
Henry Newman’s hymn “Praise to the holiest in the height”. Pope Benedict waived to us and applauded our efforts, while we all cheered and clapped.
Te Pope addressed us about Lent and how we could
keep the holy season better, and then said, “I greet all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Belgium, Norway, Canada and the United States. I offer a special
Rome Pilgrimage: the Pilgrims gather around the Confessio of St Peter to pray the General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book
The Holy Father’s Ash Wednesday address to the English speaking Pilgrims and his Greeting the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-1
The Vatican TV report at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-2
Msgr Keith’s excellent interview with Vatican Radio:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-3
and the Catholic News Service report at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-4
You can also read about our visit in a report from the Catholic News Service at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-5
and, of course, all the Ordinariate Flickr photos at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-6
welcome to the faithful of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on the occasion of their pilgrimage to the See of Peter ... and I thank the choirs for their praise of God in song. With prayerful good wishes for a spiritually fruitful Lent, I invoke upon all of you God’s abundant blessings!
We took many pictures, some of which are displayed
here; others are on the various web sites. Make sure you see them all, as well as the many press reports - some of the links are listed below.
Te pilgrimage was a really historic occasion, and
THE PORTAL is proud to have been associated with it. We thought it might be the first Ordinariate Pilgrimage of many. I wonder?
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