Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land 1930
from Our Lady's Mirror, Spring Summer Number 1929
from Our Lady's Mirror, Spring Summer Number 1929
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Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land 1930 from Our Lady's Mirror, Spring Summer Number 1929 |
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Pilgrimage is being arranged to visit the Holy Places during the month of
June, 1930. Father Hope Patten, Vicar of the Pilgrimage Church of Our Lady
of Walsingham, has kindly consented to act as Chaplain. Major Adderley,
who has already taken out three pilgrimages, will make all arrangements
and act as conductor.
As in previous years, seventeen days will be spent in the Holy Land itself. This has been found necessary in order to avoid undue rush and to enable pilgrims to form lasting impressions of what they have seen, and to have time to revisit places more than once. The month of June has again been chosen. At that time the climate is settled. There are no rains. The sirocco, which so often makes May unbearable, is finished, and in its place a cool wind blows each day from the Mediterranean which, combined with the altitude of the country, prevents the temperature from rising above 90 degs. at midday. The evenings and nights are quite cool. The tourists who visit the country in March and April have left, and the whole country is seen under normal conditions. The “harvest” is passing, the “time of summer fruits” (Jeremiah viii, 20) is at hand. The country people are seen in the “fields” with their flocks and herds, reaping and gleaning the harvest. The threshing floors are heaped up, and threshing is in progress. “Behold, I shall make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the winds shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them”. – Isaiah xli, 15, 16. At dawn, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, pilgrims will be approaching by sea the Holy Land, off Jaffa. It is hoped to arrange a Mass at that time. The journey to Jerusalem will be made by road, through the orange groves of Jaffa, across the maritime plain, and up into the hill country of Judea. Near Kirjath-Jearim a halt will be made, to say the gradual psalms, within sight of the “hills which stand about Jerusalem”, Ps. cxxv, 2. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is visited, and the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary venerated. The “Coenacolum” will also be visited on Corpus Christi. The first few days will be spent at Ain Karem, five miles from Jerusalem, famous as the birthplace of St. John Baptist and the scene of the Visitation. The village is situated in a valley of exceptional beauty, within easy reach of Jerusalem. It is also a good centre from which to visit Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, besides Emmaus and Kirjath-Jearim. Miss Carey has very kindly invited the pilgrimage to stay in her house, which is situated in the compound belonging to the Russian convent. Two nights, at least, possibly three, will be spent in Nazareth. The journey there from Jerusalem is made by road, through Samaria, past Jacob’s well. One whole day will be spent in Galilee and Capurnaum. The remaining days will be spent in Jerusalem itself. Visits will be paid to the Holy Sepulchre Church, both on arrival in Palestine and again in order to visit all the shrines, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Ecce Homo, the Pool of Bethesda and Church of St. Anne, the Tomb of the Virgin, the Temple Area, the Armenian Convent Library and Cathedral of St. James, the House of Caiaphas, excavations on Mount Sion, the Tombs of the Kings. Pilgrims will take part in the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, and in a devotional walk by night from the Coenacolum to the Garden of Gethsemane. Pilgrims will have the privilege of being at the birthplace of St. John Baptist at the time of his feast, and good walkers will be able to hear Mass at the desert place, to which a pilgrimage is made each year on the eve of his feast. On July 2nd pilgrims will be in Jerusalem and arrangements till be made to revisit the actual shrine of the Visitation at Ain Karem on that day. Mass will be said daily while at Ain Karem and it is hoped that, while in Jerusalem, the use of the altar in the Chapel of Abraham (attached to the Holy Sepulchre Church) will again be granted to the pilgrimage, and, while in Nazareth, that the Metropolitan of Nazareth will again allow us the privilege of using his private Chapel. It is hoped to arrange daily Masses on board ship, by permission of the Captain. Facilities will be provided for priests to say their own Masses as far as possible and they are asked to bring their own missal, alb, amice, alb and girdle. There is no mention of this pilgrimage in later editions of OLM. It appears that Fr Patten was not well enough to go, but a later pilgrimage took place, under the chaplaincy of Fr Fynes-Clinton. top of
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