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The Church's Year: Lent
LENT ON THE MOVE
John Donne, Dean of St Paul's (1573-1631)
Bring us, O Lord God,
at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence,
but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes,
but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings,
but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of thy majesty and thy glory,
world without end.
John Donne
Jesus at prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. An angel reveals a chalice to him, foreshadowing his suffering and Crucifixion
Pilgrimage brings together the individual and the community. Chaucer's pilgrims were all individual characters - sometimes rumbustious, sometimes holy and sometimes profoundly unattractive. But on pilgrimage they shared a common destination and journey. Pilgrimage is an image which is powerful for us at any time in our own journey and in the journey of the people of God - we are the Church, we are the body of Christ, we are always on the way, in via, we are... pilgrims.
Bishop Stephen Platten (from his book Pilgrim's; Fount, 1996)
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