Since the Reformation, English Catholics have been praying for the conversion of England. Conversion has for many become a challenging word. It means changing from one thing to another, usually for the better. Many interpret the need for conversion as a rejection of their choices or lifestyles. They feel judged, as if their space has somehow been invaded.
Yet Christianity at its heart demands continual conversion and reconversion. It is about change. It is about the hope that we can be transformed through closeness to God, in the imitation of his Son. We are called to give up what we are for what we can become – to imitate Christ more perfectly in order to live life more closely configured to Him.
In this sense, the Eucharist is an analogy for the entire Christian life. In the Mass mere bread and wine are miraculously changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. In our daily lives, God brings about miraculous changes as he draws us closer to his heart, transforming us, too, if only we let Him. The Christian must change. If he does not, he cannot enter into new life.
Pilgrimage offers us all an opportunity to change, carving out of our busy lives a time consecrated to God, away from the stresses of life. It is an opportunity to withdraw, to offer a personal sacrifice to God, to rediscover a perspective on our lives that may have become buried under ever-increasing burdens on our time, in the midst of a superabundance of information.
Perhaps this is why Our Lady so often appeared in such remote places, requiring us to travel often long and tiring journeys. On pilgrimage we arrive ready for a rest, and happy to find peace, both in our destination, and within ourselves – a peace that is hard to find in our everyday lives. Pilgrims to Walsingham usually travel long distances at considerable personal inconvenience. Yet overwhelmingly they speak of the peace they find at this ancient shrine to the Mother of God.
Pilgrimage to Walsingham began as a result of Our Lady appearing to Richeldis, the lady of the manor. The Mother of God invited her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth, the place of the Annunciation: “Build a house in honour of my salutation.” At the heart of the Walsingham story is the Incarnation, the ultimate ‘‘change’’ event. At the Annunciation, the Word became flesh and lived among us. At Walsingham we are reminded that the Word became flesh and lives among us still – Richeldis’s house serving as a reminder of the cosmic truth and timelessness of the incarnation. God is here. He walks now as he walked then. He is with us and acts through us. In faith we encounter Him. Yet if we are truly to enter into this truth, we have constantly to change and seek conversion. We have to lift up our heads to see the God who walks with us.
Pilgrimage helps us to recognise that God walks with us, bringing about the conversion necessary to spread the joy of the Gospel to others. The desire for personal conversion is a necessary condition for evangelisation. None of us is a perfect evangelist. To a greater or lesser extent, the Gospel each of us shares is adulterated by our own ideas and preferences. God can cope with this. But without the desire for conversion, there is little space within which God can operate. The new evangelisation will be brought about by deep, radical, personal conversions. Matthew Kelly, the author of Rediscovering Catholicism, sets out four signs usually found in a person on the road of continual conversion to Christ. That person will be a person of prayer, they will seek the truth that sets us free, they will have a greatness of heart (that will serve others, especially those in most need), and they will have a desire and willingness to share with others the reason for our hope.
The Good News will always be proclaimed in the life of a Christian who prays, seeks the truth and lives for others. The ‘‘new’’ in ‘‘new evangelisation’’ is principally a reminder to our generation that the ancient truths of our faith need to be lived afresh each day. Evangelisation is a consequence, not a programme.
Pope Francis sees clearly the importance of pilgrimage in the life of conversion. In proclaiming the Holy Year of Mercy, he announced that “A holy door may be opened at any shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since visits to these holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as people discover a path to conversion” (Misericordiae Vultus 3). Now is a good time to come on a pilgrimage, to take up our torches in the way of light.
In the Year of Mercy, we at Walsingham will be seeking ways to accompany pilgrims in their conversion of heart, helping them to become New Evangelists through prayer, the sacraments, fidelity to the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church, and living their lives for others.
St Augustine reminds us that our faith is ever ancient, ever new. This most ancient shrine to our Lady Mary grows with new life in each generation. Help us by your prayers, grace us with your presence, be generous with your support.
Mgr John Armitage is Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham (www.walsingham.org.uk)
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