Fr Peter Wygnanski reports back after The Diocese’s Ignite Team embarked on a short but spiritually enriching pilgrimage to Northern France, visiting historic cathedrals and sacred sites in Paris and Lisieux.
At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the Youth Mission Team for the Diocese braving seasonal cold to roam around flat landscapes, travelling together from church to church at distances and hours of the day which would agitate all but the hardiest of travellers. Such journeys are a fact of life for the Ignite Team as it supports the young faithful across our diocese. In mid-January, however, and undeterred by the discomforts budget-conscious pilgrimage brings, the big skies of East Anglia were exchanged for the broad horizons of Northern France, a great veil of history resting upon those lands as gently but as densely as the thick winter fog which offered its constant and enchanting accompaniment.
The French theologian Henri de Lubac would himself have drawn on the hope inspired by the sight of great Gothic Cathedrals overcoming such mists, and he reminds us of the importance for the Catholic faith of feeling oneself rich with the treasures of the Church and to love her History. In this spirit, the members of the Ignite Team had opportunity across two challenging but engraced days to pray in great gems of the European High Middle Ages, to help them grow in this important aspect of a mature faith which they long to share with others.
Having driven the day before to basic accommodation on the outskirts of the French capital, what a blessing it was to begin in earnest with the early morning celebration of Mass in the newly re-opened Notre Dame in Paris. Restored from fires that destroy, it now shines as a beacon of hope for a Christian revival in Europe. After that liturgy, the team spent the day walking to other Parisian sites significant for our faith; the heavenly Sainte-Chapelle, built by St Luis IX to house the relics of Christ’s Crown of Thorns, the place of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Sister Catherine Labouré made famous by the Miraculous Medal they revealed, the magnificent Church of Saint-Sulpice, and ending the day with an extended period of adoration at Sacré-Cœur atop of Montmartre. In that Basilica, the team forged their own link in a 135-year chain of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, begun in 1885, which the bombings of World Wars and the closures of Pandemics could not interrupt.
The next day begun with an early long drive from Paris to attend Mass at the Carmel of Lisieux, at the chapel where St Therese of the Child Jesus spent her life in prayer and now rests. As a doctor of the Church, St Therese teaches the simple but profound lesson that the life of Jesus takes shape in us when we do small things with great love. After Mass, the towering Cathedral of Amiens was found en route to returning to Norwich via the Channel Tunnel after nearly 1000km of driving in one day.
We give thanks to God for the many graces received in these days and ask for your prayers for the Ignite Team members, the two Alexes, and Luc, as they continue to grow in their faith and generously discern God’s call to service in His Church and her mission.
Pictured: The Ignite Team, accompanied by Hamish MacQueen (Director of Diocesan Youth Services) and Fr Peter Wygnanski, outside the restored Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris