We arrived at London Victoria at 21:30PM; we then had to get 2 trains back to Richmond and another long drive back to Fordingbridge. We finally arrived home just after midnight. It was a very long day but it was well worth it! Aid to the Church in Need Pilgrimage to Walsingham, 28^th April 2012

We came across an advert in the correspondence from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that they were organising a pilgrimage to Walsingham: England’s Nazareth, and thought:  We must go! But first we had to overcome our ‘common sense’ on how possible it is to bring our 5 children – Jocelyn (11),  Ashlyn (7), Henry (4),  Suki (2) and 4 month-old Isaac with us. After a period of prayer with the burning desire to go, we booked our places for the coach.

Our day started with the alarm clock waking us at 4AM. After a quick cuppa and getting all the children ready, we loaded the car at 4:45AM and started a very quiet, reflective drive to Richmond on the outskirts of London. We parked our car at Richmond car park and made for Richmond Tube Station to catch an underground train to Victoria to join the ACN coach and our fellow pilgrims for 7:30AM, or so we thought! We faced the first problems of the day: there were no underground trains to or from Richmond all weekend! After consulting a staff member at the ticket counter, we were advised to get an overground train to Clapham Junction and change for Victoria. We arrived at Victoria station just after 7:10AM, time for a quick snack and joined the other pilgrims just in time! By this time it was raining very heavily which continued throughout the day.

The pilgrimage was led by Father Martin Edwards, a parish priest in South West London and National Ecclesiastical Assistant for ACN UK.

We settled down in our seats for the 4 hour journey to Walsingham.  At the beginning of the journey Father Martin explained how the pilgrims had made their journey to Walsingham for hundreds of years, and then he led us in praying 2 mysteries of the Rosary. We sang hymns and prayed for England. We also made some new friends.  Joanna Bogle, an author, journalist and broadcaster was on board and she gave a very interesting and amusing talk on the history of the shrine.  During all this time our children (the only ones on this pilgrimage) were made a fuss of by our fellow pilgrims.

We arrived at the Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham at 12 noon.  After a quick lunch we headed straight to the Slipper Chapel to make our prayers and devotions and to ask for our Blessed Lady’s intercessions. The shrine is so amazing, so spiritual, so serene and peaceful especially the Slipper Chapel, it gives you a sense of peace and love the second you enter. After we finished praying for ourselves, our fellow parishioners back at Fordingbridge, our Parish Priest Father Tony and everybody we could think of we went to the Holy Ghost Chapel to light candles. Our children were amazed to see so many candles and enjoyed lighting their own candles too.

The Pilgrim Mass started at 13:30PM at the shrine followed by a short coach journey (instead of the Rosary Procession, which was cancelled due to the heavy rain!) to the Church of the Annunciation, for confession and benediction.

After benediction we had time to look around the local town. Some of our fellow pilgrims went to the coffee shops or local pubs but we opted to visit the gift shops instead, we marvelled at the wealth of rosaries, medals, statues and icons.

We boarded the coach again at 16:45PM to make our journey back to London. We prayed 2 more mysteries of the Rosary on our journey back and Father Martin blessed all the Rosary beads and holy objects we and our fellow pilgrims had purchased.

We cannot express in words the love and many blessings we felt as a family on that pilgrimage, it is an experience we will never forget and is something we strongly recommend.

Dennis & Sherlyn Rowland

Parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Phillip Benizi Roman Catholic Church, Fordingbridge