Holy Shrine

News that the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann will visit the holy shrine of Fatima in Portugal,(here) is in a way not surprising. Yet both of the parents who are medical scientists and doctors are uinlikely candidates for the pilgrimage circuit. Is it an act of desperation or a supreme act of faith? One can't help but hope that, which ever it is that it proves to be fruitful.
I have pondered the mystery of pilgrimage quite a few times whilst we have been wandering these northern climes. Yesterday for example as I visited Carlisle Cathedral and the lady on the table said "Are you familiar with the Cathedral?" I was able to truthfully reply...."I haven't been inside this Cathedral for over 40 years!"
And there was indeed a sense of pilgrimage about it. It was the first cathedral I ever stepped foot inside, it was the first place I ever witnessed an ordination. And it was in this Diocese where my early sense of vocation was nurtured. So an important religious pilgrimage place.
Last night we drove to my cousin's house, she told me about it last year. A lovely (but indeed in need of lots of work) Cumbrian farm house...the centre of their trucking business, and as she told me last year the focus of nearly all of her life. Her father and mother were there when we arrived. George looks so much like my father that it is alarming sitting there talking to him.
A pilgrimage into the heart of my family.
There is a deep sense of connectedness with these people even though we do not know each other well, on one level and yet share enormous common story. This is quite profound in searching out the far off place of pilgrimage.
Today we will head to Durham, where is buried St Cuthbert. Then later to Gateshead, the largest shopping centre in England. A different sort of pilgrimage.
I hope and pray that the McCann's experience of Fatima will reconnect them with the lost child.

There is no place

I have no idea what is happening in Australia at all!! It is interesting how little Australian news is reported here..Sylvester Stallone's brush with importing steroids was mentioned on the news last night, the first time Australian news had been heard. You may or may not be aware that Britain's PM Blair has resigned and the Labour Party will elect his successor this week. The TV discussion seems as convoluted and meaningless as such things do in Australia. At once all engrossing, yet essentially meaningless to all but those whose lives are affected.
You probably don't hear much either about Maddy McCann a small British child who disappeared whilst on holiday in portugal. It is obsessing the media at the moment, as such things would in Australia. What does it all mean?
We are missing our children, such things are meaningful to us. We have always tended to talk to our children every day...and are increasingly doing so as our holiday goes on....but news and events pass us by.
The London Underground seems almost unreal, there are constant recorded messages delivered in an Orwellian tone.
"Mind the Gap" the traveller is warned..."Do not leave your belongings unattended"...it is a constant drone and I wondered amidst all this if they ever said anything of import.
"Mind the Gap"...it said last night..."There will be no service beyond Finchley Road tonight because of a body on the track"
Had I heard right!!!? yes
And so it continued..."Mind the Gap!"