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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Fleur Dorrell

Good Morning.

Pilgrimages are popular at the moment, whether to a local shrine close to home or a trek across the globe. They heal and restore us. The pilgrimage I remember with fondness is to Santiago di Compostela in northern Spain. Camping in tents, washing in rivers, and like a swarm of bees, finally descending on the Cathedral Square of St James to queue for our blessing and our pilgrim’s scallop shell.

Pope Francis has declared 2025 to be a Jubilee Year with the theme of ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. He is encouraging us, during this year, to go on a pilgrimage and change the way we live alongside each other. His model is the biblical Jubilee first celebrated in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 25.

Originally a year of restoration, justice and freedom, it represented the most radical system of social reform in the ancient world. It blocked land and wealth from becoming the focus of a wealthy elite at the expense of the ordinary people.
Meanwhile, the weekly Sabbath helped the people sustain this same vision: a day of rest for everyone, for the land and the animals. A time set aside and hallowed, to the praise and glory of God. Today Sunday Worship and weekend rest still provide many with a welcome break from work.

I pray that in this jubilee year - whether we find time to rest, or travel to a shrine of our faith, that we come together as pilgrims of this earth in the struggle for justice, freedom and hope.

Amen.