On a comment on the post about Walsingham, below, Joan said:
Isn’t it possible that all devotion will be politicized if it is mediated through truths laid down in a book. The nature of such a text inevitably leads to argument for or against certain interpretations of the text. Wouldn’t it be nice if life were as certain as a book might make out? […]
I’d go, take Julian of Norwich with you to read, and enjoy the spirituality you can gain from your own dialogue with God. All the rest strikes me as a smoke screen that keeps us away from the conversation of prayer?
Which made me think about whether other pilgrimage destinations are inevitably politicized. My hunch is that a lot of them are. Iona Abbey is a very obvious example of a pilgrimage destination that has political overtones. (Though those overtones are not displeasing to me). Lourdes almost defines a certain kind of catholicism that not all catholics would sign up to. Similarly with Knock – and you have to add in all the complexities of Irish Christian identities to that one.
I once tried to devise a research project on pilgrimage which ironically, did not go anywhere. The problem was pinning down exactly what I was going to do. Looking at the politicization of pilgrimage would have been a far better topic than anything I came up with at the time.
I was in Knock last year. Indeed, I still have some of the holy water in the car. It did wonders for the cat.
As for going to Walsingham with Julian of Norwich, I think that is a great idea for a private trip. I’m less sure that it would work in the company of ordained colleagues who would be barred from certain treats for being female.
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