Day 6

After breakfast, we drove a short way up the road to start our walk, going towards Raynham. I took a photo of this dead rat, we have chant in Buddhism which say "all that is beloved and pleasing will become otherwise". Our walk about to finish, the rat's life had finished ... it's a fact that this will happen to all of us.

We walked and walked, finally seeing a sign to Walsingham, where we decided to follow a disused railway. The track started to get thicker and thicker with bushes and the time for the midday pilgrim's service started to get closer and closer. My blisters were hurting and I was getting tired.  Alan decided that it was time to get off the track and back on the road and out of nowhere I just shouted keep going ... 5 minutes we later we entered the Walsingham and the 'slipper chapel' (St.Marys)  and the large Catholic shrine church. We had made it and so had Ray with his van.

We walked into the Chapel and sat and rested and I was surprised to see so many different cultures in the room. No longer was Jesus centre stage but Mary. The last few days I had started to feel Mary, the divine mother with us. My community had been having problems around ordaining full Nuns and here I was in Church with a women being the focus of the worship.

We entered the Catholic church and took part in a very well choreographed service, the priest gave a lovely reflection and in my mind, I felt I had said the same thing to the Buddhist group a few days ago.  I went up for a blessing with my arms crossed which I meant I did not want the sacrament or wine (which would have broken one of my precepts). We came outside and had our lunch.

I thought this sign within the grounds was quite a contrast to the holy shrine ... "summer inside"

We had not quite finished quite yet, the Walsingham shrine and spring were still one mile further down the road from the Slipper chapel where there would be a blessing and a 'sprinkling - where you would be sprinkled with water - at the main shrine. The slipper chapel was so called, because in the old days, you were could take off your slippers or whatever, and go the last 'holy mile' barefoot. Anyway, off we went and as we left, we saw a young South American woman setting off on bare feet and something just came over me and I took my shoes and socks off. My feet were blistered and tired, it focused my attention and I walked the last mile in bare feet. There was something very rewarding for me in it, it was a cold day and I wanted to honour the divine mother in some way.

We arrived to find that on this Saturday the Sprinkling would not be happening. So I filled up a small bottle of water form the spring to offer to the Nuns at Amaravati. We had one last port of call and that was some Franscian monks who have a small settlement in Walsingham. We went round to the house, nobody was in and we found a way round the back of the house.  Peering in nobody seemed to be there and I noticed a big Buddha in the next door garden. We where just about to leave when Brother Pascal turned up, within a few minutes we were inside having a  cup of tea. With the usual friendly hospitality you get from Franciscians.  We had a great chat and spoke about our journey and how we had missed the sprinkling.

Brother Pascal said he could do the sprinkling so we went back to the shrine and received sprinkling and blessings using the water from the spring below, and then went into the small shrine area for a blessing. Brother Pascal took us finally to Bishop Lindsey, an Aussie Bishop, ow Warden of the whole Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. (The shrine was built by a young woman Richelda who in the 10th century had visions of Mary, who told her to build a house like the one she brought Jesus up in in Nazareth.) And that completed the day. With the Bishop discussing how other Buddhist monks from our other monastery had knocked on his door when he was a bishop in Sussex. We offered brother Pascal some food for his house and left for the road back home. Alan and Margaret went back to London by train, from Cambridge, and myself and Ray went back to the monastery. The journey took a few hours in the van rather than a few days.

In my mind during this journey I had this feeling that it should have somehow been harder, we should have engaged more with young people and so on. But when reflecting on it now I feel it was just perfect in itself. We spend so much of our time engaged, trying harder to be better, to do more, rather than allowing life to greet us with its blessings and offerings, kindness and generosity. So I thank all the people that made this possible, for their hospitality, their company and friendship, a simple glance, smiles, waving at men in skirts, and also bless all those that ignored us or did not understand.