Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Wells Light Railway :: Walsingham Priory

The Youth 2000 retreat finished yesterday after the closing mass at 9:30am.  It was an amazing weekend full of much activity and many graces; what a priviledge to have attended.  We are still in Walsingham until late on Thursday so have been busy sightseeing various places all within literally a stone's throw from our front door:

 Whilst both kids were with friends Dave and I managed to visit part of the Catholic Shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham.  Since it is the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has declared a plenary indulgence to all those who walk through the Holy Door of a church whilst meeting the criteria laid down in the guidelines.  Information regarding an indulgence can be found at this link for plenary indulgence

Yesterday afternoon our Dave, Pip and our friends travelled on the small local railway to Wells-next-the-Sea and the girls enjoyed a fairy hunt along the way:


















 Dave had a lovely chat with the driver!

Today we visited the Priory:



















 If you want to know more about where we are staying then further information can be found here

8 comments:

Eva said...

What is the Holy House of Nazareth? How can it be in England? That fragment of the huge church looks almost sad and lonely. There is a similar one in the vicinity of Bonn. I used to go for walks there with my beloved grandma. Beautiful, but sad.

Eva said...

P.S. Were Catholics persecuted in that area?

Sandra Ann said...

Yes they were. I will send you a link regarding the Holy House tomorrow, just off to bed as it is very late x

Sandra Ann said...

Here is some information as San promised (DH writing). The link I give below seems fairly consistent with a book I have read, although I detect some bias against the church - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Walsingham.
The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham dates from some time after the 1061 visions. During the Reformation, it was removed to London and destroyed, but miracles remain to be attributed to Our Lady of Walsingham. Catholics were martyred in the village, ¼ mile from where we stayed. The high part of (protestant) Church of England (Anglo-Catholics) are a complicated issue. Trying to explain briefly here - they have a special love for Our Lady of Walsingham and that makes things quite confusing here, as the dominant shrine in the middle of the village is Church of England and you would have to look hard to realise it is not Roman Catholic. High CofE (known as Anglo-Catholics) seem to be more Catholic that the Roman Catholic church, except for example, they don’t have apostolic succession, cannot truly consecrate the Blessed Sacrament and do not see that the pope is the head of the church.

doe said...

Hi San, Pip's smile can light up the world :) Walsingham is beautiful, as is Wells-next-the-Sea. (I like writing that out). I looked everything up on google maps. So glad you are having a wonderful time :) xoxoxo

Eva said...

Thanks so much, Dave. I have read a similar story about St. Brigid of Ireland. In an apparition, she was shown the house where Jesus was born.

Your description of the High Church of England sounds similar to the Old Catholic Church. Here is more about them. They seem to be in full communion with the Anglican church.

Sandra Ann said...

Thanks for your link Eva but sadly it doesn't seem to work.

Eva said...

I just saw this reply, this is actually funny :). I sent you a link to the help pages of my German textbook!! I think I wrote to a student before telling him where to find an answer to his question. That link must have been the last one I had saved. I think I meant to link to this one! So sorry.