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The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that:
So it is appropriate that this summer has seen a number of pilgrimages. We have welcomed many visitors to York, and the Oratorian community and our parishioners have been pilgrims themselves.
Here we will look at some of these journeys of faith.
Queen Catherine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII, was a patroness of the Carthusians who lived at Mount Grace. At some point, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Grace was constructed on the hill above the Charterhouse. After the monastery was forcibly dissolved by Henry VIII, the Prior, John Wilson, continued to live at the Lady Chapel.
Although in subsequent centuries the chapel fell into ruin, Catholics from as far as York continued to visit and pray. Pilgrims from our city went on foot to the Lady Chapel at Osmotherley, and left behind graffiti to prove their devotion.
In the twentieth century the Lady Chapel at Osmotherley was rebuilt, and it is now the Middlesbrough Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In June, Fr Daniel and a small, intrepid band of pilgrims spent two days walking on foot to the Lady Chapel - a distance of 48 miles.
Meanwhile, the Women's Oratory had a wonderful day out at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Crag in Knaresborough:
On the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Patroness of the Diocese of Middlesbrough, our Bishop, Rt Reverend Terence Patrick Drainey, celebrated Mass in the Cathedral with over 300 children from schools around the diocese, as part of the National Schools Singing Programme. Some of the Year 5s from St Wilfrid's School travelled up on a coach, and were part of what the Bishop described as a "wall of sound".
One of the great heroes of the diocese of Middlesbrough is Blessed Nicholas Postgate, who ministered to the Catholics of the North York Moors until he was 82 years of age, when Father Postgate was arrested and then hanged, drawn, and quartered for his faith in York.
This year saw the fiftieth annual Postgate Rally, which took place at Ugthorpe, and saw a great crowd of priests and people come together with our Bishop, and the guest preacher Cardinal Roche, to pray for Blessed Nicholas's intercession, and for his eventual canonization.
On the Sunday after the Solemnity of Our Lady's Assumption into Heaven, we were back praying to Our Lady of Mount Grace at Osmotherley, although this time the journey was made more quickly by 'bus! Large numbers came to the Mass, celebrated by the Abbot of Ampleforth, under the splendid new canopy which makes outdoor liturgies more convenient and dignified.
Every August Bank Holiday Monday, near to the feast of the Pearl of York, St Margaret Clitherow, we have a pilgrimage, beginning from the Bar Convent, where the relic of St Margaret's hand is preserved, through the streets of York, passing the Ouse Bridge where her martyrdom took place, stopping at the Shrine on the Shambles, home of the Clitherows, and ending at the Oratory for Mass and Benediction
This year we were honoured by the participation of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Margaret Wells, and by the Sheriff, Councillor Fiona Fitzpatrick.
This was particularly significant, given the Sheriff's role in St Margaret's execution in 1586.
As she was led out to die, the Sheriff said, "Mrs Clitherow, you must remember and confess that you die for treason." She replied, "No, no Mr Sheriff; I die for the love of my Lord Jesu."
