Mount Grace

At the weekend I was back up in Hull and witnessed a piece of history. Hull City played their first game ever in the top flight of English football - and won 2-1. It was a brilliant afternoon. We went one nil behind and I thought it would be a drubbing. But a fantastic goal by Brazilian Geovanni just before half time got us back into the game and a tap in from Caleb Folan in the second half sent us into pandemonium.

On Sunday, I went up to the Diocesan shrine to Our Lady at Mount Grace, in Osmotherley, one of the most beautiful villages in north Yorkshire. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the Assumption pilgrimage.

The Lady Chapel at Mount Grace originated as an outlying chapel of the nearby Carthusian priory of Mount Grace, now belonging to the National Trust but managed and maintained by the English Heritage. An annual pilgrimage was restored by the late priest brothers, Fr Anthony and Peter Storey. They and friend came upon the shrine in 1942 ‘in a haven of peace and quiet reflection not far from Mount Grace Priory’. There were traditions, they learned, of visits by pilgrims, of secret burials and the possibility that St Margaret Clitherow’s body was taken there after her execution in York in 1586.

It was my first time at this particular diocesan event. For the last few years, the music group at my home parish, St Francis of Assisi in Hull, have provided the music for this Mass. I was able to get a lift up with my dad who was due to play the guitar (I hear the trads among you retching and reaching for a bucket) at the Mass. A drum kit also featured (O dear, that's gone a bit too far, I'll let you fetch a mop). The choice of hymns was pretty horrendous (sorry everyone), a point that I reiterated to my dad afterwards. But they played very well.

Dad dropped me off at the Golden Lion in the village where I met Fr William Massie for a very nice lunch. We then walked up and I got taking to quite a few people, in particular Fr John Paul Leonard. We compared notes on how Hull City and Middlesbrough had got off to good starts the day before.

After the rosary, the Mass started. It was held outdoors and the rain held off until the priests were processing off at the end. It meant that our tea and cakes afterwards also included complementary fluoride.

The pilgrimage gave me my first opportunity to see our relatively new bishop, Terence Patrick Drainey. I have to say I was quite impressed by his confident, but honest delivery. He had carefully prepared written addresses for both the beginning and end of the Mass, as well as his homily. At the end, he urged everyone to tell people about Mount Grace and described it as the Diocese's shrine to Our Lady. He also said it was the second most important annual pilgrimage of the Middlesbrough Diocese, behind the one to Lourdes.

Here I've provided my edited extracts of a moving part to his homily. He said:

"Over the last month I've taken the opportunity to have a break - a holiday. It was an important moment for me because of what happened to me over the last six months. I've not really had the time or the opportunity to reflect and ponder on everything that's happened. The strange thing though is that I began to go through my thoughts and feelings right back to the time when I was asked to be your bishop. The only way I could express them to myself was in terms of a dying, of a grieving and a mourning for something which apparently was being suddenly taken away from me.
"I expect it's the fact that the position and life of a bishop is so public and to a certain extent it was the end of me as a private person - and there's a lot of private person within me. It was a genuine process of grieving and mourning. A wave of emotion would cut through me at the most unexpected moments and I could do nothing about it until it had literally taken it's course.

"At times like that you need people around you who have experienced something similar who can not only sympathise but can empathise.

"I've no doubt that there are people here who are going through periods of grief or mourning. Perhaps someone close has died - a husband, a wife, a family member, a close friend. Perhaps it's another type of grieving over a relationship, a change in your life where you've had to leave something of great value behind you. The last thing you want to hear in these types of situations is 'For goodness sake, pull yourself together. Get on with life.'

"Yes there's a time to hear that and a time to respond to it. But we have to mourn, we have to grieve, it's a very basic human thing to do. We literally need a shoulder to cry on, someone to support us and stand by us, someone who has been there, who has passed through that door as well.

..."Mary followed Jesus on the way of the cross. For her it was not a devotional prayer but the reality of her son's final hours on this earth with a painful, shameful death. She knew what grieving and mourning were all about.

..."Refuge in grief, star of the sea pray for the mourner pray for me.

..."At the foot of the cross, Mary was given to us in the person of John as Our Mother too.

..."Where she has gone, we too, by God's grace, should also aspire to go."

After the Mass, the rain really did come down and we struggled to get the cars out of the field. One of them got stuck in the mud so the St Francis lot all got their hands dirty and pushed the cars onto the track.