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Jubilee 2000: a pilgrimage for the Holy Year
From the editor On the map are the same seven churches that pilgrims to Rome today are advised to visit: The Lateran Basilica, St. Mary Major, St. Peter's, St. Paul's Outside the Walls, St. Lawrence, St. Sebastian, and Holy Cross in Jerusalem At the gates of these churches, the map shows some saints -- Mary, Peter, Paul, John the Baptist -- welcoming people from afar. They -- tiny figures on this much reduced version of the map shown here -- are inviting the pilgrims not simply to visit a church and certainly not to visit a museum, but to visit with them, in their holy place. Obviously, the visitors wending their way to these holy sites are pilgrims who come from a generation of Christians with strong connections to the saints. On pilgrimage, they open their hearts to their saintly friends and companions to gain encouragement for the journey of life. We are going to visit shrines and saints in this issue of Compassion. Our hope is that our ancestors in faith: Peter and the early Roman martyrs, Cecilia and other women of her time, Lawrence, the great deacon, Sebastian and the soldier saints, may warm our hearts with their stories and help us discover anew the way God wishes us to go.
The
first Christian martyrs •
Cecilia, an early saint •
Lawrence, the deacon
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Publisher:
Terence Kristofak, C.P., Provincial Eastern Province
Editor: Victor Hoagland, C.P. • Co-Editor: Mary Ann Strain, C.P. • Art Director: Sr. Mary Clement CSAC Circulation: James Fitzgerald • Web 'zine: Bread on the Waters E-Publishing |
Take
a look at the old pilgrim map of Rome at right. It may seem an outdated
introduction to the Great Jubilee Year 2000, when the church again recommends
we go on pilgrimage. Yet, this old map may teach us a thing or two.
In
this jubilee year, can these pilgrims of old teach us to turn to the
saints -- that "great cloud of witnesses" -- again?
