Bishop Jonh Ford, Chairman of the
Glastonbury Pilgrimage Association continues:

    This very practical engagement in the service of others flows perfectly naturally from, and in fact is an absolutely essential consequence of, our annual assembly at the holy site of Glastonbury. At the heart of our pilgrimage lays the one who is not only our companion and guide on the way but also food for the very journey itself. Glastonbury was my first ever pilgrimage destination. Others have taken me to a variety of places, many have included time in the desert. On one such journey I was reading some of the writings of one of my spiritual heroes, the Blessed Charles de Foucauld. From his desert retreats Brother Charles was adamant that his ministry would be exercised towards the most needy and it was in the service of them and the adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament that he spent his entire Christian life. Early in his life he would have joined the 60’s trail to the Glastonbury music festival and all the indulgencies with which that gathering began. Converted to Christ and subsequently becoming a priest he wrote, “The divine banquet of which I was becoming a minister must be offered not to the relatives and to the rich neighbours but to the lame, the blind and the poor”. Turning his back on one route, Charles centred his entire life on the service of the poor and under privileged and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. I pray that this year, as we turn ourselves to travel the route towards Glastonbury we will each do so with a commitment in our heart to serve the least and the lost, the poor and destitute, those amongst whom our Blessed Lord lived and spent his life. With such a commitment, the seas upon which we sail and any storm that might be stirred, can be faced with confidence that as we are called to be his holy communion and receive him in holy communion so he who is really present in that holy communion will never abandon us but rather feed us for the journey and accompany us upon the Way.

    I look forward to greeting you in Glastonbury this June when we will pray together for the priestly life of God’s holy people, ask God to provide more priests to serve his people and recommit ourselves to following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, our eternal High Priest.

+John