The Joy of a Pilgrimage within SA

We are pilgrims on a journey, we are travellers on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load. These are the words of the second verse of the modern hymn The Servant Song.

The group of pilgrims who travelled from Cape Town to Keimoes-Upington.

I love this hymn very much and I love the composer, Richard Gillard, a down-to-earth, no-fuss kind of guy who wanted to write a simple folk song but composed a most beautiful, deeply sacred hymn.

Richard explains that after writing one verse of the song in 1976 he completely forgot about it. After nearly one full year he took out his guitar case the piece of scrap paper on which he had jotted the single verse and then wrote the rest of the song about our pilgrim journey (see a video of Richard Gillard perform The Servant Song at bit.ly/1TLC6Bf).

A pilgrimage is a sacred experience which we make with everyday down-to-earth people. Of course, there are times of joy and laughter as well, I can imagine, some frustration among pilgrims on a journey, but the pivotal experience is a sacred one.

There are many types of pilgrimages one can make. One can make a daily pilgrimage to a shrine, for example. There are local pilgrimages, such as those to Ngome, and there are pilgrimages to international holy sites like the Holy Land or Lourdes in France.

The women’s group of our Cape Town parish recently made a weekend pilgrimage to our neighbouring diocese of Keimoes-Upington and met up with women from different parishes, to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

In all the places of our pilgrimage the women were, just as Richard Gillard is, no-fuss kind of earthly women.

The first stop of our pilgrimage was in the parish of Vredendal where we met with about 30 women. Their beautiful voices, singing hymns before Mass, welcomed us as we approached the church. It was the first time we visited the parish and we did not know the women. But we were home. And in celebrating Holy Mass together we knew and deeply experienced that we were travellers on the road together.

The next morning we continued our pilgrimage travelling on to Matjieskloof near Springbok where the Sisters prepared a place for us to rest and enjoy our lunch. When one experiences the care of others, where no effort is too big, then one can experience the words of Gillard’s hymn, we are here to help each other.

After lunch we started the last lap of our journey, heading off to Pella, the main and final destination of our pilgrimage.

Pella is a mission station built in 1882 and today it is a tourist destination known for its beautiful cathedral and palm trees. Nothing could prepare us for the warm, spontaneous and lively reception of young colourful traditional dancers meeting us at the entrance of the mission and dancing us in to the venue for our gathering.

Inside the hall women from six surrounding towns were waiting for us. We were about 100 women, the eldest of whom was 91 years old still on her journey and now meeting us as fellow pilgrims.

We spent two days in Pella listening to and learning so much from other women. And as we were listening we realised that our journey is the same, our joys are the same, our struggles are the same. They gave us so much inspiration, and at the same time we heard them saying that they were drawing inspiration from us.

A highlight of the weekend was the Holy Mass in the cathedral where the warm spontaneous singing of the people was very emotional for some of us.

The priest took his time making every part of the Holy Mass dignified and sacred. The women served us very well. The Sisters spent a lot of time telling us the story of the cathedral, allowing us to see the cathedral museum and take as many pictures as we wanted to, showing us the newly-built convent and just spending time talking to us.

We will never forget the women we met on this journey. We will always remember them and we will always remember that we are pilgrims on a journey, we are travellers on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.