Earlier this month, on the Holy Land pilgrimage, 20 pilgrims from Christchurch, New Zealand prayed our way around the Holy Land.
We travelled not as tourists, but as pilgrims. We were a diverse group, but united in our desire to seek God together.
Every day of the pilgrimage we prayed for friends and family, for those who had asked for our prayer, for the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, and for the world. Our most frequent prayer was the canon "Dona Nobis Pacem".
This little canon is sung in three parts. Each part has it's own melody that, when sung alone, sounds like a completely different tune bearing little resemblance to the other two parts. This is symbolic of our diversity.
When the three parts are sung together, a harmony and unity exists that is much more beautiful than any of the three parts alone. A reminder that together we are much more than any of us has the power to be alone.
This was the great gift of travelling together as pilgrims. While we were 20 diverse individuals, together we were ONE community.
This was most evident each day when we celebrated the Mass.
This little canon is sung in three parts. Each part has it's own melody that, when sung alone, sounds like a completely different tune bearing little resemblance to the other two parts. This is symbolic of our diversity.
When the three parts are sung together, a harmony and unity exists that is much more beautiful than any of the three parts alone. A reminder that together we are much more than any of us has the power to be alone.
This was the great gift of travelling together as pilgrims. While we were 20 diverse individuals, together we were ONE community.
This was most evident each day when we celebrated the Mass.
This morning our guide, Adrian, uploaded his recording of our group praying this hymn in the 12th century Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem, a church known for it's fine acoustic.
You can visit Adrian's site on Facebook at:
or on my page at:
https://www.facebook.com/johnchchnz(if someone knows how to get the video from the Facebook Timeline onto this blog entry let me know.)
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