National Pilgrimage 2025 Reflections: Emily Dawson

Emily Dawson (Fidelium rep for St Matthew’s, Kensington Olympia)

Pilgrims often say that going to Walsingham feels like ‘going home’. And the National Pilgrimage really does have all the signs of a family reunion.

There’s the happy chaos of catching up with familiar faces — conversations picked up as if no time has passed, knowing smiles shared across the field, and the easy rhythm of old friendships slipping back into place. A generous spread of beige buffet food appears from cool bags, laid out on gingham picnic blankets like a well-worn family tradition. Children dart between groups, someone’s lost their sun cream, and at least three clergy are trying to organise a group photo. It’s noisy, joyful, slightly chaotic — and completely wonderful.

But somewhere in the middle of it all — perhaps during the procession, or in a quiet moment at Benediction — something shifts. The noise fades, the sense of activity eases, and you remember what it’s actually all about.

It’s not the picnic, good as it is. It’s not the excellent people-watching. It’s something deeper.

It’s love.
It’s mothering.
It’s that quiet, steady presence that tells you that you belong here, you’re safe here, you’re wanted here.’

And in Walsingham, that presence is Mary — mothering us all, gently and fiercely, without ever once asking us to fix our posture at the table.

So why would anyone give up their Bank Holiday Monday to sit in a field in Norfolk?

You’ll hear all sorts of reasons:

‘Because we go every year’.

‘Because I love catching up with people’.
‘Because it’s a good day out’.
‘Because I like seeing all the priests in procession’.

And all of those are true. But beneath them, there’s a deeper why — one we might not always put into words: that God has called each and every one of us to be evangelists. He’s called us to encounter something here — and to carry it home with us.

Walsingham is a place of healing. It always has been. As Mary once spoke to Richeldis, she still speaks to us: reminding us that here we are lifted — from physical strain, from mental burden, from spiritual heaviness. We are offered forgiveness. We are offered freedom. And sometimes, we are given just the faintest glimpse of salvation.

The Bank Holiday sales might be tempting — but the love of the Mother of God, and the mercy of her Son, are infinitely more so.

Of course, three or so hours on a coach isn’t everyone’s idea of a spiritual mountaintop. The pilgrim hymn is long. The protestors are loud. And yet, as ever, we sing because we are bound together on this road, as a family of pilgrims, and this is what family sounds like on the journey. The weather may or may not cooperate. But the preaching is rich, the peace is real, and somehow, in the quiet holiness of that little Norfolk village, your soul is fed in ways you didn’t even realise it needed.

And if the love of Mary still isn’t quite enough to tempt the hesitant pilgrim — then perhaps the Birchanger Services Burger King, or the scones in the Norton Room, might just tip the balance.

Fidelium is a lay-led network of young Anglo-Catholic Christians in London and beyond, under the patronage of the Bishop of Fulham
www.fideliumlondon.com