One of the events that I look forward to covering each year is the annual Chartres Pentecost Pilgrimage hosted by Notre Dame de Chretiente (NDC). This year, due to the restrictions resulting from COVID-19, the pilgrimage has taken a very different form. Add to this the tragedy of the fire of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019 and the storm was already well set into motion.
That said, the spirit of the pilgrimage forges on even while Notre Dame Cathedral lay in ruins and the pilgrims remain in their own particular locales. For many of us, regardless of whether the pilgrimage physically happened this year in the usual form, it happened all the same in our hearts and minds.
In view of that, and as we sit still within the Octave of Pentecost, I thought it would be relevant to share some of the images NDC has been sharing from "les pelerinages locaux" of 2020.
As you can see, at one and the same time a very different face to this year's pilgrimage, but also one that remains a very familiar face all the same.
The closing Mass of the pilgrimage was offered at one of the altars of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome:
