The Chartres Pilgrimage......one day, maybe

I have long wished to go on the Chartres Pilgrimage (which is about to draw to a close for this year) but, always, something has got in the way. It may now never happen as 72 miles in 3 days seems an impossible target (I know there are lifts available but that seems to negate the object of the exercise).

Paris to Chartres - the mainstream route!

But I wish all pilgrims well in their magnificent task and hope and pray that, possibly this might be the last year of the double pilgrimage; I mean, of course, the SSPX Pilgrimage that runs from Chartres to Paris, culminating at Sacre Coeur Church, Montmartre. With the talks between Rome and Econe coming to a close, I hope (and I mean hope) that a concord has been struck and that, maybe, in 2012 both groups will march together (but in which direction?).

Chartres to Paris - the SSPX route!

I recall a comical tale regarding the SSPX pilgrimage of 10 plus years ago. The church authorities would not allow an SSPX Mass to be held in Sacre Coeur so, each year, the pilgrims hold it on the mount outside the church. It was the custom for a few pilgrims to take flags up the church tower and, at the moment of consecration, they would be waved, majestically from on high.
This would not do decided the church officals and so, all those progressing up the tower were subjected to close scrutiny. But they did not reckon on the resourcefulness of the SSPX who wrapped flags around the bodies of several of their Japanese pilgrims and sent them up the tower, loaded with cameras and looking for all the world like the stereotypical tourist.
At the concescration the flags flew over Montmartre once more, to the great annoyance of officialdom!