Dona Nobis Pacem

May 28, 2012

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 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.)





0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

Ascension

Ascension

Most people think of the Ascension of Jesus as being a ‘departure’ moment. Jesus was here and now he is gone. We imagine Jesus going up into the clouds and the disciples waving farewell from below.
This is an unhelpful image.
It is essential that we understand what does happen and what does not happen in the Ascension event.
It would be easy to wrongly think that in his ministry showed us how to build the city of God on earth, and now he has gone and the mission is left to us.

touching the sacred

touching the sacred

A few years ago I was on Rēkohu Chatham Islands for what has become one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most sacred days, the ANZAC day of remembrance in gratitude for those who gave their lives, their health, their youth, their service that we may live in peace.
The art above was produced by one of the students at the local Te One school.

every which way

every which way

A good number of Food For Faith readers have discovered one of the more recent FFF initiatives, the weekly Homily Studio.
The recording of this half-hour podcast is one of the highlights of my week.

in the room

in the room

Today’s reflection marks the end of the FFF Lent-to-Easter daily email posts. Thank you for your company on this journey.  While these daily posts (for those who have signed up for the Lent / Advent reflections at this link) will take a break until Advent, those who have signed up to receive every post or regular posts at this link.  You might take a moment now to visit this page now to check your email preferences.

During retreat this week I found myself pondering just how difficult it is to accept that God, in Jesus, is really with me today.

disciplined discipleship

disciplined discipleship

As I write I’m nearing the end of retreat days with a group of fifty priests from across the USA.  As I mentioned a couple of days ago the diversity and youth of the group is remarkable with the majority being aged under 40 and a good number ordained for fewer than five years.