To Be a Pilgrim: The Story of John Bunyan (Stories of Faith and Fame)

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To Be a Pilgrim" (also known as " He Who Would Valiant Be") is an English Christian hymn using words of John Bunyan in The Pilgrim's Progress. It first appeared in Part 2 of The Pilgrim's Progress, written in 1684. Not long ago we talked about the pilgrim abroad. Perhaps, like many of us here, you’re a seeker at heart and long to be a pilgrim, but one thing is missing—the pilgrimage. It’s not the right season, you don’t have the money, you can’t take the time away. The truth is, though, we are all on journeys—journeys of faith, journeys in relationship, journeys of discovering what we love and who we really are. And when we bring the intention and awareness of the pilgrim to these journeys, our everyday lives are transformed. This destructive event gladdened the hearts of the Roman pagans and may not have disturbed the early Christians too much because they believed that the Temple had been replaced by the person of Jesus. By the time we stop for a view from Solsbury Hill, our destination is in sight: Bath Abbey. I am ready for a warm meal and an even warmer shower, but, first, I stand before the Gothic façade and read the inscription: “Take the waters of life freely.” Mr Hayward looks thoughtful. “Our pilgrims tend to have moments of quiet epiphany, not whizz-bang moments. It’s about giving them an experience. Whether they enjoy it or not, it’s still an experience.”

By 1290, the Jews had been thrown out of England (many were deliberately drowned in the Wash). Therefore, there were not even any Jews living in England at the time of the Canterbury Tales. And, yet, this Tale is still told to school children everywhere as one of the finest examples of English literature. It is true: the first pilgrims were not Christian, as is generally thought - they were Jews – and their main object of pilgrimage was the Holy Temple. This was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem around 3,000 years ago and has always remained in Jewish souls even after it was first destroyed in around 586 BCE, rebuilt approximately 70 years later, and then destroyed once again by the Romans in 70 CE.

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Hanges, James Constantine (July 2000). "Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece by Matthew Dillon". The Journal of Religion. 80 (3): 543–545. doi: 10.1086/490704. JSTOR 1206041. Equally disturbing in the Middle Ages was the frequent assimilation of crusade to pilgrimage, a real corruption of the pilgrimage idea and a repeated historical occurrence whose repercussions are still with us.

There is a great deal to take in. As Katherine, one of my fellow pilgrims, here to celebrate her 50th birthday, tells me: “This feels like being at a party and trying to form new relationships. It’s not so much a physical effort as a mental one.” Thanksgiving Service 2022 of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey, 29 March 2022. The hymn was played as the Queen took her seat in the Abbey. Because the aim of these pilgrims has always remained constant – to experience the togetherness of 14 million people with a shared history – and to reenact and remember as one body those early days between Egypt and Sinai, when at the beginning of our history the entire Jewish community, great and small, walked together to experience the epiphany at Sinai – which is, after all, why they had been freed from slavery in the first place. For, in spite of news reports to the contrary, not everyone attending the Lag Be'Omer celebrations was necessarily Hasidic, Haredi, or even Orthodox. The annual pilgrimage to Meron is open to all Jews, many of whom were enjoying a break in the general mourning period, and who were simply attending a revered spot in northern Galilee which they were unable to do last year because of Covid conditions. And a fair few were foreign pilgrims.At the same time it was given a new tune by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who used a melody taken from the traditional song "Our Captain Cried All Hands" which he collected in the hamlet of Monk's Gate in West Sussex – hence the name of "Monks Gate" by which the melody is referred to in hymn books. [2] A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. In the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude. [1] History [ edit ]

Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a palmer (medieval Christian from Europe who makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem) and the titular character of Sir Walter Scott's book Ivanhoe Tibetan pilgrim, Rewalsar Lake, Himachal Pradesh, India Modern Orthodox pilgrim in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine Bunyan was born in 1628 to a tinker and his wife in Elstow, near Bedford. He had some basic schooling and learned his father’s trade, which entailed travelling round mending pots and pans, and in the early stages of the English Civil War enlisted in the Parliamentary Army. He was then about 16. By his own account he was ‘the very ringleader of all the Youth that kept me company, in all manner of vice and ungodliness’.John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come. 32nd ed. London: W. Johnston, 1771, Part II, p. 157. We eat our final picnic lunch under Freshfield Aqueduct, then visit one final church, St Mary’s, Claverton, before the final leg followed the Avon and Kennet Canal towards Bath. Some people are keener to be alone today, lost in their thoughts; others break into occasional song. Mr Hayward and Mr Parsons are always keen to lead.

For a time, Bunyan's original version was not commonly sung in churches, perhaps because of the references to " hobgoblin" and "foul fiend." However, one commentator has said: "Bunyan's burly song strikes a new and welcome note in our Hymnal. The quaint sincerity of the words stirs us out of our easygoing dull Christianity to the thrill of great adventure." [3] Recent hymn books have tended to return to the original, for example, the Church of England's Common Praise and the Church of Scotland's Church Hymnary 4th Edition ( Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise).The hymn's refrain "to be a pilgrim" has entered the language and has been used in the title of a number of books dealing with pilgrimage in a literal or spiritual sense. [6] School hymn [ edit ] We gather on the wooden pews, a fresh flower garland above the altar, to hear the story of Sir Thomas Champney and his faithful dog Azure, as captured by Sir Henry Newbolt’s poem “Fidele’s Grassy Tomb”. The English poet is buried in the grounds, where we hungrily devour our picnic lunch. Again, our guides encourage us to rest our foreheads against the east wall, to feel the energy and memories of the church.