Category: Messages to Pilgrims

Messages to pilgrims

One man’s report

Greg Lloyd

The following personal account of Pilgrimage 2010 is especially noteworthy coming from returning veteran pilgrim Ted Amberg of Michigan.  He and wife Audrey are also distinguished co-builders of the pilgrimage organization in its early years.

[Ted’s account appears here edited, since he had not written it with publication in mind.  Supposing, according to the adage, that “it is easier to obtain forgiveness than pardon”, the editor hereby begs the author’s pardon in anticipation of the need!]

*******

Greetings, Pilgrimage Director!

I almost feel remiss in not writing sooner after the pilgrimage. Things have returned to their usual hectic around here. But let me try to describe my experiences during this, the 15th annual Pilgrimage for Restoration.

As I had written to you in the summer, we would try to make it – well, thanks be to God, we did, after about a 2000 mile car trip east, south and then north to the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament [Lake George, NY].

Audrey and I are very glad we did.   Read More

UGRENT Message about Camps

Greg Lloyd

Greetings Pilgrims!

Please read this very important message.

It has to do with where you may camp Tuesday night, and how to get to the rendezvous & step-off point Wednesday morning.

This year the Lake George Battleground Campground closed earlier than usual on account of construction.

That means pilgrims who elect to camp Tuesday night will have to do so at a NEW LOCATION: Hearthstone Point Campground, 3298 Lake Shore Drive, Lake George Vlg NY 12845.

<http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24470.html> 518/668-5193

The NEW CAMPSITE is located on NY Rte 9N, three miles north of Wednesday morning’s rendezvous location, and just a half mile short of Cramer’s Point Motel.

Holy Mass will be celebrated as usual at 7:15 Wednesday under the monument to St. Isaac Jogues in the Lake George Battleground Park.

Rendezvous and final check-in will begin as always at 05:45 in the Million Dollar Beach (MDB) parking lot across the street from the monument.

But this year, campers will have to be shuttled there.

Beginning very early Wednesday morning organizers will shuttle pilgrims from Hearthstone Campground (and from Cramer’s Point Motel as usual) to the MDB parking lot to form up their brigades.

Because of all the early commotion, organizers urge you more strongly than ever to check-in early Tuesday at Hearthstone from 4:30 until 7:15pm or at Cramer’s Point Motel from 8:00pm till 10:30pm.

Further instructions will be given to you at check-in.

God grant you a blessed pilgrimage!

Greg Lloyd
Director of the Pilgrimage

Sample Bulletin Announcement

Greg Lloyd

Attention clergy, bulletin editors, and webmasters! We now have sample bulletin text available in three formats: the html text below, an MS Word document, and a PDF file. Feel free to cut and paste, and help us to get the word out about the pilgrimage.

15th annual

Pilgrimage for Restoration

to Auriesville

September 22-25

inspired by & modeled on the annual Pentecost Pilgrimage to Our Lady’s Shrine-Cathedral of Chartres, France

Looking for spiritual adventure, Catholic fellowship … a way to thank God & Pope Benedict publicly for rehabilitating so many benefits of tradition?

Join fellow Catholics in penance and hope on the way to Our Lady’s Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville NY.

Join in one day or four — for 7 miles or 70. Transportation for weary pilgrims provided every step of the way.

‘Modified Pilgrimage’ for parents with young children, and for seniors. Family discounts available until September 8.

All liturgical rites of the pilgrimage are in the forma extraordinaria, the traditional Roman usage.

Can’t travel to make pilgrimage? Participate from home or parish, request prayers, or sponsor a pilgrim at www.national-coalition.org/pilgrim/.

For more info, or to register online, visit www.national-coalition.org/pilgrim/.

Or, send your postal address & request to Pilgrimage Director at coalition@fast.net.

Pilgrimage for Restoration

September 22-25, 2010

National Coalition of Clergy & Laity

621 Jordan Circle, Whitehall PA 18052-7119

610/435-2634

“Adirondack Life” magazine covers Pilgrimage 2009

Greg Lloyd

Complete with great black and white photos, including the one below, the award-winning Adirondack Life magazine wrote up our spiritual journey through their part of the world. An excerpt follows, with the essay by Lisa Bramen and photographs by Jason Hupe also linked below.

pilgrimage for restoration
St. Isaac Jogues Brigade en route, September 2009

MOTORISTS slow at the sight of a long line of pedestrians—more than 270 of them—stretching single-file along the dirt shoulder of Route 9N south of Lake George. A few of the walkers, teenage girls, wave cheerfully at the passing cars, and the gesture is occasionally reciprocated, if with quizzical looks.

A long walk in the Adirondacks is a common enough endeavor. Even a 65-mile trek, like the one this group is undertaking, is barely notable—dozens of people hike the 133-mile Northville-Placid Trail each year—but most distance-walkers follow wooded trails, not two-lane highways.

Other details about this procession are bound to stoke the curiosity of passersby: Almost all of the females wear long skirts—hardly the usual hiking attire—and many cover their hair with lacy scarves. At the head of each group of 15 or so is a leader carrying a satin banner or flag proclaiming the name of the “brigade” it represents—Sainte Jeanne d’Arc, Our Lady of Fatima Scouts. Others hold up tall wooden crucifixes. If these hints don’t clue the drivers in to the fact that they are witnessing a religious pilgrimage, the smattering of nuns in habits and priests in black robes might clinch it.

The Pilgrimage for Restoration, organized by Pennsylvania-based National Coalition of Clergy and Laity, has brought hundreds of the faithful to the Adirondack Park each September since 1996 for four days of walking, prayer and fellowship. The route—from the village of Lake George to the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs, at Auriesville, 40 miles west of Albany on the Mohawk River—commemorates the life and martyrdom of the saint Isaac Jogues, a 17th-century French Jesuit missionary who was captured, tortured and eventually murdered by the Mohawks, one of the five original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Jogues is believed to have been the first European to see the heart of the Adirondacks.    Read more …