28.03.2024
Dublin Pilgrims Express Solidarity With People of Gaza
Archbishop Michael Jackson was among those who took part in the pilgrimage for prayer and solidarity for the people of Gaza in Dublin yesterday afternoon (Wednesday March 27). The pilgrimage was organised by the Jesuits with representatives of AMRI (the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland) and led by Fr Brendan McManus SJ.
Starting at the Jesuit House in Milltown, the pilgrims made their way to the city centre in silent contemplation, stopping off in St Stephen’s Green before continuing to St Francis Xavier Church on Gardiner Street where an hour long vigil for peace took place with prayer and reflection on the current situation in Gaza.
The pilgrimage was organised in response to a Lenten appeal from Christian Churches in the Holy Land to the people of the world, calling on them to walk in solidarity with them during Lent. Click here for more information on that appeal .
Here, Archbishop Jackson reflects on the pilgrimage and the words they carried with them as they contemplated the situation in Gaza:
Those of us who gathered in the grounds of The Jesuit House in Milltown were dressed as people might be who decided to go on a walk on a blustery afternoon in March.
Father Brendan who led the pilgrimage spoke of four words: solidarity, atonement, compassion, and transformation.
He encouraged us to focus on a word of Holy Scripture, to contemplate our place and the place Gaza has now become and also to address our own inner feelings as we made the first part of our pilgrimage in silence from Milltown to St Stephen’s Green.
This was a pilgrimage walk of people in single file and all the more powerful for its simplicity of purpose and simplicity of style.
The walk through Dublin 2 and Dublin 1 was more crowded and bustling. We gathered more and more people on the way as we journeyed to St Francis Xavier Church Gardiner Street.
I want to thank Members of the Jesuit Order for connecting our fears and our sorrows, our sense of loss and our hopes for a transformed future in Gaza and throughout the region with the international pilgrimage of people expressing the four words: solidarity, atonement, compassion and transformation today and all days.
