Walsingham Restored – A Poem for May

As we journey through Mary’s Month of May, we continue our series of Marian poems, this week featuring Walsingham Restored by Peter Clarke of Ryde…

Along the Norfolk lanes the pilgrims trod
To visit the Shrine of the Mother of God,
The rich, the poor, the sick and the lame
To England’s Nazareth on foot they came
Flowers for Mary the children bring
They came to Walsingham to pray and sing.

Kings and princes, the great and the lowly
To Mary’s shrine, hallowed and holy.
Across this pleasant land so green
They came to pray to the Virgin Queen.
Hymns were sung, prayers and petition
To ask for Mary’s intercession.
Then Cromwell’s men to Norfolk came
The wreckers to their eternal shame
And on that fateful August day
Mary’s image was taken away.
No more celebrations of her feast.
The statue gone, the pilgrims ceased.
The holy Priory razed to the ground.
Mary’s image was no longer found.

Yet with the Slipper Chapel Charlotte bought
The return of the pilgrims she clearly sought
For return they did and in a while
Again they walked the holy mile
For now the Church of the Annunciation
Thence the Chapel of Reconciliation
Both individuals and those in procession
Find in Our Lady their consolation.
With Mary’s shrine now fully restored
With her we grow in the love of Our Lord
And proudly proclaiming our faith, hope and love
We worship Him in heaven above.