For the "On Pilgrimage With" section of the October 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald </em>magazine, we spoke to Sally Read, poet, author and editor of the Catholic poetry anthology <em>100 Great Catholic Poems</em>, about her dream pilgrimage:
<strong>Where would you go? </strong>
Our Lady of Sorrows Shrine in Cudworth, Saskatchewan, Canada, where in 1909 three children looking after cattle on a hillside saw a strange light. The little boy then saw a lady dressed all in white, carrying a heavy cross on a chain. When he tried to help her carry the cross, she disappeared. Some say that the lady appeared to the children five times. Although the events have never been formally investigated, this place, settled by Ukrainian immigrants, became a busy pilgrimage site. The walk begins 30km from the “Hill of Sorrows”in a small town called Smuts.
I feel a very special connection to that place: the Byzantine-rite priest who oversaw my conversion from atheism to Catholicism founded a hermitage a few weeks before I was received into the Church in Rome, and I became his poet-in-residence. He returned to his native Saskatchewan in 2014 and his order – which is growing – has recently been given care of the shrine. He plans to build a monastery there, to which lay people will be invited for talks and retreats.
<strong>Would you make any special stops? </strong>
The great thing about the prairie is there are no stops! It makes you think of infinity, so it’s good for spiritual reflection. What I love about this part of the prairie, from photos I’ve seen, is the sight of Byzantine domes atop wooden churches in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I would stop to gaze at farmhouses – and those churches, which are so solitary and mysterious.
<strong>Whom would you take? </strong>
Not my husband: he isn’t religious and would insist on driving. I’d take my daughter instead. She is a philosophy student, so we would talk about the existence of God as we walked. She would also make me laugh. I’d also want to walk with Father Hrynkiw, who is building the monastery. I would want to see his vision of aByzantine wooden monastery taking shape in the distance.
<strong>You can transplant your favourite pub, bar or restaurant onto the route. What is it?</strong>
I’d love to find a trattoria in Tuscany, which we visit regularly. It has my favourite kind of food: homemade beans, chips and rare steak. All the ingredients come directly from the land around the restaurant, and the landscape in that part of Tuscany isn’t all that different from the prairie, so the trattoria would fit in well.
<strong>Camp under the stars or find a church hall to sleep in?</strong>
Under the stars would be great. My daughter is a star watcher, and we often lie on our backs and chart the appearance of the stars when we’re visiting her grandmother in Sardinia. The prairie skies would be even better in terms of light pollution – and we would be so excited to see the NorthernLights. But I am a nervous traveller, and I would worry about territorial moose…
<strong>Which books would you take with you? </strong>
The diaries of Dorothy Day, which I think are among the best spiritual writings I have ever read. They are also a reminder to any writer that artlessness and spontaneity sometimes lead to the best writing. Plus some poetry – Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Mackay Brown.
<strong>What spiritual text would you ponder as you walked? </strong>
The <em>Book of Ruth</em>. I’ve lived in a number of places through my life, and have roots of some description in England, Italy and North America. Too often I dwell on the difficulty and confusion inherent in having friends and family spread all over the place and never being 100 per cent present in one town. The Old Testament story about Ruth has always attracted me, because of her bravery and faith in the face of her own rootlessness. I wrote the intro to <em>Ruth</em> for the latest Word on Fire Bible, and I’d love to have days with those pages to ponder what home means and how God can give us grace to flourish wherever we are.
<strong>What’s your go-to prayer? </strong>
The Rosary. I would alternate it with the Jesus Prayer, as the shrine in Cudworth breathes with both lungs – as St John Paul II said of the East and the West in the Church.
<strong>What’s the singalong to keep everyone’s spirits up? </strong>
Since I’m terrible at remembering songs – my excuse is that I’m a convert, so I don’t have a memory bank of songs from childhood – I would learn the <em>Salve Regina</em> in Latin beforehand. It’s one of my favourites but whenever our parish sings it at the end of Mass, I have to fall silent. I’d rectify that on this pilgrimage.
<strong>You’re allowed one luxury–what is it? </strong>
A portable medicine chest. I’m married to an Italian and have lived in Italy for many years. This is the one way I have become utterly enculturated: I couldn’t set off into the wilderness without a box of every kind of pill and lotion.
<strong>What would you miss most about ordinary life?</strong>
My bed. And my usual glass of red wine in the evening, of course.
<em>Photo: Sunset over the Saskatchewan prairie (Getty.)</em>
<em>Sally Read is the editor of '100 Great Catholic Poems' (Word on Fire). Her literary memoir 'The Mary Pages' is published by Word on Fire in November. More details <a href="https://www.sallyread.net/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">here</mark></a>.</em>
<strong><strong>This article appears in the October 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.
