“To Be a Pilgrim” Most Rev. Theodore Feldmann
(This article was written for the Church of Antioch newsletter before the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
I’m a royalty watcher. It’s not tabloid gossip about the Windsors that fascinates me. Rather, I am a student of history and the Windsors are not the only royals. There are other royal families, the Dutch and the Scandinavians for example, all related to each other. Other royal houses exist but are no longer in power such as the German Hohenzollerns and the Austro-Hungarian Habsburgs. Did you know, for example, that Otto von Habsburg, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian crowns, became a respected member of the European Parliament and that his father, Karl, the last emperor, is being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church?
Being royal is not something you choose. It chooses you. The lives of these people are deeply intertwined with a complicated history over which they often have little real control. They have to move with the times while maintaining a respect for tradition. It can be tricky. Those still on their thrones are survivors and that throne can be wobbly. It’s not all carriages and palaces.
About a year ago, I watched the memorial service held by Queen Elizabeth II, for her husband, Prince Phillip, who died during the height of the COVID pandemic, his funeral attended by only about 25 people. Elizabeth wanted to pay greater tribute to him with a great state memorial service. As she arrived, at 95, in Westminster Abbey, was she wondering whether her next visit there would be in a coffin? Surely she was reflecting on the many events she attended there over the years, including her wedding and her coronation, with Phillip at her side.
The trumpet fanfares and robust singing of the first hymn were a high point and a statement about a prince and the rest of us (I’ve altered words for greater inclusivity):
Those who would valiant be ‘gainst all disaster,
let them in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make them once relent
their first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
Those who beset us round with dismal stories,
do but themselves confound, our strength the more is.
No foes shall stay our might, though we with giants fight;
we will make good our right to be a pilgrim.
Since, Lord, thou dost defend us with thy Spirit,
we know we at the end shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away; I’ll fear not what they say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.
The hymn is an English folk tune arranged by the great composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams. The text is based on the writings of John Bunyan, from his epic work on the Christian journey, Pilgrim’s Progress.
Prince Phillip was not one of my favorite royals. But his life could not have been easy, a man of that era always in the shadow of his wife, seeking a purpose of his own. The tributes suggested that he had accomplished that goal.
It’s not easy to be an independent catholic. People question whether we are “real.” Sometimes, so do we. We might feel as if we are in exile; that having the clout of Rome or Canterbury or Utrecht on our side might provide some greater sense of validation. There can be discouragement. There are dismal stories that could be told.
Though we remain “family,” a lot of us already know what it’s like to battle with giants like Rome. That’s one reason we are independent and that takes courage. Isn’t it possible that our strength to persist, to labor night and day, might just “confound” those who speak words of discouragement? Isn’t it possible that all of it has made us stronger?
We are all pilgrims. Your recent stories of your own journeys to the Church of Antioch made that so very clear. To engage fully in our pilgrimage is all any of us can do. Each decision we prayerfully make shapes the journey.
I ask you: Did you choose independent catholicism or did it choose you? Can we trust that the Spirit will indeed defend us, no matter what “they” say? Are we willing, each in our own way, to claim the right…to be a pilgrim? Because in the end, as “the Master” made clear, that is all that is expected of us. Prince or not, in the eyes of God we are already royal people.
“Every human person is an aristocrat. Every human person is noble and of royal blood.” 1 Meister Eckhart, c. 1260 – c. 1328
Copyright, Theodore Feldmann, 2022.
(This article was written for the Church of Antioch newsletter before the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
I’m a royalty watcher. It’s not tabloid gossip about the Windsors that fascinates me. Rather, I am a student of history and the Windsors are not the only royals. There are other royal families, the Dutch and the Scandinavians for example, all related to each other. Other royal houses exist but are no longer in power such as the German Hohenzollerns and the Austro-Hungarian Habsburgs. Did you know, for example, that Otto von Habsburg, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian crowns, became a respected member of the European Parliament and that his father, Karl, the last emperor, is being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church?
Being royal is not something you choose. It chooses you. The lives of these people are deeply intertwined with a complicated history over which they often have little real control. They have to move with the times while maintaining a respect for tradition. It can be tricky. Those still on their thrones are survivors and that throne can be wobbly. It’s not all carriages and palaces.
About a year ago, I watched the memorial service held by Queen Elizabeth II, for her husband, Prince Phillip, who died during the height of the COVID pandemic, his funeral attended by only about 25 people. Elizabeth wanted to pay greater tribute to him with a great state memorial service. As she arrived, at 95, in Westminster Abbey, was she wondering whether her next visit there would be in a coffin? Surely she was reflecting on the many events she attended there over the years, including her wedding and her coronation, with Phillip at her side.
The trumpet fanfares and robust singing of the first hymn were a high point and a statement about a prince and the rest of us (I’ve altered words for greater inclusivity):
Those who would valiant be ‘gainst all disaster,
let them in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make them once relent
their first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
Those who beset us round with dismal stories,
do but themselves confound, our strength the more is.
No foes shall stay our might, though we with giants fight;
we will make good our right to be a pilgrim.
Since, Lord, thou dost defend us with thy Spirit,
we know we at the end shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away; I’ll fear not what they say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.
The hymn is an English folk tune arranged by the great composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams. The text is based on the writings of John Bunyan, from his epic work on the Christian journey, Pilgrim’s Progress.
Prince Phillip was not one of my favorite royals. But his life could not have been easy, a man of that era always in the shadow of his wife, seeking a purpose of his own. The tributes suggested that he had accomplished that goal.
It’s not easy to be an independent catholic. People question whether we are “real.” Sometimes, so do we. We might feel as if we are in exile; that having the clout of Rome or Canterbury or Utrecht on our side might provide some greater sense of validation. There can be discouragement. There are dismal stories that could be told.
Though we remain “family,” a lot of us already know what it’s like to battle with giants like Rome. That’s one reason we are independent and that takes courage. Isn’t it possible that our strength to persist, to labor night and day, might just “confound” those who speak words of discouragement? Isn’t it possible that all of it has made us stronger?
We are all pilgrims. Your recent stories of your own journeys to the Church of Antioch made that so very clear. To engage fully in our pilgrimage is all any of us can do. Each decision we prayerfully make shapes the journey.
I ask you: Did you choose independent catholicism or did it choose you? Can we trust that the Spirit will indeed defend us, no matter what “they” say? Are we willing, each in our own way, to claim the right…to be a pilgrim? Because in the end, as “the Master” made clear, that is all that is expected of us. Prince or not, in the eyes of God we are already royal people.
“Every human person is an aristocrat. Every human person is noble and of royal blood.” 1 Meister Eckhart, c. 1260 – c. 1328
- Fox, Matthew. Original Blessing, Bear and Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1983.
Copyright, Theodore Feldmann, 2022.