On the forecourt of the Notre-Dame de Chartres cathedral, facing the north portal, this Monday afternoon, a small group of young Parisians and a Bordeaux resident have just arrived, their cheeks reddened by the sun and after a few dozen kilometers in the legs.
They are regulars of the Pentecost pilgrimage organized by Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, whose usual form did not take place this year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. So this time, they took the initiative to organize themselves and to experience the 38th edition in small groups.
Chrism Mass at Chartres Cathedral will take place on Tuesday
They left Perray-en-Yvelines on Saturday and stopped overnight for Gazeran and Gallardon, before arriving in Chartres. “It was important for us to get together for three days and dedicate them to God. It allows us to take a step back from our own life and it was also important to get back on the road after this confinement. Each has made his own stewardship. We planned the circuit upstream, then in the evening we landed, we found places to sleep, “they testified.
How the 38th Pentecostal pilgrimage to Chartres adapts to the coronavirus
“It is disturbing to be here, unable to attend the closing mass of the pilgrimage to the cathedral, but we were able to participate in other masses,” they add. Despite a “less important evangelical dimension due to the small number”, these pilgrims claim to have been able to experience an “intense” spiritual dimension.
All the groups could swarm wherever they are today
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Like them, small groups made their pilgrimage, sometimes walking in the footsteps of Charles Péguy, on circuits adapted to the circumstances.
“Among the 300 chapters of France and the world that usually walk towards Chartres, as many local actions have been organized, ranging from the rosary, to masses, passing by small pilgrimages in groups of ten,” said Monday Maxence Tastevin, assistant to the director of pilgrims.
During the weekend, the statue of the Virgin of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté marched from Notre-Dame de Paris to Notre-Dame de Chartres by relay of ten pilgrims. Groups of the faithful entered the cathedral drop by drop, amidst tourists.
The faithful find the cathedral of Chartres in a dropper
“All the groups were able to spread out wherever they are today. This pilgrimage is always a personal process of conversion. When we make this great pilgrimage, there is this joy and this fervor of numbers. There, it is a little different “, estimated Maxence Tastevin,” in spite of the joy after these two months of lack, lack of public worship “.
A closing mass of the pilgrimage to the Chartres pilgrimage was celebrated by Archbishop Descourtieux in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome the same morning, and posted on the Chartres pilgrimage website. A word of sending to the pilgrims was said by the chaplain of the pilgrimage from the cathedral of Chartres, live on social networks.
François Feuilleux
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