Wicked Weather for Walking Stephen Platten (Sacristy Press, Nov 2021) 76pp, paperback RRP £7.99
It’s been wicked weather for walking these last couple of years, hasn’t it? The pandemic has provided more than a few stormy episodes as we’ve journeyed on.
In titling this book, the former Bishop of Wakefield takes that line from a poem by Rudyard Kipling and makes it the basis for an excellent set of reflections for Lent or Holy Week.
Taking the themes of journey and pilgrimage, this short book is a companion to the same author’s longer publication, Pilgrims (Sacristy Press, 2020). For those of us who have a tendency to ‘fall behind’ with the usual methods of Lenten daily readings, these 70 pages will provide a more achievable approach.
Set in the context of Mark’s accounts of Jesus’ passion, Stephen Platten argues that the last week of Christ’s life is a pilgrimage in itself. His reflections are enhanced by descriptions of modern and historic pilgrimage routes. We meet saints of old and are introduced to less familiar travelling companions from past and present.
Edited from a series of spoken reflections in Holy Week 2021 at his local parish church, it’s easy to imagine the author talking us through the ups and downs of the journey he is leading us on. A widely published and respected author and priest, Stephen Platten is very readable (don’t be put off by ‘obsecration’ on the first page though: that is untypical of his language.)
The seven reflections lend themselves particularly well to Holy Week. As well as being thought-provoking, Stephen Platten’s musings are thought-enriching. He leads the reader on a pilgrimage which, like the real thing, enables us to determine what we are to gain from the journey.
Richard Fro
