Welcome to Our Parish!

Catholics of York, South Carolina

We are a welcoming Catholic community called by God to live out the message of Christ in love and service to all people.

Founded In 1938 through the Grace of our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are called and sent by Christ to live gratefully the life God has given us and to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Our Mission:

To know our Faith , To respect all life, To live by truth and love, To welcome and respect all those who come to us, To serve the needs of others.

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Parish News & Events

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The Way of Santiago

The Camino (the way) to Santiago is a 1,000 year old pilgrimage to the cathedral where the remains of Saint James the Apostle are said to be enshrined. James was the older brother of Saint John. They were the sons of Zebedee. James was martyred by King Herod in Jerusalem. (Acts 12:2).

Tradition has it that after the Resurrection, James had evangelized the people of Galicia, modern-day Northwestern Spain. Legend has it that after the martyrdom by decapitation in Jerusalem, his headless body was brought back to Galicia and buried in a field, under the stars. Nine hundred years later, a shepherd found the grave under the stars.

COMPOSTELA

Campo ___field Stela____star

The local bishop proclaims them to be the remains of Saint James the Apostle.

Whether the remains in the Santiago cathedral are literally the remains of Saint James the Apostle, is almost irrelevant. For a thousand years people have been streaming to Santiago in pilgrimage. In the Middle Age as many as 200,000 people per year made their way to Santiago to pray at the Cathedral of Saint James. A whole infrastructure had to be built to accommodate all these pilgrims, including hospitals and places to stay. Orders of Knights had to protect the pilgrims. Kings and ambassadors had to agree to safe passage. People had to extend them aid and hospitality. Today, as you approach the modern city of Santiago there is an inscription in the path that reads “Europe was made on the Camino de Santiago”. Some walked for years. Many died on the Camino. Some never went back home, and the majority went home completely changed.

Today there are more people than ever “caminando” (walking) to Santiago.

This past year over 270,000 people made their way to the cathedral and received a certificate that said they walked at least 100 kilometers (about 65 miles).

You can ask: what is it about the Camino that draws so many people? It is a pilgrimage, not a hike. Pilgrimages are more about stopping than going. You stop your own life and step out of the familiar world so that you can look and listen, reflect and change. You strip away all that is unnecessary so you can hear the voice of God in your life.

The Camino is a very Catholic pilgrimage, but thousands of Buddhists, Evangelical Christians, Protestants, Muslims and atheists embrace the challenge.

Everybody walks their own Camino. No two experiences are the same, even if you walk with someone else. There are; however, common themes.

You will be challenged physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Physical challenges come first. Everybody gets some physical problems from blisters to tendinitis, to broken bones.

Psychological challenge. It gets boring walking all day. Central Spain is flat as a tabletop. It is endless fields of hay, wheat and nothing, with no place to sit down and no shade.

Spiritual challenge. Questions finally emerge. Why am I doing this? What do I want to learn? What voice do I hear in my life? What do I want to leave behind? What is important in my life? Where do I go from here?

Divine Saviour Parish will embrace the challenge this year. The Camino will be our Lenten Journey. We are not going to Spain. Spain will come to York. As a parish family we want to walk together. As individuals, we are going to design our own Camino, establish our own pace, face our own shadows and embrace our own crosses.

The journey is going to start with the first stamp in our passport: the cross of Christ on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Through the journey the physical, psychological and spiritual challenges will be presented. Temptations will come. Scriptures will challenge us. Let us try to embrace the crosses with that same love that Jesus embraced His. Jesus did not do it for Himself. He did it for each one of us. Before we start, let us collect prayers, intentions and people that we want to keep in mind as we travel. If we put ourselves totally into the challenge, the promise is the same for all of us: The resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday will be our own resurrection. The way we see life will be different and a new life will be the certificate to prove that we really walked the walk and totally gave ourselves into the challenges of the CAMINO.

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ASH WEDNESDAY MASSES

2/26/2020 @ 9:30 AM & 6:00 PM