From the NYTimes Travel section letters page:
“To the Editor: Regarding ‘On the da Vinci Trail’ (Q and A, May 9), I’d like to mention our Global Awareness Through Experience tours, www.gate-travel.org, which will go to all “The Da Vinci Code” sites plus Stonehenge and Glastonbury in England. Also included are four churches of the Black Madonna in southern France. These trips, planned for October 7 to 20, 2004 and May 16 to 29, 2005, will be led by two
Franciscan Sisters and approach the content from a feminist perspective. The leaders are specialists in women’s religious studies and spirituality.” The letter was signed by Sister Maria Friedman, GATE North American Coordinator, LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
The Da Vinci GATE draws us into a mystery. As seekers we will focus on the underlying heartbeat of the story. We seek Mary Magdalene, the Mary obscured in scripture, tradition, art and legend.
As seekers we will pass unhurried through galleries, sanctuaries and ancient portals. Our quest is not for irretrievable facts. Rather, we seek insight drawn from a collage of experiences, impressions, feelings and conversations. Our common pilgrimage will take us to chapels and cathedrals, museums and ancient lands, but more importantly, to the sacred center of our own hearts. It takes us to small villages and sidewalk cafes, to sharing with others on the path and to moments of quiet reflection. We hearken not only to the outcast Mary Magdalene, but something that lies buried within ourselves.
The Da Vinci Code has struck a cord for many people because it dares to lay out in fiction a subject that’s been wondered about but never addressed satisfactorily in Scripture, in patristic writings, or in the many legends of Mary Magdalene. What was the place of Mary Magdalene in the life of Jesus? Could a greater role have made a difference in the way the church teaches about women, marriage and hierarchical arrangements?
We suggest that there is a deep truth hidden somewhere in this fast moving mystery. Our hunch is that in reading, book discussions and classes on Mary Magdalene we are breaking the code of silence. The questions raised are important but they cannot be fully explored in isolation. So we invite you on a pilgrimage.
Da Vinci GATE will be a time of discovery and recovery. For many the discovery will be in the rich museums and Medieval churches to be visited. The recovery might be an intimate sense of the sacred that is often lost in the hurry and scurry of life. We promise you ten days that will jog your mind, satisfy your soul and delight your imagination. Come with a questing spirit wherever you are on your journey.
The highlights of the Da Vinci GATE include four days in Paris where we walk the path of discovery with Sophie Neveu (The Louvre, Tuilerie Gardens, Cluny Museum, Church of Saint Sulpice and the Sacre Coeur Basilica). We cross to London for time at Westminster Abbey, Chapter House and the Temple Church. Our pilgrimage continues with a short flight to Edinburgh to visit the Rosslyn Chapel. We’ll return to London and conclude our time together in a day trip to Glastonbury Tor and the Chalice Well. Other sites along the way include important shrines of the Black Madonna and Stonehenge.
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