Thoughts shared by one of the pilgrims after our weekend
         exploring the holy crosses on the North Yorkshire Moors:
 

'Stump Cross, broken and battered, lay at a junction of two old routes and offered magnificent views across the moors.  We felt compelled to put our hands upon it and despite a chilling wind and the threat of rain, we felt the the stone warmth of the sun, or perhaps the heat of hands laid here over centuries of travellers that passed through this wilderness.  Sometimes the land holds on to its history and this was one of those 'thin places'.  We moved on to Young Ralph by the side of the road on Blakey Ridge, its shaft repaired.  Too tall to lay coins on its crown, people had left them at the base.   We moved across the peat, through heather and stream beds, thankfully still dry, to Old Ralph, much older, it has stood against the wind since the 1200s.  This old man had a marked depression on his head for the traveller of means to to leave an offering for the traveller who had none.'

Our last stop was at Lastingham Church with its beautiful ancient crypt and a sign that read:

"Do not neglect to show hospitality to Strangers;
for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares." 
(Hebrews 13.2)

It speaks to our times ...