Category: Pilgrimage

Staying in monasteries in Italy

3/31/2018

     My pilgrimage to Italy starts April 4th. I’ll spend four nights in Rome, three in Assisi, one in Cortona and six in Florence. Unlike my usual two week stay in an apartment in Florence, I’ll be staying in monasteries-turned-guesthouses run by nuns. The bedrooms are simple, but thankfully ensuite. The public rooms are quiet, but thankfully without TV. Thankfully, the nuns are servants of Christ.
I’ll still be writing and walking around with God, but this trip feels different. What can I anticipate? What can I plan so I don’t treat these convents as just an inexpensive place to stay?
    Let me start with a theological question. What does God want me to hear on this pilgrimage and what might I do to listen? Asking what God wants me to hear is a big shift for me. I’d rather set the agenda and tell God the kinds of things I want God to tell me. To listen I need to be silent; to be silent I need to quiet my mind.
    Of course the practical response never changes: pray and walk, pray and sit, pray and meditate, pray and gaze, pray and be in the moment. Nothing new here, just a reminder to practice, practice, practice listening to God no matter where I am.
    How very grateful I am to be going on a pilgrimage in these places, at this time in my life. How very grateful for help with arrangements through www.monasterystays.

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Dun I in the morning~

6/8/2013

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Come with me on my early morning hike, or call it apilgrimage, to Dun I, the tallest hill on Iona. We got off at six. Hardly a cloud and we didn’t see a single human being the entire time. But yes, there were sheep and birds praising God in their own particular way.

I have a harder time getting into my praise rhythm. In the morning my mind seems abuzz with thoughts. Whether at home or on holiday it takes me a while to settle down into gratitude, to be present to God’s world. You’d think that in this beauty, where the veil between heaven and earth is awesomely thin, I could settle into God’s creation right away. But no. So I did what I usually do to get in step with God: I went through my prayer list, with ease, breathing in God’s love, breathing out God’s love. My mind quieted. Pray without ceasing.

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Alone with prayer

6/19/2011

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Iona

     Much has been written about the hardships of pilgrimages and I confess that I want no part of them. Maybe it’s an age thing; maybe a life of privilege; my disposition; my upbringing; the times? Who knows? Perhaps I should feel guilty, pick up my sandals and tunic and set my eyes toward Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela or Canterbury. Well, I’m not about to head out; I’m not interested.

        I travel sensibly and safely but not extravagantly. Both the journey and the destination hold value for me, but my overarching purpose is to craft some extended time alone--whether I am on a solitary trip or at the cottage by the sea. I love the beauty of the ocean, the wonder the Scottish moors, or the mystery of a Tuscan hill town. I always have a personally satisfying and enjoyable time, and truth be told, that’s a good reason for me to go.

       But for a Christian, there is more going on here. I get off alone to seek God, longing to feel once again in that Holy embrace, which is where my call to pray for people starts and ends. Of the many roles that Jesus shows us, I most identify with the Jesus who, in the midst of teaching and healing, went off by himself to pray. My “pilgrimages” give me time and space to empty my mind of all the judgments that obstruct my prayer, because I know that intercessory prayer is about getting out of God’s way so God’s will can be done.

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Pilgrimage

6/17/2011

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      I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of pilgrimage and of course have created my own form, which I must admit has never put me in any kind of hardship. I am particularly thinking about my solitary travel and my cottage by the sea. I’m sure that we all have special criterion for pilgrimage. For me, it’s solitude. I need to go it alone. Even the pilgrimage I took to sacred sites in Ireland felt most authentic when I was off by myself. I didn’t mind meeting others along the way, but I liked starting out not knowing anyone, and always being able to get off by myself.

     In “The Sacred Journey,” Charles Foster suggests that the Judeo-Christian way is the way of the pilgrim. Take any story in the Old Testament and you find wanderers: Adam and Eve depart from the garden; Abram journeys from Ur to Canaan; Joseph and his brothers traveled to Egypt. We can’t forget Moses and the Israelites wandering about for forty years; even the Arc of the Covenant journeyed for years. Whenever the people settled down for a while, things got tense and so people moved on. Poor Lot’s wife wanted to stay, and look what happened to her. She got stuck.

    As a pilgrim, Jesus was a paragon. He called his disciples to follow him; he called them away from their settled lives to wander from town to town to spread the news that the kingdom of God was at hand. It seems that he didn’t want them to get too settle because he told them to take very little with them and not to overstay their welcome. Much of this appeals to me these days as I try to get rid of all my chattels and live simply.

       But what about my solitude? Jesus sends people out two by two. Most picture show pilgrims in a group, not a solitary one. At the moment I have many questions, but few answers. Isn’t that the way ?

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Staying in monasteries in Italy

Dun I in the morning~

Alone with prayer

Pilgrimage

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