Lenten Walk Series 8 (Sacred)

Lenten Walk Series 8 (Sacred)

I spent this past weekend convening a women's retreat around themes of pilgrimage and Celtic Christian Spirituality.  We spoke at length about the inherent blessing of all creation and practiced seeing the sacred in all we encountered.  As this tradition relates to pilgrimage, we also learned about the hope-filled practice of the Celtic peregrines who would make pilgrim-voyages in their tiny coracles, which were often sailless and rudderless, so that God might allow ebb and flow to take these early pilgrims to wherever God wished them to go.

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Pilgrim's Path: Roadside blessings

Pilgrim's Path: Roadside blessings

That ultimate sense of wonder within the experience is what drives so many people to engage in [these] rigorous trials.  Father Stephen Canny, an Irish priest who leads a parish in Santa Rosa, California, believes strongly in the effectiveness of pilgrimage.  He has climbed Croagh Patrick, a popular pilgrimage site and storied mountain in Ireland, three times himself and has seen it work wonders on the devoted. "You are more alive after you have overcome something difficult," he says.  "You're changed by the mountain and the fact that you have confirmed your faith.  It's a remarkably effective way to answer the question, What is my purpose?"

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