Tag: pilgrimage

camino

CAMINO

But your loss brought you here to walk
under one name and one name only,
and to find the guise under which all loss can live;
remember, you were given that name
every day along the way, remember,
you were greeted as such, and treated as such,
and you needed no other name,
other people seemed to know you
even before you gave up being a shadow
on the road and came into the light,
even before you sat down,
broke bread and drank wine,
wiped the wind-tears from your eyes:
pilgrim they called you
again and again. Pilgrim.

…

Excerpt from ‘Camino’
From Pilgrim: Poems by David Whyte
©2012 David Whyte

“A pilgrimage is a return to the place of your resurrection.” This is a common understanding among the Celtic tradition and also among modern theologians. This statement says to me that the pilgrimage I am about to embark upon, which will lead me toward my resurrection, begins not when I take my first step on the well-worn pilgrimage path of the Camino de Santiago, but with each turn of my heart and soul within me as I prepare for the spiritual and physical journey. For after all, resurrection means healing, new life, wholeness and abundance of life — and that means my soul is changed.

So my pilgrimage begins deep within my soul, within my own brokenness, vulnerability, needs, hopefulness, yearnings, and dreams. I invite you into this journey with me, my inward journey as I journey outward on The Way in Spain next week.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher — Day ??

So yesterday, we continued in the disorientation mode. Exhausted from jet lag, our engaging guide cajoled us to walk into the Old City of Jerusalem. We were going to what certainly can be considered the “holy of holy” places ~ the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is where a part of the Calvary Cross upon which Jesus was crucified had been brought by Queen Helena, the structure upon which Jesus’ tomb laid, and the marble slab upon which Jesus’ body was anointed and prepared for burial. We arrived with excitement and expectation of entering into the presence of the holy in a brand new way.

dome-of-sepculcherhanging-candles

Parts were beautiful, like the dome.

But by and large, none of us was very impressed. It was crowded, poorly tended to, and a bit “Disneyland” like. We left with doubts, questions, and a sense of uneasiness, that, had we really traveled all this way to be disappointed.

However, while I was there, I was immediately drawn to the anointing slab, and I did lay my hands upon it, and I did pray for all of you there, and I did anoint my Anglican prayer beads — and I did feel a sense of reverence others brought to the experience (especially noticing the Muslim style of “head-on-the-ground” prayer on the slab, which many were doing), and I felt a connection to something mysterious and holy. 

anointing-slabanglican-beads-blessed

One thincrossesg that was really impressive were the number of crosses which were carved into the wall while people we waiting to see the holy sites: thousands upon thousands. I bet it was a contemplative practice people engaged in to connect with the Christ they believed in while waiting to experience some artifact or location which was important in the death of Jesus.

We spent the evening unpacking our “disorientation”, dissecting what really bothered us, deconstructing the myths that we had held onto in our faith that suddenly seemed untrue ~ and it was all unsettling.

One question I am still pondering is my draw to the anointing place. One priest spoke to me about how the bread and the wine are sacraments of the living Christ in all of us and the oil is considered to be the healing presence of Christ. Makes sense to me, I think. And I wondered, is the anointing of Jesus’ body, preparing him for a death, which became life, what we enter into each time we are anointed? Or hands are laid upon us? Or we pray for healing for ourselves and others? Did the anointing of Jesus dramatically change how we are healed, into new or eternal life? Probably so.

As I collapsed into bed last night, I prayed God would begin to show me the orientation which would emerge out of this disorientation. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher seemed to be religious yet not spiritual. Where, I wondered, would I discover the spirit of Christ in Jerusalem?

And this was all about Jesus’ death. Where’s the resurrection story?

Pilgrimage into the heart of Jesus

I am taking the chance of a lifetime and visiting the Holy Land from October 27th through November 7th. As I pour over the guidebooks, I find already a spiritual anticipation and shift beginning within. It’s exciting and scary and soul stretching to think that I’ll “walk in the path of Jesus”. Of course, that’s what we promise to do each week at church, to follow Jesus, so this will be a call to do this literally (walking the Via Dolorosa) as well as opening my heart to follow Jesus more fully with each step I take in my life.

I’ve been reading John Philip Newell’s book, The Rebirthing of God, in which one small sentence has captured my imagination and heart ~ “A pilgrimage is a return to our place of resurrection.” I’ve pondered this since if I go to the Holy Land only to see where Jesus was, but it doesn’t help me live more fully into Jesus’, and thus my resurrection, then I think I’ve missed the point. Resurrection implies transformation and new life. Here we go!

I ask that you hold me and my travel companions (Mother Betsy is one of them) in prayer as we gather to be brought deeper into the resurrection of Jesus by being in the land made holy by his presence.