Dear friends,
As I have rested from one amazing trip and prepare for another, I want to share with you something the woman who traveled with me to the Holy Land shared with her congregation:
“Pilgrimage isn’t something that happens in the Holy Land–our lives are the pilgrimage, a journey in search of God, a path along which we discover and become the person God created us to be. Pay attention for the Holy SItes that you come upon during your daily journeys, and the opportunities they offer you to connect with God and with one another.”
I certainly found holy sites in the Holy Land, and I brought back a stone from many of them for our labyrinth. For me, the holiest sites were the places in the environment where Jesus lived and breathed–the vast harshness of the Judean wilderness, the cool waters of the Sea of Galilee, the muddy waters of the Jordan River, the olive groves and date palms and shepherd boys, a Roman road in Sepphoris and the Western Wall, a wall that was standing when Jesus was dedicated at the Temple and when he returned to clear out the money changers.
Right now, I’m preparing for another pilgrimage–this one in the US. But each of you is on a pilgrimage and you will find holy sites of your own this summer. Any site can be holy–someplace foreign and exotic or your own home or anywhere in between. God is everywhere, waiting for us to notice. When you do notice this summer, please pick up a stone to bring back for our labyrinth. This stone, combined with all the other stones, will create a holy site at St Peter’s filled with memories of other holy sites.
As your summers begin, I pray you will enjoy some unscheduled Sabbath time–time when you have no schedule, but a time when you and your family do, or don’t do, whatever you feel like at the moment. I’m finding this unstructured time allows me to get back in touch with myself. It’s all part of pilgrimage–discovering, and returning to, the person God created me to be.
Blessings on your pilgrimages this summer.
Ann
Looking Out Seeing Within 