Labyrinth Walking in Pittsboro, NC!

In the Raleigh, NC, News and Observer, there was this powerful photo by Pailin Wedel, showing a group of gentlemen walking a square labyrinth in Pittsboro United Methodist Church in Pittsboro, NC. Carl McGhee is in the forefront of the image. My hunch, from the photo, is that it is in a fellowship hall, probably a basement. It is a photo taken during Holy Week a few weeks ago.

What is powerful in this image is the ordinary people who are engaged in the power of walking this circuitous path, no matter what age, gender, ability, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or nationality. On the path of the labyrinth, people find a divine practice of prayer-in-motion. Knowing that pilgrimage and labyrinth use the same kind of spiritual energy, it appears that we are a world on the edge of all of us taking a pilgrimage.

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

The Path of Life

In this coming week's reading from Ps. 16, I am caught by the last verse: "You show me the path of life." The rest of the Psalm is heart-
warming, given that this the first Sunday after Easter, and our lives should be comforted by the knowledge that we live our lives and are part of the resurrected body of Christ.

But it is that line that sticks out: "you show me the path of life."

As I struggle to watch and participate in the coming-into-existence of the School of the Pilgrim, wondering "what do I do next?" and "where do I turn, right or left?" in raising awareness that life is an ongoing pilgrimage (and part of the mission of the School of the Pilgrim), this Psalm and verse strangely comforts me in an afternoon of anxiety: "You show me the path of life."

Bien camino!

Pilgrim Peace,

Brett
p.s., image is from the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

When the Pilgrimage of Eastertide Sinks Into Our Being

The Church where I attended yesterday morning for Easter was packed...as are most churches on this day. We clergy call the phenomenon, "Chreaster," a blend of Christmas and Easter, the day that many members and non-members suddenly come out of the wood-work and are present! We clergy try not to preach too long, but heck: we only see some of these people twice a year, and clergy are wont to going too long on this day, as they do on Christmas Eve worship.

What I like about this photo is that it shows where the real work of the Church has now gone: out onto the roadways, the byways, the highways, the pilgrimage path of life. Soon, we will come to the iconic pilgrimage story of the disciples running away to Emmaus, in which they meet the Stranger on the road: not in the synagogue nor temple, but the roadway! To this day, this is still where we are apt to meet the Christ: in the unexpected moments among the strangers in this world, who reveal the heart of the Stranger as we break bread together in acts of hospitality.

It is all about the journey, the pilgrimage, is it not, Pilgrim?

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Eastertide

As much as Lent is a period of days (forty) of journeying toward Easter, we now are caught in the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost. Unfortunately, we don't often focus on the season of Easter, much like we don't focus on the season of Christmas (12 days).

So what will our pilgrimage-of-life look like and be like in the next 50 days as we make our way to the birth-day of the Church?

Bien camino,

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Christ Lives!

He is risen!
He is risen!
He is risen, indeed!

Happy Easter!

Behold, the Christ, who accompanies us this day on our pilgrimage, and everyday of our lives!

Bien camino!

Pilgrim Peace, Brett

A Pilgrimage of Holy Saturday

It is Holy Saturday.

In growing up in a Methodist, and later Presbyterian, Church, we read the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds faithfully, in which there is mention, "he descended into hell," or "he descended to the dead" (Apostle's' Creed). No mention was ever made as to what day he did this, though given that he died on Friday, it only makes sense that this is what happened on Saturday. It has been my Catholic and Orthodox friends who have taught me much about Holy Saturday.

The pilgrimage of Passion Week continues, even today on Holy Saturday.

I am left to ask: so what dies and is ready for resurrection on the pilgrimage of life?

Bien camino,

Pilgrim peace, Brett

Good Friday

I write this posting at nearly the completion of the first hour that Jesus was on the cross before he cried out "Eli, Eli, lema sabbachthani?" translated as"My God, my God, who have you forsaken me?"

The pilgrimage that Jesus took this week is for all of creation. It was by going over the threshold of death, through the portal, that Jesus confronted death, and death lost its sting. It is no wonder that at the time of his death the curtain of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem was torn in two, from top to bottom, that the earth shook, and that rocks were split open, with the tombs opened and bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, just like Lazarus before them, entering the holy city of Jerusalem and appearing before many.

The Isenheim altar-piece is an iconic work of art. By viewing the art, the pilgrim is to look deeply into the art as the art looks deeply into the life of the pilgrim, in which our wounds are healed through the mysterious presence of the one who alone fulfills and makes us whole. It is by us lifting up our hurt, our wounds, our suffering, unto the One who is forever the Creator of the universe that miracles abound.

On this Good Friday, "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" is our song. But we sing this hymn of faith in the deeper knowledge of what is to come on this pilgrimage path: we know what is just around the corner.

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Washing Feet

Maundy Thursday is always a mix of celebrating Eucharist and washing disciples' feet, both rituals (the former being a sacrament, the latter being a rite) that are given to us in remembering Jesus in our communal and personal lives.    And both rituals are key to an actual pilgrimage, as well as the pilgrimage of life.  

On an actual pilgrimage, the Eucharistic celebration is a great meal to remind us that we are not alone on this journey of life, nor are we left hungry and thirsty on the road of life.  Jesus is with us on the journey of life, and Jesus is the very sustenance and liquid on the road of life.  We are filled with Jesus on the pilgrimage of life, who accompanies us each step of the way.

On an actual pilgrimage, the foot is key, is pivotal, is necessary to make the pilgrimage.  But "foot" is also metaphorical for the journey of life: you can go on a pilgrimage in a wheel chair or gurney; you can go on a pilgrimage in crutches.  But in the end, when Christ washes the foot, the hand, or the arm pit and elbow, caressing them, rubbing the ache out of the limbs, we are in awe of how much the Lord of Creation cares for us, down to the very limbs of our bodies.

Bien camino, 

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

St. Patrick! A Walking Saint!

I do want to raise a toast (here, here!) to St. Patrick! Having been to Ireland, "doing" the pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory where Patrick said he saw Purgatory itself in one of the caves, along with a walk up Croagh Patrick on the western coastline where St. Patrick drove out the snakes of the great green isle, I thank God for Patrick, and his pilgrimage to enable others to know the Word of God.

In a fascinating article in slate.com, there was much to celebrate about St. Patrick: he sided with women in the Church; sided with those who are excluded and oppressed, and anyone else that the church ignored. Click here to read more.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Peace,

Brett

Pilgrimages of Holy Week Around the World

I was caught by the beauty of the photos in this New York Times article/essay on pilgrimage of Easter in Mexico City. The focus was on places like the Basilica of Guadalupe, along with the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Throughout the world, pilgrims will be lining up all week along, beginning not only with Palm Sunday, but Maundy Thursday, until Easter Sunrise, venerating the way of the Cross.

Click here to read more.

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Palm Sunday: The Pilgrimage of Passion Week, Holy Week, is Now!

"Are you going to use the Passion narrative or the Palm Sunday narrative?" asked another preacher and friend on Saturday morning as we watched my 15 year old son, Parker, play lacrosse: "Palm Sunday narrative. I like the parade theme."

My earliest memory of Palm Sunday is all about the parade aspect of the day: in Morrow Memorial Methodist Church, dressed in the white and black chorister outfit when I was six or seven, I remember holding high the green frond-palm branch, which was taller than I was at the time. It wasn't a sword necessarily, but it did blow a great breeze when thrown around and batting people on the heads as the green fronds came over each other's heads easily. Bill Cartwright sang "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," in his beautiful tenor voice (my mother loved to hear him sing) during that worship service.

For the last three years I was feted to Risa Poniros of Raleigh, North Carolina, singing "Ride On, King Jesus, no man can a'hinder me!" when I was interim pastor in Raleigh, North Carolina at a mid-size Presbyterian Church (USA). The children had palm branches in hand, of course, and paraded in and out of the sanctuary before them, leaving the front of the church bedecked in palm branches.

The amazing part of this week is how it captures the two twin, vying emotions deep within us all: "Hosanna to the Lord of Lords" sits next to "Crucify him" in our heart. We are one and the same person who says both, and lives out both lives, each and every day of the week. These twin emotions accompany us on the pilgrimage of life.

The pilgrimage of Holy Week has begun in earnest.

We follow Jesus of Nazareth, the Pilgrim God, traipsing this rather ragged, rocky, mucked-up, sorry pathway to his death, for us and for our salvation.

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

"I'm Off for a Bit, Then," Mr. Kerkeling's Story of Being on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the New York Times!

In Sat., March 8th, 2008 New York Times, there was an excellent review of the book, "I'm Off for a Bit, Then," by the comedian Hape Kerkeling of Germany, who, one day, decided to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, who one day decided put down his bag of potato chips and soft drink and go off on the Camino from Germany. Over 2 million copies of the book have been sold. He writes with the same wry humor of Bill Bryson.

My favorite quote is this: “The Camino really begins after you’ve finished it,” he said. “Life becomes more challenging.”

As I live the life of the pilgrim in the School of the Pilgrim, I wholeheartedly agree.

Click here for more.

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Preaching the Gospel on Pilgrimage..."If Necessary, Use Words."

To paraphrase St. Francis of Assisi, we are called to preach the Gospel our whole life long: "and if necessary, use words."

In this season of Lent, I have enjoyed reflecting on St. Francis' advice, because this seems to me the core of the way of the School of the Pilgrim: we are to learn to live the Gospel wherever we are on the road of life. And by "live the Gospel," I mean we are to live the Gospel fully. For it is none other than the Stranger who met the disciples on their way to Emmaus on their pilgrimage who forever changed their lives...and ours.

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

The Example of Christ: Walk in his Footsteps

In 1 Peter 2:21-24 (last night's reading from the Benedictine book of prayers under "Evening Prayer") there was this line that stuck out and rang true; "Christ suffered for you, and left you an example to have you follow in his footsteps."

Throughout the Old and News Testaments there are plenty of examples of how we are to understand ourselves as being on a pilgrimage in our daily lives, this verse from 1 Peter 2 being one of the strongest commands: to follow the example of the Pilgrim God, Jesus, who left his footsteps for us to follow. And where do we find those footsteps in this day and age? By having to go to the Holy Land to find the exact steps, which, by the way, aren't there? Or is the way to follow his footsteps by placing the footstep of our very lives, and how we live our lives, and how we work out the problems and celebrate the joys of our lives, and understand life, through the countless examples of Christ, and Christ followers, in our daily lives?

Morning from this pilgrim's life!

Bien Camino!

Peace, Brett