A Torah that Took a Pilgrimage

Fascinating story in the New York Times this morning about a Torah that took a pilgrimage from Auschwitz to New Jersey:

"It is the story of a sexton in the synagogue in the Polish city of Oswiecim who buried most of the sacred scroll before the Germans stormed in and later renamed the city Auschwitz. It is the story of Jewish prisoners who sneaked the rest of it — four carefully chosen panels — into the concentration camp.

It is the story of a Polish Catholic priest to whom they entrusted the four panels before their deaths. It is the story of a Maryland rabbi who went looking for it with a metal detector. And it is the story of how a hunch by the rabbi’s 13-year-old son helped lead him to it."

While pilgrimages all have their own narratives, depending upon the pilgrim him- or herself, this is the story of a narrative in written form that was on a pilgrimage, dependent upon the people who helped guard and guide itself safely to its new home.

Read more by clicking here.
Bien Camino!

Shalom, Brett

Ascension Reflections

While Jesus' earthly pilgrimage was fairly "earth bound," give or take a transcendent moment on Mt. Tabor (Transfiguration and all), this all changed with his ascension into heaven. This is an unexpected twist to the story of resurrection glory, when the Pilgrim God ascends to take his place in the cosmic realm of God's love, in order that the Holy Spirit can descend unto those of us who were to follow the disciples of yore.

This story is simply a reminder that the Holy and the earthly are forever entwined in our living together, one with the other.

Bien camino!

pilgrim peace, Brett

Easter Blessings to my Orthodox Readers!

Today is Easter in the Orthodox Church tradition. My friend Risa Poniros--who is Greek Orthodox--has been a wonderful pilgrim who has taught me much about the Greek Orthodox tradition by first asking me, "Did you see 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'? That's my family." And her family taught and teaches me much about the Greek Orthodox tradition.

On pilgrimage to the Middle East last year, the Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the monks at St. Catherine of the Sinai Monastery proved to be able pilgrim guides on an incredible journey.

Dear friends of the Orthodox tradition: Easter Blessings!

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Dayenu & Passover

It is Passover, and my friend Jaqui from New Zealand reminded of it. Because she lives in NZ, she is ahead of the curve in all my opportunities to spread the news of a holiday.

Jaqui wrote to me about the song "Dayenu," which in all its verses goes through all the movement of the Hebrew people through the wilderness pilgrimage: being brought out of Egypt; judgment upon Egyptians; executed judgment upon the gods of Egypt; God split the Red Sea; walked the people through on dry land; provided for the needs of the Israelites; were given Shabbat; taken to Mt. Sinai; given Torah; given a land of milk and honey. It is a song of the Israelites' pilgrimage!

Da-da-ye-nu!

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

"Teens on a Mission": Experiencing Life at Full Throttle in a Pilgrimage-Like Activity

In the washingtonpost.com, there was a fascinating article about young people who are not going to Europe for a vacation, but are drinking deeply from the well of life: living with people who just aren't like us, caught in this article, "Teens on a Mission":

When Bethesda high school student Jenna Kusek first saw where she'd be living for three weeks in Tanzania, she thought, "You've got to be kidding."

This hole in the ground is the toilet? A trickle of cold water from an elevated hose is the shower?

But Kusek soon gained a new perspective. The white stucco house she shared with other teen volunteers last summer was a mansion by local standards, and better than the concrete-block house they would spend their days building for a local teacher. A cold shower, she realized, was a luxury unavailable to the village kids. A year after the trip, tears come to her eyes when she talks about how guilty she began feeling about having access to any kind of shower.

"Compared to how people lived in the village, our housing was too good to be true," says Kusek, 18, a senior at Walt Whitman High School. "I knew before I went to Africa that I was blessed, but I had no idea how lucky I was. I can't believe now the things we once took for granted."

Kusek's experience is being repeated by an ever-growing number of American teens traveling all over the world, led by dozens of companies feeding an appetite not only for more-exotic travel, but for travel with a purpose."

What I appreciate about pilgrimage is that it is a kind of travel "with a purpose," and the "purpose" is spiritual in nature, as well as physical, intellectual, and emotional, growth and nurture.

"Lynn Cutler of National Geographic said the organization commissioned a study and found that teens who can afford travel want purpose and personal development."

The rest of the article covers the experience of other young people's whose lives are forever-changed through these travels-with-a-purpose.

Click here for more.

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace!

Brett

Satyagraha: The Pilgrimage of Gandhi

I am a wee-bit smitten with Gandhi and the idea of Satyagraha, because of what it has to say about the pilgrimage that is life. Note the statue of Gandhi above, with his walking stick, doing exactly what Jesus himself asked of his disciples: take very little with you on your pilgrimage: simply take a walking stick, sandals, a little bit of clothing. There is no back pack; no water bottle, no hat even.

But it is Satyagraha--truth force--that has caught my imagination. Listening and being around many Episcopalians the last few days--which is phenomenal for this Presbyterian--along with the coming of the Pope (Benedict) to the US in the next few days--which has all of NYC abuzz--I've heard the word "pilgrimage" spoken by many, and blasted on the air waves. Pilgrimage is synonymous with "travel" as in "tourist" in which people take a "pilgrimage" to a place where "pilgrimages" have taken place, and plop down at the pilgrimage site, and believe that they are on pilgrimage, when they are simply being tourists. On these sorts of pilgrimage there is no physical exertion per se, or exertion of mind or spirit, though there is a sense of titillation of the senses.

Gandhi was on a pilgrimage of truth, spreading truth non-violently in the face of a violent world. Gathering others to walk in truth with him, all on a pilgrimage of truth, he changed the world for the better.

Time to start walking the walk...yes?

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace, Brett

The Pardon in Brittany by Bouveret at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

As I was being "shooed" out of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 5:30 P.M. on Sunday night as the museum was closing, I happened to almost bump into the beautiful painting by Bouveret, "The Pardon of Brittany." The Pardon painting captures pilgrims in various poses, with some pilgrims in bare feet, standing in the snow, holding onto their rosaries, dressed in shades of black and grey, with women wearing their white hats. The procession is powerful and emotionally moving as you look deep into the eyes of the people seeking forgiveness for sins.

Enjoy!

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

More Pilgrimage Sites

After I returned from a visit to Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, OR, recently, I sat down with the map I tore out of the back of the airline magazine, and started to circle all the places that I know of which offer pilgrimage...or their countries if they have lots of pilgrimages, e.g., India and Ireland, to name a few.

In following up with yesterday's National Geographic list, I want to offer another list, which includes some other sites:

• Chimayo, NM;
• Putting together a pilgrimage of Cesar Chavez in CA;
• Putting together a pilgrimage of Selma and Montgomery and MLK, Jr.;
• Putting together a pilgrimage of Hell’s Kitchen and Dorothy Day;
• Montreal and/or Quebec have a “Lourdes”-like cathedral;
• Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico;
• Machu Pichu in Peru;
• There is a pilgrimage trail in Brazil, ending at the top of the hill with the Christ statue in Rio, and Mt. Corcovado;
• Lourdes in France;
• Spain's Santiago de Compostela;
• Black Madonna in Poland;
• Međugorje in Bosnia;
• Rome and Assisi;
• Holy Land;
• Cambodia;
• Thailand;
• Bhutan;
• India;
• Nepal;
• Lhasa in China;
• Japan and the 18 temples;
• Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia;
• Egypt
• Petra in Jordan;
• Uluru in Australia;
• Delphi, Greece;
• Tiwanacu in Bolivia;
• Stonehenge, Canterbury, and Lindisfarne, and St. Mary's Well in the U.K.
• Mount Banahaw in Philippines;
• Church of St. Mary of Zion in Ethiopia;
• Mezquita de Cordoba, Spain;
• Istanbul, Turkey;
• The Chinguetti Mosque in Mauritania

Please add on if you believe there are more!

Bien camino,

Pilgrim peace, Brett

U.S. News and World Report and National Geographic: Sacred Sites and Pilgrims' Places

In the Nov. 26-Dec. 3, 2007 issue of U.S. News and World Report there was a special issue on "Sacred Places," listing the various "spiritually important sites and what they mean today" (from the cover). Likewise, in this latest issue of National Geographic there is coverage and photos of the pilgrimage "hot spots":

Jerusalem, Israel;
Rome, Italy;
Santiago de Compostela, in Spain;
Lourdes, in France;
Fatima in Portugal;
Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia;
Medugorje in Bosnia;
Uman in Ukraine;
Armistar in India;
Ujjain in India;
Bihar province in India;
Udder Pradesh Province in India;
Haridwar and Dwarka, India;
Lumbini, Nepal;
Shikoku, Japan.
Mount Kailas, China;

Click here for more.


Enjoy!

Bien Camino!

pilgrim pace, Brett

A Road to "Nowhere" to the Road of Somewhere

Today's Gospel reading at Valley Community Presbyterian Church (in Portland, OR) was Luke 24: the disciples going on the way to Emmaus. Pastor Rene Minshew preached about the disciples running out of Jerusalem, going to a little known place, Emmaus, which has since died and no longer exists. The idea of going to Emmaus is similar to the idea of going nowhere. The disciples simply needed to get out of town. They were on the "road to nowhere."

What struck me about Jesus on the pilgrimage of life is that with Jesus accompanying us on our journey in life, "nowhere" is not an option. We know we are going somewhere on this pilgrimage of life. Our pilgrimage is not random or open-ended: with Christ, we are on a journey into the realm, the reign, of God.

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

"Far From Home": An Exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art

This past week I made time to go see the latest exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, which had a special exhibit titled, "Far From Home." All the visual art (paintings and sculpture and installation alike) revolved around the theme of people displaced from what they construed or knew as "home." For example, there was a young man in a Mao jacket from China standing in front of the Parthenon in Nashville, TN, by artist Tseng Kwong Chi (who also photographed this image from his Ambiguous Ambassador series), and another of a young African-born child in front of strange plants not of his native home.

On pilgrimage, the question is always this: are we going home? Or did we leave home in order to go to a new home? Do we make "home" wherever we live? Is home a place? A people? Is there a certain time that we "will be home," and time in which being home is not wise nor a smart place for us to be? And do we have to be far away from home in order to appreciate what is home and know what and where it is by knowing it retrospectively?

On pilgrimage, are we far away from home?

Bien camino!

Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Modern-Day Pilgrimage in a Post-Modern World

When trying to explain the ancient but time-less practice of pilgrimage, I will call to people's attention the civil rights and anti-war marches of the 1960s, from women's rights, Viet Nam war protests, to the marches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is the anniversary day of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.  The newspapers, mainstream media on cable shows, and the blogosphere is abuzz with this reminder of what happened 40 years ago on this day, in a motel courtyard in Memphis, TN.

We, as pilgrims today, honor the memory of the one who showed us the power of walking en masse for a cause greater than individual selves: equal rights for one and all.

Click here for more.

Bien camino,

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

America's Pilgrimage: Baseball Stadiums!

While on a flight to Seattle-Tacoma on Northwest Airlines, the cover story on the airline's magazine was "Baseball Pilgrimage: Touring the Heartland's Greatest Baseball shrines," in which the writer, Olivia Herstein, plots "the ultimate baseball pilgrimage across the Midwest, stopping at several crown jewels among the region's beloved major and minor league ballparks." The parks? Comerica Park, in Detroit; Victory Field in Indianapolis, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, and Miller Park, in Milwaukee.

Do some Americans define their life-journey through and by the practices of baseball? Um, yes.

Bien Camino!

Play Ball!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett