Transfiguration Sunday, Ash Wednesday: We're Off and Running

Epiphany is now officially over. 

We're moving onward!

Transfiguration was a celebration of light in our congregation (so is Michaelmas), and we are moving into the season of Lent today with ashes on foreheads and the mark of Christ deep into our life.

It is a time of repentance for what we've done and not done.

It is time for reflection.

It is time for re-birth.

And all of this is a process, a pilgrimage.

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

The Pull of Holy Days

Today was the last Ordinary Day in this break, the breath, between Epiphany and Transfiguration Sunday. I'll hang up the green stoles for awhile and get ready to wear the white stole of Transfiguration, and the purple stole of Lent.

The Holy Days have a pull of their own on this earthly pilgrimage. It is magnetic, this pull, this tug, that seems to center our lives as people of the Christian faith.

Today's lectionary reading from Mark--the healing of the leper--was powerful, as always. Being asked by the one with leprosy if he would choose to make him whole, I am enthralled with this reaction by Jesus: "I choose."

On pilgrimage, we "choose" daily to be on a pilgrimage that is life.

Chosen!

Choosing!

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

Various Modes of Pilgrimage

I read a lot of books on pilgrimage. I am moved by watching t.v. shows, like Discovery and National Geographic, and all the kinds of places they take us to in showing us religious sites.

I understand the power of walking in pilgrimage.

But why not a train, car, boat, wheel chair, or plane for pilgrimage?

Buen camino!

B

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: April 15-24, 2009

In talking with my pilgrim friend, Henry Carse, we are still set to offer people an opportunity to go to the Holy Land from April 15-24, 2009. Understanding the war along the Gaza Strip area--that has died down recently--has sent many people off of the list of potential pilgrims. But the opportunity to be in Jerusalem during the Eastern Orthodox Church's celebration of Passion Week and Easter is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Contact us if interested in going!

And airfares are far less than they have been!

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

One Step at a Time

Throughout the years that I've known people in 12-step programs, one of the common phrases is "one day at a time." In other words, to borrow Jesus' words, tomorrow has enough to keep us busy, so why worry about tomorrow and missing living today to its fullest?

In lunch with my friend Paul Fukui--a pilgrim--in Portland, OR, he simply said, "well, why not live one step at a time?" Living the pilgrim life where we are means living one step at a time, rather than running the full gamut, or going the full distance in one day.

Here's to trying to live one step at a time.

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

Church in the Trunk of the Car: A Pilgrimage

On time.com, there was a great story on rural churches that are simply dying off.  They are dying because no one goes to these churches any more.  This is especially the situation in the Midwest, e.g., Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.  Some churches are becoming yoked parishes--a practice that all Christian churches are used to be now--and they resemble a kind of pilgrimage, as people go from place to place to worship.  I remember when I was beginning a parish--Davis Dr. in Cary, now Cornerstone--and we talked about church in the trunk: cross, amp, microphone, and hymnals.  That model still works.  It is a model of the pilgrim: putting all our earthly cares in the back-pack, and off we go.

Click here for more.

Buen Camino!

Peace, Brett