Change of plans on the pilgrimage. Last night I had a great evening with Bela from Budapest, who happened to share my room at the Alburgue (pilgrim inn). Bottoms of his feet are all blistered. After talking to him, and people knowledgeable about the el camino de Santiago, I´ve decided to take a bus today from Villa Franca to Sarria, which will get me within 100 km to Santiago. Why? Physically, I won´t be able to enjoy the camino AND be on pilgrimage. It is more up hill than I knew, and I think it is more important to spend time with people, seeing the sights, and enjoying Spain than barnstorming the el camino. If I kept up the pace I was at, it would be barnstorming Spain and not seeing the sights and talking to the people...and all the action is on the way when sitting for coffee, over dinner at night.
I met the couple of women who saved my feet, which are better today. I had a great conversation and walk with two women from France and the Netherlands, who happened to be at a small bodega on the side of the camino in the middle of an apple and fig orchard, with tomatoes as big as your fist being cut up, with fresh cheese slices. This is the camino! And the conversation between English, Spanish, French, and German at the bodega was great.
In order to be a true pilgrim of Santiago, or a ¨schnell pilger¨in German-fast pilgrim, you have to walk the last 100 km. That´s what I am doing!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Pilgrimage Blisters
What a long and tiring day! I took the night train to Ponferrada, which deposited me at the train station in Ponferrada at 4 in the morning! I wrote in my journal, prayed the prayers of Benedict, and at 6 trudged up a long hill to the Albergue (the nicer of the pilgrimage inns). 50 people sleep in one room, in cots, and as I walked in, they were all coming down to fix breakfasts quickly in order to be out on the road. I watched with mouth wide open, taking in the commotion, finally asking around 8:30 if I could get my first stamp of my credential (you have to have the stamps and have walked 100KM to be a true pilgrim), and I was soon on my way.
My left heel had been bothering me with my walking shoes, so I had popped the blister in Madrid, and thought I´d taken care of it. On the train ride up to Ponferrada, the right heel also started to feel hot. By the time I finished a good stretch of the road, my left heel was bleeding through the mole skin, and they both hurt as I walked. I ducked into the Farmacia, got bandaids that were more adhesive, and put on Vaseline ointment...and my Chacos (sandals). That worked for a mile or two until the bandaids now kept slipping off. New friends gave me another protection, and they´ve held up better, though the strap in the back of the shoe brings it down over time.
The rest of the body is feeling fine! Spirit is good! Your prayers, friends and family, matter. So, um, pray for healing!
Finally: the weather is fine, the scenery beautiful (wine growing area and lots of little and old villages), and the camraderie is starting to happen. I am becoming one of ¨those pilgrims.¨
Pilgrim peace, Brett
My left heel had been bothering me with my walking shoes, so I had popped the blister in Madrid, and thought I´d taken care of it. On the train ride up to Ponferrada, the right heel also started to feel hot. By the time I finished a good stretch of the road, my left heel was bleeding through the mole skin, and they both hurt as I walked. I ducked into the Farmacia, got bandaids that were more adhesive, and put on Vaseline ointment...and my Chacos (sandals). That worked for a mile or two until the bandaids now kept slipping off. New friends gave me another protection, and they´ve held up better, though the strap in the back of the shoe brings it down over time.
The rest of the body is feeling fine! Spirit is good! Your prayers, friends and family, matter. So, um, pray for healing!
Finally: the weather is fine, the scenery beautiful (wine growing area and lots of little and old villages), and the camraderie is starting to happen. I am becoming one of ¨those pilgrims.¨
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Monday, October 1, 2007
Guernica and Spanish Pilgrimage
I spent today in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which houses an impressive display of contemporary art, from Dali to Picasso, Miro to a wonderful new artist I had not known, Paula Rego. The highlight was seeing Picasso´s Guernica, capturing the horrors of war in graphic, black, white, and grey detail. I am reminded that this land of Spain is a land of pilgrimage, in which the people have seen great art and beauty in music, but have witnessed the horrors of war close up. It is a land of religious mysteries, and a land of iconic beauty. To see the religious art of the Prado, followed by the art capturing the wars and questions of this modern age shows how fascinating the people are who have lived here throughout the centuries.
I am also reminded that this is not only a very Catholic country, but Madrid is an incredibly metropolitan city, with a breadth of people from all countries. In attire, customs, and food, there is much to experience of the world.
I am off to Ponferrada tonight, catching the 10:10 P.M. train, arriving at 4 in the morning. Pilgrimage has begun!
Thank you for your prayers, friends!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
I am also reminded that this is not only a very Catholic country, but Madrid is an incredibly metropolitan city, with a breadth of people from all countries. In attire, customs, and food, there is much to experience of the world.
I am off to Ponferrada tonight, catching the 10:10 P.M. train, arriving at 4 in the morning. Pilgrimage has begun!
Thank you for your prayers, friends!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Pilgrimage to Santiago Has Begun
It is late in night in Madrid, and I´ve had a wonderful first day in this busy city. I left North Carolina yesterday afternoon at 1:30 P.M., reaching Philadelphia, where I caught the next flight to Madrid. Ms. Patricia Cooper and I were ¨seat mates¨in our two seats on the side of the plane. Her reaction to my doing the pilgrimage to Santiago was ¨precious¨: ¨You´re going to do WHAT¨? I repeated that I was walking 120 miles across the northern part of Spain. She was in Spain, in her mid-70s, taking a tour of the cities of Spain! ¨Better late than never...and better do it while I can walk.¨ I agreed, and we both laughed heartily.
After a quick 6 (plus) hours across the Atlantic, the excitement for Santiago hit when the pilot said, ¨We´re flying over Santiago...40 minutes to Madrid.¨ And in no time we were here.
After landing, customs, and getting money from the bank, purchasing the train ticket to Ponferrada, my beginning point for the pilgrimage (leaving Madrid at 8 in the evening and getting in at 4 in the morning), and after arriving at the hotel via the Metro, I arrived to the hotel, napped, washed up, ate some breakfast, slept some more, ate lunch, it was on to the Prado!
The Prado was impressive! Largest museum of its kind in the world in terms of all the Goyas, Vazquez, with a smattering of Durer, Rembrandt, and other wonderful artists! I spent a good five hours in the museum, with stops in the cafeteria to keep going. There was a great deal of religious art from generations of artists, all inspiring, and giving me a taste of what is to come.
Dinner was with a new friend, Sinjin (St. John), a young man in his 40s from Seattle. Growing up Catholic, he knows enough about pilgrimage to be praying for me, and me for him, on this most excellent journey .
Pilgrim peace, Brett
After a quick 6 (plus) hours across the Atlantic, the excitement for Santiago hit when the pilot said, ¨We´re flying over Santiago...40 minutes to Madrid.¨ And in no time we were here.
After landing, customs, and getting money from the bank, purchasing the train ticket to Ponferrada, my beginning point for the pilgrimage (leaving Madrid at 8 in the evening and getting in at 4 in the morning), and after arriving at the hotel via the Metro, I arrived to the hotel, napped, washed up, ate some breakfast, slept some more, ate lunch, it was on to the Prado!
The Prado was impressive! Largest museum of its kind in the world in terms of all the Goyas, Vazquez, with a smattering of Durer, Rembrandt, and other wonderful artists! I spent a good five hours in the museum, with stops in the cafeteria to keep going. There was a great deal of religious art from generations of artists, all inspiring, and giving me a taste of what is to come.
Dinner was with a new friend, Sinjin (St. John), a young man in his 40s from Seattle. Growing up Catholic, he knows enough about pilgrimage to be praying for me, and me for him, on this most excellent journey .
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Monday, September 24, 2007
Preparations for Santiago de Compestela!
Life's pilgrimage feels like an actual pilgrimage more and more often in my life. On an actual pilgrimage, there are moments in which a great deal happens in a short period of time--from interactions with strangers who become fast friends, to viewing one's inner landscape or outward beauty of the land that had previously been hidden--to stretches of ennui that seem to go on forever.
Currently, I am a period of living in events that are happening--and must happen--in order to move toward living in the reality of the School of the Pilgrim. For example, I am currently preparing to leave for a ten-day pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestela, which is also the first fund/pledge drive for the operating costs of the School of the Pilgrim! While I do believe that God is breathing life into the School of the Pilgrim, I walk in faith, hoping each and every day that the funds for the School will follow soon after.
As I walk into the School of the Pilgrim, I am also walking from my time as an interim pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). While I have enjoyed the challenges and joys of being an interim pastor since I left Duke Divinity School, my time as an interim, or the call to being an interim, has come to an end. While I have enjoyed my time at my last interim position as solo pastor of Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church, the time has come to say good-bye.
Dear reader: I invite your prayers for the upcoming pilgrimage to Santiago--and life!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Currently, I am a period of living in events that are happening--and must happen--in order to move toward living in the reality of the School of the Pilgrim. For example, I am currently preparing to leave for a ten-day pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestela, which is also the first fund/pledge drive for the operating costs of the School of the Pilgrim! While I do believe that God is breathing life into the School of the Pilgrim, I walk in faith, hoping each and every day that the funds for the School will follow soon after.
As I walk into the School of the Pilgrim, I am also walking from my time as an interim pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). While I have enjoyed the challenges and joys of being an interim pastor since I left Duke Divinity School, my time as an interim, or the call to being an interim, has come to an end. While I have enjoyed my time at my last interim position as solo pastor of Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church, the time has come to say good-bye.
Dear reader: I invite your prayers for the upcoming pilgrimage to Santiago--and life!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Greenville College: A College Hike or College Pilgrimage?
A first! Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois, is the first college that has welcomed the School of the Pilgrim--and pilgrimage--with open arms and walking feet...and one rolling wheel chair. I had a wonderful time preaching and teaching about pilgrimage before the student body of this Free Methodist Church institution.
Located in southern Illinois, I preached a sermon on pilgrimage during their mandatory chapel service/worship on Monday, September 10th, followed by a colloquium on pilgrimage, death, dying, and people with disabilities on Tuesday, September 11th.
But it was on Wed., September 12th, that I had an "aha" experience: since 1912, the entire campus(or most of the campus) takes off for a six mile "all college hike" to a nearby Free Methodist retreat center outside of Greenville. While there are around 1100 students, a good four hundred or so made it out to the camp grounds, where lunch was served, canoes were paddled, zip lines were zipped, and volley ball was happening. But the beauty was the gathering of faculty, students, and staff who walked out in the beautiful summer weather of Illinois, passed rolling farm fields filled with soy plants and old corn stalks. Water was distributed by the basketball team members along the way; people in cars and trucks waved at us; new and old friends walked together...and a good time was had by all.
In my closing sermon at the camp ground I preached about the wonder and miracle of God's presence in the unexpected moments of an otherwise predictable life. I reminded those gathered together about the times we had on this "all college hike" that reflected the very same movements of pilgrimage. Toward the end of the sermon, I had the "nerve" to suggest a new name of this hike: an all college pilgrimage, for that is what it has become! The people of God from Greenville College did something subversive and radical: they moved as one body out of the predictable college behavior of having classes, and dared to become closer with one another through a common experience, book-ended by the practice of Christian prayer! I reminded them of the Benedictine monks of Esquipulas' statement, "The Christ you seek you will not find unless you bring him with you," and told them that this hike has become a holy pilgrimage, because they brought within them to this camp ground none other than the Pilgrim God: Jesus Christ.
Here's to a re-naming venture, in the name of the Pilgrim God!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Located in southern Illinois, I preached a sermon on pilgrimage during their mandatory chapel service/worship on Monday, September 10th, followed by a colloquium on pilgrimage, death, dying, and people with disabilities on Tuesday, September 11th.
But it was on Wed., September 12th, that I had an "aha" experience: since 1912, the entire campus(or most of the campus) takes off for a six mile "all college hike" to a nearby Free Methodist retreat center outside of Greenville. While there are around 1100 students, a good four hundred or so made it out to the camp grounds, where lunch was served, canoes were paddled, zip lines were zipped, and volley ball was happening. But the beauty was the gathering of faculty, students, and staff who walked out in the beautiful summer weather of Illinois, passed rolling farm fields filled with soy plants and old corn stalks. Water was distributed by the basketball team members along the way; people in cars and trucks waved at us; new and old friends walked together...and a good time was had by all.
In my closing sermon at the camp ground I preached about the wonder and miracle of God's presence in the unexpected moments of an otherwise predictable life. I reminded those gathered together about the times we had on this "all college hike" that reflected the very same movements of pilgrimage. Toward the end of the sermon, I had the "nerve" to suggest a new name of this hike: an all college pilgrimage, for that is what it has become! The people of God from Greenville College did something subversive and radical: they moved as one body out of the predictable college behavior of having classes, and dared to become closer with one another through a common experience, book-ended by the practice of Christian prayer! I reminded them of the Benedictine monks of Esquipulas' statement, "The Christ you seek you will not find unless you bring him with you," and told them that this hike has become a holy pilgrimage, because they brought within them to this camp ground none other than the Pilgrim God: Jesus Christ.
Here's to a re-naming venture, in the name of the Pilgrim God!
Pilgrim peace, Brett
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Pilgrimage with SOLO Flight!
From August 31st to September 3rd, 2007, I had an amazing experience of pilgrimage with around fifty women and men at Kanuga Conference Center outside of Hendersonville, NC! Pilgrimage and being pilgrims was the theme for the seventeenth gathering of SOLO Flight, a conference for people who are considered "single" in our modern society. In other words, because of either choice, call, circumstances, widowhood, or divorce, this gathering of largely Episcopalians have gathered throughout the years to discuss issues relevant for life, as well as network with friends and associates from a host of diocese and denominations.
The entire weekend's theme was on pilgrimage! Under the direction of Dr. Kay Collier McLaughlin of Lexington, KY, the community of great leaders, and the community of participants, fused and became one during the weekend as I lectured and all of us went on an actual pilgrimage, with music, a great homily, re-affirmation of baptism, all led by a beautiful rendered cross. By the end of our time together on Monday, September 3rd, we had all moved from being individual "I's" on pilgrimage, into being a community of pilgrims, following the Pilgrim God, Jesus Christ.
Pilgrim peace, Brett
The entire weekend's theme was on pilgrimage! Under the direction of Dr. Kay Collier McLaughlin of Lexington, KY, the community of great leaders, and the community of participants, fused and became one during the weekend as I lectured and all of us went on an actual pilgrimage, with music, a great homily, re-affirmation of baptism, all led by a beautiful rendered cross. By the end of our time together on Monday, September 3rd, we had all moved from being individual "I's" on pilgrimage, into being a community of pilgrims, following the Pilgrim God, Jesus Christ.
Pilgrim peace, Brett
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