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