A group that coalesced in Maine planned gatherings on climate grief, which were first held at NEYM’s mid-year gathering in Providence, Rhode Island.Over the winter, we felt abandoned by the Spirit; our way was lost, and no clarity arose. And so I resolved to walk the Camino de Santiago – alone – and open myself to what it could teach me.I filled my backpack with 20 pounds of clothing, a sleeping bag, my water, every imaginable blister medication possible, my journal and a whole lot of fears and questions about why I was going to walk across northern Spain. What I needed was to sleep in my own bed, and I was eager to take a shower.
We were invited to live up to the teaching of Jesus, and found deep within ourselves the willingness to give over our lives to whatever was to come—whether arrest, condemnation, or transformation.The police never arrived, and our time on the tracks was spent in Bible study, worship, and deepening relationships.
Each year, tens of thousands of pilgrims, many from Hungary, travel to the shrine on the Saturday before Pentecost to commemorate a 16.In his homily, Pope Francis said, “We have come here for a reason: we are pilgrims”; and he reflected on what it means to go on pilgrimage.“To go on pilgrimage”, he said, “is to realize that we are in a way returning home as a people”. ",Quaker addressing racism, climate change, and religious education.Turning Quaker concerns into mass movements.© 2020 Friends Publishing Corporation. I learned that the Way commanded by Christ is one to be journeyed – indeed “the way” is made by walking. But about half way through I blurted out, “Mom, I’m going to do this” and she smiled, knowing that I had offered many ‘brilliant’ dreams before – but inside I knew that this was something that would in fact happen.The image of ‘the Way’ and the ideas of ‘process’ and ‘destination’ intrigued me. Sponsored by Haitian Hope, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Macon, GA. By Gail Moulton. We were all simply walking, each with our own story and our own reason for being there, and each falling in step with others on this journey. Alluding to the history of the shrine, the Pope said, “Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters”.Going on pilgrimage, he continued, involves feeling “called and compelled to journey together, asking the Lord for the grace to change past and present resentments and mistrust into new opportunities for fellowship”.Finally, he said, “To go on pilgrimage is to look not so much at what might have been (and wasn’t), but at everything that awaits us and cannot be put off much longer”.
At that point I knew no more than to follow the arrows and shells marked along the path and to put one foot in front of the other.
The Shrine at Şumuleu Ciuc is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in eastern Europe. I wil!
We offer this as a story of our experiment—an experiment of a small group with a commitment to following Spirit—in hope that it may inspire others to do their own experiments. I asked a friend what these pilgrims were doing and she explained that many chose to pick up a stone and grieve with it, pouring all of their sorrow into it, and when they were ready they dropped it off. I tried to mimic the stride of the Hungarian man in front of me, and eventually developed a rhythm with my walking poles, but still felt like I was doing everything wrong. So often, I think this is the case for all of us. This hit me early on while walking a few days with Dan, a US marine who had just finished a tour of duty, fighting in Afghanistan. We thought of our work as being that of mycelium, which invisibly work through soil and nurture plants and trees. As more more people became concerned about this issue their concerns deepened my understanding of the enormity of the problems we were creating for ourselves and the rest of life. Meeting, and a co-founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, climatedisobedience.org. As other pilgrims would walk, they were then invited to pick up one of these stones and continue.As I walked I realized that although I was physically stronger it was the emotional, spiritual, relational truths of these people and their stories that filled and overflowed my backpack. (Vatican Media),Pope's Mass at Shrine of Sumuleu-Ciuc in Romania: Full text.Copyright © 2017-2020 Dicasterium pro Communicatione - All rights reserved. We worshiped and felt moved to prepare the ground for helping the Religious Society of Friends listen for and respond to the leadings of Spirit. There were no labels or judgments – often not even names. Over 30 Friends gathered October 28 for a weekend retreat in Framingham, Massachusetts.
What can we learn? Sometimes, I would know only from which country they came and the injuries they may have encountered that day. I breathed in stories of deep grieving, of deep searching and questioning,Each of us held and carried our own narrative – our own motive for walking. We are pilgrims Welcome to my blog!
We have felt the love and support of many Friends across the country this past year, and we ask for your continued prayers as we discern where God is calling us. This was a journey made by many more than the dozen people who walked every day; it was a corporate witness.The pilgrimage concluded with a meeting for worship appointed by Concord Meeting in Canterbury, New Hampshire, which gathered over 50 people at the gates of the coal plant in Bow, New Hampshire. But beneath all of that we found ourselves sharing out of our deepest selves. We Are Pilgrims on a Journey. 3 We are pilgrims on a journey, with the faithful at our side. Menu and widgets. Still the questions sat in the back of my mind: why would someone walk over 800 kms, and more importantly, why would they choose to do so?
January 1, 2018.
be faithful! We were clearly called to a kind of prophetic action and witness that springs from our authentic Quaker existence.So we gathered a larger group.