Iona Pilgrimage 2027

Right now. In this moment. What are you rooted in?

Endings are important.

Dear Pilgrim,

You may not think that you deserve that title.

Journey is a word that carries intention. It would seem overblown to claim that you were going to journey to the grocery store or Target.

In 2020 and 2021 we engaged in two “socially distant” pilgrimages. While it is my great joy to be returning to Iona, Scotland, UK, this year with a new group of pilgrims, I am pretty enamored with our Wisdom for the Way pilgrimages.

Belief is hard. In my life as an adult seeking to live spiritually, I have found that defining what I believe to be frustrating, circular, and changeable.

Each Saturday, I sit down with my sister-in-law and plan our household’s meals for the upcoming week.

Do you believe in Moments? Times when all the tumblers of life line up, and you feel the snick of the Divine pouring through the fabric of what was a normal day.

Honestly, if you look at the bones of pilgrimage, it is not terribly complicated. Prepare, journey, arrival, return, re-enter. This can’t possibly be all there is to it. That could describe any trip.

Where would you be willing to go if you weren’t sure of what would meet you there?

The active work of Pilgrimage begins with the decision to go.

Behind you stretches a series of footprints. They have brought you here, now. This here and this now, to which you have been pressing.

I have spent some time on dusty roads—pilgrim’s ways that are steeped in equal parts history, mystery, and intention.

There was wind tearing down the treeless pasture, tangling my hair behind me. The ocean wrapped around me on three sides.

My kids and I counted the days we have been quarantined for COVID-19 today. The number is in the fifties. My eldest son looked at me and said, "Mom, that number makes me sad."

Why are we here?

As a student of philosophy, I usually read that question with the emphasis on the Why.

Over the past month, as I have walked across Spain on the Camino Francais, I have had a fun friend who has journeyed with me, Hootie the Hoot-Owl.

People have been doing this for centuries, even before Christianity. They walk for all sorts of reasons: to heal, to nurture health, some government jobs in Spain even require you to have walked the Camino and earned your Compostela.

Day 10: The temperature is just a few degrees above freezing and it rains on and off throughout the day. Sore leg muscles and blisters make this day’s walk more difficult but step by solitary step I progress.

We stopped for the night at a place that is built on a river; it used to be a mill so all the outdoor tables and front porch are made of mill stones.

Our first walking day was rife with opportunity to deviate from the designated path. After a first village, we approached an opportunity, a decision, a choice.

We are staying in León at a hotel (in an active Augustinian monastery) in the historic medieval section of the city inside Roman walls. There is a medieval festival going on right outside our monastery walls.

How I failed pilgrimage is a long and somewhat interesting story. When I first spoke those words I was walking along a gravel road up toward the lona Abbey in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

I thought of the many times I had puzzled over the ancient Sunday Gospel Reading Cycle. I had prayed the cycle for many years; I found it deeply meaningful and loved it profoundly.

Returning from Camino
A book review by Larry Duggins

Alexander Shaia is a wise and experienced man with a fascinating combination of lived and acquired knowledge. He has studied hard to build a wonderful base of psychological, theological and anthropological knowledge, and he has tempered those with the life experience of an immigrant and a pilgrim.

Pentecost! Finally. Fifty days take forever when the red outfit is ready to celebrate the birthday of the church. Read More

For the space at the table
We celebrate and give thanks
For the stories that arrive
Important to be heard
For the bellies and hearts that come hungry
Hoping to be filled

For those who take the time to come to the table, both for ritual and for meal, the community of God is nourishing. It brings health. This is not always happiness. Just ask anyone who has ever come to the table hoping for cake and found cauliflower. Sometimes community requires patience, love, endurance, imagination, and courage. But, in return, Jesus promises nourishment.

Return

To the love in which you were created

To the breath that first hovered over you

Return

Re-entry never places you back in quite the same life.