Itinerary
Today we begin our pilgrimage which starts the moment we cross over the threshold of our home. See the Florilegium entry below for more about thresholds and sacred travel.
Place
The “place” of the airport, or the taxi we take, or the TSA line, or the seat mate near us on the plane is where we are invited to begin living out the meaning of pilgrim. Are our interactions with those we meet radiant with the love of Christ? Are we kind, and patient, and tolerant of the foibles of others? Will we silently pray for the parents of the small child who worry about a tantrum during the flight? It is not just the holy-places of Lindisfarne and Iona where we can encounter the thin veil which separates the sacred from the profane — but all along the way of our journey we can see the sacred in whatever place we find ourselves.
Saint of the Day
St. Christopher (Menas), Patron Saint of travel
According to the legendary account of his life Christopher was initially called Reprobus. He was a Canaanite, 7.5 feet tall and with a fearsome face. While serving the king of Canaan, he took it into his head to go and serve "the greatest king there was". He went to the king who was reputed to be the greatest, but one day he saw the king cross himself at the mention of the devil. On thus learning that the king feared the devil, he departed to look for the devil. He came across a band of marauders, one of whom declared himself to be the devil, so Christopher decided to serve him. But when he saw his new master avoid a wayside cross and found out that the devil feared Christ, he left him and enquired from people where to find Christ. He met a hermit who instructed him in the Christian faith. Christopher asked him how he could serve Christ. When the hermit suggested fasting and prayer, Christopher replied that he was unable to perform that service. The hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve Christ by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where they were perishing in the attempt. The hermit promised that this service would be pleasing to Christ.
After Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: "You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were." The child replied: "You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work." The child then vanished. — [preceding taken from Wikipedia entry on the saint]
Saint Christopher is patron saint of travel in both the Eastern Church (St. Menas) and Western church (St. Christopher). “Christopher” means Christ-bearer. It was likely a general title given to Saint Menas and then the title became confused in the West as a proper name. As we travel it is good for us to consider that we, too, are Christ-bearers during this pilgrimage.
PRAYER
I give thanks for Saint Christopher whose service to travelers and willingness to bear the weight of the whole world is an inspiration. May I bear Christ-like graces to all I meet today.
After Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: "You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were." The child replied: "You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work." The child then vanished. — [preceding taken from Wikipedia entry on the saint]
Saint Christopher is patron saint of travel in both the Eastern Church (St. Menas) and Western church (St. Christopher). “Christopher” means Christ-bearer. It was likely a general title given to Saint Menas and then the title became confused in the West as a proper name. As we travel it is good for us to consider that we, too, are Christ-bearers during this pilgrimage.
PRAYER
I give thanks for Saint Christopher whose service to travelers and willingness to bear the weight of the whole world is an inspiration. May I bear Christ-like graces to all I meet today.
Suggested Contemplative Practices
As you arise on the day of departure it is not too early to be especially disciplined in your prayer-life. The daily offices are posted for you below and we commend them to you (Vigils, Lauds, Midday, Vespers, Compline).
Keeping a journal during pilgrimage is a good practice. You may write in it your prayers, thoughts, wonderments, and hopes. The list of prompts below is merely suggestive:
*What do you hope from this pilgrimage? What change in yourself do you long for?
*What portions of your life do you need to leave behind as you depart? This can be worries about things you cannot change while away, or habits you will suspend for the duration of the pilgrimage.
*Read and contemplate one or more of the Psalms of Ascent (traditionally ascribed as Psalms for Pilgrims): Psalms 120-134.
Keeping a journal during pilgrimage is a good practice. You may write in it your prayers, thoughts, wonderments, and hopes. The list of prompts below is merely suggestive:
*What do you hope from this pilgrimage? What change in yourself do you long for?
*What portions of your life do you need to leave behind as you depart? This can be worries about things you cannot change while away, or habits you will suspend for the duration of the pilgrimage.
*Read and contemplate one or more of the Psalms of Ascent (traditionally ascribed as Psalms for Pilgrims): Psalms 120-134.
Vespers - Sunset
Compline - Before Sleep
Today's Suggested Disciplines
Here you will find a few suggestions for daily devotion and or discipline of formation.
Small Group Notes
As we are traveling separately there are no Small Group Notes for today beyond the invitation that you begin praying for those in your small group and praying that the time spent with them will glorify God and aid each one in the way of discipleship.
Florilegium
We depart on our pilgrimage today. This is a pilgrimage of prayer and fellowship as we visit Edinburgh, Lindisfarne, Oban, and Iona.
We are crossing over the threshold of our home as we leave on pilgrimage. Let us give thought to all we are leaving behind. There will be things we entrust to others while away, there will be things we intentionally leave behind (work, worries, bad habits), and there will be things and people we leave with some measure of regret and sadness. Let us not leave our home to set out on this journey of the Spirit without first honestly making an inventory of what our home means to us and considering what it means to leave it.
†After feeling the yearning to become a pilgrim;
† after prayerfully exploring the nature and timing of the call to “go;”
† after planning and preparing ourselves for the time away with God and one another;
† inevitably we arrive at the moment when we must depart.
With what joy and eager anticipation must the day of departure begin?! The word “departure” has an etymological and figurative connection to death. Think of the phrase “dearly departed,” for example. See below Phil Cousineau’s thoughts on threshold:
“The threshold is more than an architectural detail; it is a mythological image that evokes the spirit of resistance we must pass through on our risky journey from all we've known to all that's unknown. It is the first step toward renewal. The truth of the image is compressed into the word. Threshold comes from threshing, what was done to separate the seed from the chaff right on the entrance to the farmhouses. Since at least Roman times, the threshold is “the slab or bar at the main doorway that prevents water or mud flowing into the house.” The threshold divides the inside from the outside, the sacred from the profane, the past from the future. Crossing over means confronting the guardian at the gate, the personification of the forces trying to keep us in the village, the ordinary world. The sheer ferociousness of those guardians, such as the ones at the Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan, are also personifications of our fear as we anticipate leaving on a meaningful journey. A vacation is easy to embark upon; everything has been laid out for us to have a predictable, comfortable, and reassuring holiday But a pilgrimage is different; we are actually beckoning to the darkness in our lives. The fear is real… So too with powerful and soulful travel. It seizes your imagination, but the way through to the sacred moment can also be through deep anxiety about the unknown. That possibility produces fear in many travelers, even at the threshold of their own door before leaving home. The lion's roar, the fire of the dragon, the master's hand slap— all are different ways of expressing the same thing: the call to wake up.” [ Cousineau, Phil. The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred (pp. 84-85). Red Wheel Weiser.]
As we cross the threshold and enter into the liminal space which this travel is meant to open up to us, we do well to wonder what in us is meant to die and what in us is meant to come to renewed and reinvigorated life. To depart on the spiritual odyssey which is a pilgrimage is to intentionally leave “your father’s house and your country and your kindred and go to the place I will show you.” Like Abram and Sarai of old, our departure is meant to bring us blessings, but we must never forget that ultimately it is meant to make us a blessing to the whole world - “….and in you all the people of the world will be blessed.”
We are crossing over the threshold of our home as we leave on pilgrimage. Let us give thought to all we are leaving behind. There will be things we entrust to others while away, there will be things we intentionally leave behind (work, worries, bad habits), and there will be things and people we leave with some measure of regret and sadness. Let us not leave our home to set out on this journey of the Spirit without first honestly making an inventory of what our home means to us and considering what it means to leave it.
†After feeling the yearning to become a pilgrim;
† after prayerfully exploring the nature and timing of the call to “go;”
† after planning and preparing ourselves for the time away with God and one another;
† inevitably we arrive at the moment when we must depart.
With what joy and eager anticipation must the day of departure begin?! The word “departure” has an etymological and figurative connection to death. Think of the phrase “dearly departed,” for example. See below Phil Cousineau’s thoughts on threshold:
“The threshold is more than an architectural detail; it is a mythological image that evokes the spirit of resistance we must pass through on our risky journey from all we've known to all that's unknown. It is the first step toward renewal. The truth of the image is compressed into the word. Threshold comes from threshing, what was done to separate the seed from the chaff right on the entrance to the farmhouses. Since at least Roman times, the threshold is “the slab or bar at the main doorway that prevents water or mud flowing into the house.” The threshold divides the inside from the outside, the sacred from the profane, the past from the future. Crossing over means confronting the guardian at the gate, the personification of the forces trying to keep us in the village, the ordinary world. The sheer ferociousness of those guardians, such as the ones at the Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan, are also personifications of our fear as we anticipate leaving on a meaningful journey. A vacation is easy to embark upon; everything has been laid out for us to have a predictable, comfortable, and reassuring holiday But a pilgrimage is different; we are actually beckoning to the darkness in our lives. The fear is real… So too with powerful and soulful travel. It seizes your imagination, but the way through to the sacred moment can also be through deep anxiety about the unknown. That possibility produces fear in many travelers, even at the threshold of their own door before leaving home. The lion's roar, the fire of the dragon, the master's hand slap— all are different ways of expressing the same thing: the call to wake up.” [ Cousineau, Phil. The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred (pp. 84-85). Red Wheel Weiser.]
As we cross the threshold and enter into the liminal space which this travel is meant to open up to us, we do well to wonder what in us is meant to die and what in us is meant to come to renewed and reinvigorated life. To depart on the spiritual odyssey which is a pilgrimage is to intentionally leave “your father’s house and your country and your kindred and go to the place I will show you.” Like Abram and Sarai of old, our departure is meant to bring us blessings, but we must never forget that ultimately it is meant to make us a blessing to the whole world - “….and in you all the people of the world will be blessed.”