Pilgrimages & Peregrinatio
“…a spiritual feeling unrivaled by anything I have experienced at home before or since. No words can better sum up how I feel about my pilgrimage to Iona better than this verse we sang together from the hymn “All Are Welcome” on our last night…”
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You are invited to mark St Patrick’s Day this year with a special talk, “The Invitation of the Celtic Way”, featuring Rev Dr Sharon Graff and Culture Honey Touring founder & guide, Georgia Sanders!
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The mysterious island if Iona is calling, who will sojourn with us for a time? The natural and spiritual appeal of this tiny island in the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland has been drawing travelers to it’s shores at least since the 500’s when St. Columba and his companions arrived from Ireland and set up a monastic community there.
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Like Georgia said, we are all on our own journey. The reason for a tour is so that we can “journey this path together for a time, whatever our backgrounds, wherever we find ourself in life.”
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“In a quiet water’d land…stands Saint Kieran’s city fair; And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations Slumber there.” Along the banks of…
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Our walk was slow and deliberate. The story of Glendalough (pronounced ‘glen-da-lock’ and meaning ‘valley of two lakes’) and St. Kevin is one which takes time to sift through. It is a story of overcoming fears – the monster of the lake – and partaking on a journey to befriend that fear. It is a story of understanding and acceptance and, ultimately, peace.
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Layering in a wool sweater and rain jacket insulated me from the chill and damp. Upon entering the monument site, I faced one of several hilly embankments and steep trenches surrounding the hill and several monuments. My hiking shoes helped me remain upright as I climbed up and slid down the rain-soaked ground. Upon reaching the summit, the mist was swallowed by a brilliant blue sky uncovering a majestic and sparkling green Boyne River Valley.
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A pilgrimage typically can take the form of an outward physical journey, often to a quiet or holy place, where an inward spiritual journey can take place. Seekers of God, of peace, of self and of healing participate in a journey of trust that God (Life!) will lead them on and speak to them in so that sustaining peace will be found for living. Not all pilgrimages (or pilgrims) are necessarily religious. Of all the sacred places that I visited in Ireland, it was continually and simply stated that ALL humans are on a journey and that ALL were welcome to these sites.
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Yet his (Columba’s) greatest legacy is the founding and development of the Monastery City of Iona. Iona became one of the most influential worship, educational, missionary, and political centers of the Western World until its destruction by Vikings in the 9th century. Iona also became the ‘mother’ of scores of monasteries…
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‘Peregrinatio’ is a Latin term used by St. Augustine Of Hippo urging Christians of the 4th and 5th centuries to adopt a life of peregrinatio in…
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By the time Patrick commenced his mission in Ireland, a handful of Christian churches had already been established along Ireland’s southeast coast. The pope had also sent Bishop Palladius to convert the barbarians the year before. Yet it was Patrick’s presence and preaching springing from a deep well of passion for God nurtured on Irish soil and a genuine love for ‘his enemy’ that won the Irish to Christianity.
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After the extreme high of participating in the Women’s March on Washington D.C. and the following roller-coaster week of U.S. news, I could imagine…
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