On the pilgrim trail
Anchors of Stability
A couple of days ago I post about The Stability of Practice and shared some of the practices that have provided stability for my life. There is another I did not mention – the gathering of rocks. I have shared previously about my rock collection where I commented: Collecting rocks has become an important part of my prayer life, because each time I hold them in my hand I am reminded of some aspect of my faith journey and I find myself praying in gratitude, in repentance or just in sheer joy at the faithfulness of God.
In my upcoming book Return to Our Senses: Reimagining How We Pray, (available for preordering next week) I talk about this in more depth and encourage people to incorporate the gathering of rocks into their prayer life. Display them where you pray. Pick up the objects regularly. Remind yourself of the stories they represent and the lessons they have taught you. Use them to focus your prayers and to build your faith.
The aspect I have not shared about though is the use of rocks as memorial cairns and this morning I thought I would share the section of my book in which I talk about this. You may not want to collect rocks as I do, but all of us need tangible objects that act as memorials to the loving relationships in our lives. We need objects that stir our memories and stop us forgetting the faithfulness and enduring love of God. These days most of us collect photos or video footage of those we love. When houses are destroyed by earthquakes and floods it is the loss of these items that is often most devastating to people. These memorials remind us of the love that surrounds us. They provide anchors and add stability to our lives.
Unfortunately photos are not an option where God is concerned, but there are other concrete items, like my rock collection, that encourage us to remember the acts of God in our past and the intimate moments of love we have shared. This is one important way that we connect to the acts of God in the present and learn to trust and hope for the promises of God in the future.
God understands better than we do how easily we forget and how destabilizing it can be for our lives. Numbers and Deuteronomy are full of admonitions to the Israelites to remember their God who brought them out of Egypt and faithfully led them through the Red Sea and the wilderness. Their memorial symbol was the tassels on their clothing, something they wore every day, always in their vision, reminding them of their great and loving God: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!” (Numbers 15:37-41)
Collecting or making objects that help root our prayers in the faithfulness of God can provide important signposts that lead us onward towards the heart of God. Cairns of rocks have been used as signposts along paths of pilgrimage for thousands of years. They make us aware of the many who have gone before us. We are not alone. The God who has provided throughout human history is still a God of grace and mercy and love.
I was never more aware of this than when watching the film The Way recently. This powerful and inspirational story stars Martin Sheen who plays Tom, an irascible American doctor coming to France to deal with the tragic loss of his son. He decides to embark on the historical Camino de Santiago pilgrimage where his son died. On “the Way” Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, each with their own issues and looking for greater meaning in their lives: an overweight Dutchman supposedly trying to slim down for his brother’s wedding, a Canadian woman trying to give up smoking and an Irish writer who is suffering from a bout of writer’s block.
There is a tradition on the camino to bring a stone from home and rub all your fears, hurts and sorrows into the stone which you can place at the base of the Cruz de Ferro. Others pick up a stone along the way or write a wish on paper. They deposit them at the cairn of Cruz de Ferro where a huge mound of rocks with their prayers, and hopes and suffering have accumulated over the centuries. This is a holy spot whose sacredness spoke to me even from a distance.
I have been intrigued by the Camino de Santiago ever since I read Phileena Heuertz’s moving story of her own pilgrimage along The Way, in Pilgrimage of a Soul. Pilgrimage, memorials and anchors are so important in our lives.
Unfortunately in our highly mobile society where many families move every couple of years, memories, like everything else become disposable unless we make a deliberate effort to convert those memories into sacred memorials that can remain with us throughout our lives.
So my question this morning is – what are the memorials that mark your life? How do you preserve and build them so that they do remain as anchors of stability?
Desert-Mothers-and-Fathers-by Christine Valters Paintner
This morning I have been reading Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings, Annotated by Christine Valters Paintner. It is a delightful book that quotes from the writings of these wise desert dwellers who chose to renounce the world in order to deliberately and individually follow God’s call. Their writings were first recorded in the fourth century and contain much spiritual advice that is still applicable today.
One characteristic of the desert fathers and mothers was their desire for a “word”. They were not asking for a command or a solution but for a communication that could be received as a stimulus to growth into a fuller life. The word would be pondered on for days or even for years. I love this story that Christine shares from Benedicta Ward Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. xxii.
A monk once came to Basil of Caesarea and said, Speak a word, Father” and Basil replied, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” and the monk went away at once. Twenty hears later he cam back and said, Father, I have struggled to keep your word now speak another word to me” and he said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” and the monk returned in obedience to his cell to keep that also.
It is so easy for us to read the word of God and not really absorb it into our being. Or else we want to dissect it and work out what the author or the translator really wanted to say. To dwell in the word the way that the desert dwellers did we need to release our thinking minds and enter into a space where we can hold the word in our hearts, turning it over and over, pondering it but not trying to pull it apart.
This morning as I prayed the word that came to me is God is love”. It is a phrase that I have pondered many times in the past. It has brought me healing as I imagined the love of God seeping into my broken soul. It has brought me encouragement as I pondered the love of God flowing out through me to touch the hearts and lives of the refugees and marginalized people I have worked with. And it has drawn me into greater intimacy with God as I have imagined the wonder of God’s love abiding in the depth of my heart.
The knowledge I have in my head of a loving God will never transform me unless I allow it to seep deep into my being so that it becomes the air I breath, the food I eat and the ater I drink. God can only respond in a loving way. If we allow that thought to guide us always it will transform the world. It will have us always on tiptoe looking for the loving things that God is doing. It will have us rising up in righteous anger against the unloving and hateful things that are done in the name of God. And it will have us always seeking to be loving towards God’s entire human family.
What is the word that God has lodged in your heart and wants you to ponder on? I pray that you will take time today to enter into that word in a way that allows it to speak to you.
The joy of journalling
Yesterday Tom and I had breakfast at Chanterelles restaurant in Edmonds then drove down to the waterfront and looked out over the Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains while we journalled and shared about our week. This has been an important part of the rhythm of our life for many years but over this summer with the busyness of attending Wild Goose, Creative World Festival, the Celtic retreat and other commitments, we have had to let it slide. As we sat and journalled yesterday a deep peace settled into my soul. I need this I thought. I am incomplete without it.
We hear a lot today about the importance of stability of place. I wish we talked as much about the stability of practice. Regular daily, weekly and yearly practices that restore our bodies, our souls and our spirits are essential for all of us and I don’t think we realize how much the loss of these impacts us. I love to sit each morning in my office looking out towards the mountains while I pray. This morning I notice that the big maple tree I can see is touched with tones of red. Autumn is definitely here. It is also the harvest season, the time to pick and process apples (Tom and I picked 100 lb from our trees on Saturday), to make marinara sauce from the tomatoes, store the winter squash and generally get ready for a season when there is no fresh, local food available.
What are the equivalent practices in my spiritual life I wonder? This summer has been a busy season of ministry, a good season of growth and productivity. How am I now getting ready for the winter blasts? What spiritual food am I storing up for the coming season of dark? Getting back into our weekly rhythm of journalling and check in time is obviously part of that. Going away on one of our quarterly spiritual retreats is another. Walking around Greenlake with Tom and our dog Bonnie talking, praying and drinking in the beauty of creation is another. These are some of the practices that help me store up the spiritual nutrients I need to see me through the dark season of my life.
This is obviously not the first time that I have blogged about this. The information in this post How Do We Find Stability in a Changing World? is some that I have found particularly valuable over the years. So much of my life has been spent in unstable living situations. Most of these suggestions came from my twelve years on the Mercy Ship Anastasis when my only stable reference point was a moving object in the middle of the sea.
This is a good season to evaluate your spiritual lives as I suggest in this post: Have You Taken A Spiritual Audit Lately? and you might want to evaluate the rhythms that are important to you. What are your equivalents of daily prayer, weekly journalling and quarterly retreats? How do they provide stability for your spirit?
Flower seller – Pike Place market
I am just back from the Pike Street Market, one of my favourite places in Seattle. The flower sellers are everywhere, lifting my spirits with the vibrant beauty of their bouquets which inspired the first of these prayers. If you would like to receive these prayers each day on facebook you can sign up here
Glory be O God almighty, glory be.
Glory be O Christ redeemer, glory be.
Glory be O Spirit advocate, glory be.
Glory to the One who loves us,
Glory to the One who cares,
Glory to the One who hears us,
Glory be.
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Lord Jesus Christ, let the wonder of your love shine forth,
Let the beauty of your image emerge,
Let us magnify your greatness,
And bless the One,
who has given us new birth into a living hope.
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May faith go before us,
May hope reside within us,
May love always surround us.
All else will pass,
These three will remain,
And the greatest of these is love.
(From meditating on 1 Corinthians 13)
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God may I gaze on you and find myself,
May my eye be focused and my body full of light.
May I move forward with the joy of your presence before me,
And the wonder of your love ever within me.
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Let us welcome the good news of the kingdom,
and stand firm in its wonderful truths.
Let us follow its path and not stumble,
And see in it the unfailing love of our Lord.
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Lord Jesus Christ you are the way,
May we turn our our face toward you,
And grow in the beauty of your light.
No apologies for the fact that this is derived from the prayer I wrote yesterday (see below):
Christ is the centre and circumference,
Christ is the way and the destination,
Christ is the beginning and the end.
Before, behind, within, without,
Christ is God’s gift of life and love.
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May the centre of all things be Christ,
May the way of all things be Christ,
May the truth of all things be Christ,
Behind, before, within, without,
May the life of all things be Christ.
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Lorikeets in Sydney
I love this prayer which I came across in David Adam’s Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer. This book has long been a favourite of mine. I love to use it when I travel, finding that the short daily offices help to ground my spiritual practices during what can otherwise be a very disorienting journey.
How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of your hands!
The heavens declare your glory,
the arch of the sky displays your handiwork.
In your love you have given us the power
to behold the beauty of your world in all its splendour.
The sun and the stars, the valleys and the hills,
the rivers and the lakes, all disclose your presence.
The roaring breakers of the sea tell of your awesome might;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air proclaim your wondrous will.
In your goodness you have made us able to hear the music of the world
the voices of loved ones reveal to us that you are in our midst.
A divine song sings through all creation.
For those of us who live in urban areas the music of God’s world is so often drowned out by the clatter and commotion of the world around us. This prayer reminds me of how much all of us need time amongst God’s good creation to reconnect once more to the divine song that reverberates through God’s world.
Scarlet runner beans ready for the winter
It is harvest season here in the Pacific Northwest. The tomatoes are finally ripening, the beans have dried on the vine and the apples and pears are ready to be picked. As I walk out and see the miracle of what has come from tiny seeds my heart swells with gratitude at the wonder of how God provides. each year at this time I write reflections and prayers on the harvest season.
Last year I wrote this reflection: The Harvest is Plentiful But the Labourers are Few;
The year before I posted this: Praying for an Abundant Harvest
And the year before wrote this litany: God of the Bountiful – A Harvest Prayer
And my first post on this theme in 2008: The Generosity of God – Fish and Loaves for all
I had not intended to write another reflection for the harvest season this year – there is so much else that I want to write about. But there is something about this season that calls forth my gratitude and thanksgiving in ways that I realize I cannot deny. This morning it bubbled up within me into this prayer:
God we thank you for a harvest of plenty,
Small seeds that multiply to feed many,
Trees that blossom and produce abundant fruit,
Tomatoes that ripen on the vine with sweet flavour.
God we thank you for abundance overflowing,
Enough for our own needs and an abundance to share,
Enough to feed the hungry and provide for the destitute,
Enough to reach out with generosity and care.
God we thank you for seeds you have planted in our hearts,
Seeds of righteousness yielding goodness and mercy,
Seeds of love yielding justice and peace,
Seeds of compassion yielding healing and renewal.
God we thank you for the bread of heaven,
Christ our saviour planted in our lives,
Christ our redeemer growing in our hearts,
Christ your Son making us one with you.
God we thank you for the gift of life,
Like water poured out on thirsty ground,
Spring and autumn rains that revive and bring life,
A river that flows from your heart and out into the world you love.
Amen
Let Us Come As Children
Advent this year begins late on December 2nd. It is still over 2 months away but I already have people asking me what the theme will be for blog posts so thought that I would get an early start in focusing all of us on this important season of waiting and preparation. This year’s theme will be: Let Us Wait As Children Wait. If you want to contribute you can sign up to receive ongoing information in the Godspace Writing Community on Facebook or email me at christine@msaimagine.org for more details.
In Luke 18: 16, 17 (NLT) Jesus tells his disciples: “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (from Biblegateway.com)
I have been thinking a lot about this recently. What does it mean to come as children come? What are the attributes of children that make it possible for them to enter the Kingdom of God when those of us that are adults cannot? Last year, in a post entitled God Created the World By Imagination I wrote:
Childhood is filled with creativity and imagination, a place of mystery and wonder in which kids discover themselves, the world and the God who created it. For a child every moment is filled with looking, listening and learning.
I love to watch children explore the world. Everything is new. Everything is exciting. Everything is worth noticing. Everything is worth questioning and every smallest pain ache and pain that others experience draws forth compassion and a desire to help. But something happens to squelch all that. Just as our excitement in waiting for the coming of our Saviour is drained by the world around us, so is the excitement and creativity of children. In my previous post I went on to say:
Schools and universities squelch creativity and imagination forcing kids to live in a world of science and technology where we convince then that flowers are made of molecules and rainbows are caused by the refraction of light. Childhood’s vivid purple clouds and yellow skies give way to the real world where clouds are always white and skies are always blue. In this world of head knowledge compassion gives way to competition and life, we teach them, revolves around buying goods we don’t need and holding jobs we don’t enjoy.
So how do we regain the excitement, imagination and expectation of childhood? How do we regain the ability to wait for the coming of our Saviour with an anticipation that has us standing on tiptoes, asking continually Is it time yet? and maybe even more importantly, how do we maintain that same excitement and expectation in children? One of my most popular posts during Advent is this one on Celebrating Advent With Kids. People are looking for resources – and I think not just to celebrate with their kids but because many of us want to find again that childlike enthusiasm and excitement we once experienced in our faith.
There has been a lot of controversy flying around lately on how we educate our children – Tony Jones’ article Death to Homeschooling. As he suspected and documented, homeschoolers turned out in force. My concern is that in the heat of the argument we miss the point. Children need to be allowed to be children no matter how they are schooled. And Jesus tells us to become like them.
So once again I am offering an invitation to join me during Advent and the weeks preceding it. If you would like to contribute a post for this series leave a comment here or sign up to receive ongoing information in the Godspace Writing Community on Facebook or email me at christine@msaimagine.org for more details. If you know of others who might be interested please send them the link. I hope that this series will provide us with a rich array of viewpoints from around the world so that together we grow in our faith and rediscover some of the wonder and awe of waiting for Christ as children wait.
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