Pilgrim Road A Benedictine Journey Through Lent by Albert Holtz, O.S.B. was so meaningful for me as I read it during Lent 2016. In the Introduction the author tells the purpose for this book. "We Christians are called to journey with Christ into the innermost truth about ourselves, meeting on the way all of our brokenness and imperfections, but finding at our end the Holy and Living God. The inward pilgrimage of conversion is the most important voyage any of us ever takes. The traditional Lenten disciplines of self-denial, almsgiving, and prayer are, therefore, not ends in themselves, but are always at the service of this inward journey. This book weaves the threads of four journeys into a single spiritual travelogue: Lent's journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter serves as the spiritual framework, sabbatical trip provides a geographical locale for each meditation, the medieval pilgrimage provides the unifying theme and the journey into my inner self with Christ gives the whole enterprise its ultimate meaning." In the Epilogue the author reminds us "When we Lenten Pilgrims arrive at Easter Sunday, then, we are naturally tempted to think that we, like catechumens or medieval pilgrims, have reached the end of our journey. But this is not the case . We all remain constant catechumens, perpetual pilgrims always on the road." Within this book, the author has added his architectural drawings of the structures he was seeing during his travels. He ends the book with the ancient blessing and prayer for pilgrims setting off for Compostela:
O God, who led your servant Abraham from the city of Ur, guarding him through all his pilgrimage, and you who were the guide of the Hebrew people through the desert, we ask you to protect those your servants who, for the love of your name, journey to Compostela. Be for them a companion on the march, a guide at the crossroads; give them strength when they are weak, defense in the midst of danger, shelter along the route, shade from the sun, light in the darkness, solace in moments of discouragement and firmness in their purpose .... May the blessing of God the All-Powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you. Amen.
In The Mystery of Christ, The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience by Thomas Keating, the reader is immersed in the wonder of faith in the mystery of Christ and of the unique nature of God's action and presence in and through the liturgy and our lives. Here is one example from the Preface of how well this author can assist in opening up the understanding: "In the liturgy, eternal time penetrates each moment of chronological time. Eternal values breaking into chronological time are made available to us in the present moment. It is in this sense that Christ is present throughout all of time -- past, present and to come. He is present to us insofar as we are present to the present moment. The present moment transcends all time and simultaneously manifests eternity in chronological time. The kairos is the moment in which eternity and our temporal lives intersect. In the perspective of the kairos, time is time to grow and to be transformed, time also for the Christian community to spread through out the world and to become the pleroma, the fullness of time when Christ will be all in all." Will be reading this one again and very soon.
This book, Slowing Time by Barbara Mahany opened up with a poem by Mary Oliver which clarified the "Seeing the Sacred Outside Your Kitchen Door" part of the title, so I knew it was going to be a book worth reading. And I wasn't disappointed. You take a seasonal tour through the year, and the author celebrates the sacred that is gathered, culled and collected through the art of paying attention, of savoring the moment, of cultivating stillness from familiar landscapes: making room for God and illuminating the godly specks in the everyday. She shares the Christian Liturgical Calendar, recipes, and the cycle of the moon along with the nature of each season. This author referred to the following book, To Dance With God, which I wasted no time in obtaining a copy.
To Dance With God is written by Gertrud Mueller Nelson. The author uses the rituals of the Christian Liturgical Calendar for celebration with family and community. The last part of the book shares specific ways for these celebrations, but the most inspiring and unforgettable parts for me were the chapters on "To Dance With God," The Hints of Transcendence," "The Art of Living, " "The Element of Celebration," and "Vision of the Whole." Here is a section from "To Dance With God" that will present a taste of what is offered.
"The Church is vital to the life and richness of our humanness and our wholeness .... We have lost touch with the poetic aspect of the Church which has always been there for us, which has always been centered in the cycles of our human development and which has nourished us through rite and symbol, through rhythmic repetition. The Church celebrates our cycles and seasons, inviting us to see and engage and feel and touch and be aware and grow and be transformed. Through symbol the experiences which make up our daily lives are affirmed and made sacred. This creative and poetic Church helps us to pay full attention to what we might otherwise deem ordinary and commonplace. Rites and symbols use he ordinary and earthy elements of our existence and, by encircling them, ratify, sanctify, complete. The ordinary becomes the container for the divine and safely holds what was uncontainable. The transcendent is disclosed in what is wonderfully familiar: bread, wine, fire, ash, earth, water, oil, tears seeds, songs, feastings and fastings, pains and joys, bodies and thoughts, regressions and transformation. It draws its action more from what is most human in us than from theology. In its creative function, the Church speaks directly to the heart, a heart which hears symbols not rational vocabulary."
