A Trip Becomes a Pilgrimage

I am convinced that pilgrimage is still a bona fide spirit-renewing ritual.  But I also believe in pilgrimage as a powerful metaphor for any journey with the purpose of finding something that matters deeply to the traveler.  With a deepening focus, keen preparation, attention to the path below our feet, and respect for the destination at hand, it is possible to transform, even the most ordinary journey into a sacred journey, a pilgrimage.                             –Phil Cousineau, “The Art of Pilgrimage”

It was the second day of our trip to Paris, our first full day in France.  The skies were thick with dark clouds hanging low and threatening rain.  It was not an ideal day for visiting the cathedral in Chartres, so famous for the amazing colors, vibrant blues and deep purples, of its stained glass windows.  But this is Friday and the only day when there is a “possibility” of walking the labyrinth inlaid in the floor of the central nave.  There is no guarantee.  Normally chairs cover the entire nave, arranged in cathedral seating with a center aisle and two sections of wooden chairs for people to rest, to sit and pray, and to worship.  But Friday is the one day when, unless something else is scheduled to take place in the nave, they will push back the chairs and expose the labyrinth.

Thus it was that I found myself sitting in the amazing Cathedral Notre Dame of Chartres watching about 20 people walking the labyrinth.  (That’s right; there are actually many Notre Dame Cathedrals in France, which translates “Our Lady,” for they are usually dedicated to Mary.)  As I began writing my thoughts in my journal to prepare myself for walking the labyrinth, it slowly dawned upon my how important this experience was to me.  We did not go to France so that I could walk the labyrinth in Chartres.  This was not a pilgrimage.  Yet at that moment, sitting in that Cathedral, gathering my thoughts and beginning to listen deeply to my own spirit, it became clear walking this labyrinth was something I very much needed to do.  At that moment, as Cousineau suggests, my trip to France became a pilgrimage.

When did I become enamored of labyrinths?  I cannot recall.  Dianne and I visited San Francisco in 1995 which is home to Grace Cathedral, an Episcopal church where Lauren Artress serves as Rector.  Lauren is one of the founders of Veriditas, the organization promoting the resurgent use of labyrinths as spiritual prayer tools.  Dianne actually visited Grace Cathedral while I was in General Synod meetings and walked the labyrinth they have, but I did not.  I do recall an outdoor labyrinth at the retreat center in Lake Worth, Florida which I visited often in the late ‘90’s to see a Spiritual Director.  But that labyrinth does not feel like my first labyrinth.  I can remember walking the outdoor labyrinth at Ghost Ranch Retreat Center in New Mexico sometime before 2005.  And of course I helped build a labyrinth on the Christ Church campus in August of 2005.

Most of these labyrinths were all patterned after the Chartres labyrinth, an 11-circuit.  While it is not the only pattern for a labyrinth, it has become one of the most well-known.  At one time there were 17 labyrinths laid in the floors of cathedrals across medieval France.  The labyrinth in the Chartres cathedral, placed in the floor sometime between 1194 and 1220, is the only one which remains.  No one is quite sure why labyrinths became popular in medieval Europe.  Some feel it was to provide a “virtual” pilgrimage to Jerusalem for those who could not make the actual journey themselves.  There is some suggestion that pilgrims would walk the labyrinth on their knees to heighten the experience.

Some think of a labyrinth as a maze, but it is not a maze.  A maze is a puzzle, with dead ends and little reason or rhyme to the path.  A labyrinth is a path representing a journey.  There is one way in to the center and one way out and you cannot get lost (at least not intentionally) on the path.  It is a simple spiritual prayer tool; it offers a way to physically pray, not so much or just with words, but with one’s whole being – body, mind, heart and soul.  Every time I have ever walked a labyrinth it has been a powerful spiritual experience.

And so it was this time!  The opportunity to walk THIS labyrinth, in the Chartres Cathedral, at THIS moment in my life, was truly a Divine gift.  I arrived in Chartres after a very difficult summer in my ministry and my life.  I arrived carrying many burdens and many questions.  As I sat in that sacred space, I was able to focus my thoughts, gather up my emotions, my burdens, the experiences of my life in the past few months, and offer them up to God as I walked into the labyrinth.  Surrounded by the symbols of faith, the altar, the Communion Table, the beautiful stained glass windows telling the stories of the Bible and the Church; moving with other pilgrims, experiencing their devotion, adjusting my pace and rhythm to their pace on the path, pausing for them to pass; realizing I was walking the very same path hundreds of thousands if not millions of other pilgrims had walked since the 13^th century, nevertheless I was totally immersed in the moment, opening my heart, mind, and soul to the presence of God to allow God to lift my burdens and to speak to me God’s Word and God’s Wisdom.

I have no concept of the time I took in the labyrinth.  I did not rush through it, but I did not dawdle.  I moved at a steady pace, but I paused when it seemed appropriate and I drank in the amazing surrounding environment of the Cathedral.  I spent significant time in the center rosette, specifically sharing my questions and seeking God’s guidance and wisdom.  When I moved back outward on the path away from the center toward the entrance I did so with the intention of moving back to my life and back to the world.  I did not hear a “voice” or direct message from God, but I clearly had a sense in my heart and soul that God had lifted my burdens and God was giving my guidance.  I experienced the power of the labyrinth once again.  And the labyrinth ministered to my heart and soul as I needed at that moment.  I came away from that experience with a deep peace about myself, about my life and ministry, and about the future.

A New Start for Sabbath Tango

(It has been over two years since I last posted to this blog.  I don't know why I let my sharing in this space lapse.  I have enjoyed travels during that time.  I have written in my journal - but not as frequently as I would like.  Anyway, I have been journaling more lately and I have had some travels recently that I want to share with the wider world.  So I am reviving this blog beginnign with this reflection I wrote on August 31, 2012 while Dianne and I were visiting family in Vermillion, Ohio over Labor Day Weekend.)

Sitting on the south shore of Lake Erie in the shade of two maple trees the horizon appears to stretch to eternity before me.  I know Canada is across the lake, but only because I have been told so, not by any proof to my eyes.  This Great Lake is not the ocean and yet, to my visual senses it appears the same as when I stand on the shore of Biscayne Bay and stare off toward Africa beyond the Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Moments such as these remind me how vast and huge is our world.  Yet, place our globe in the perspective of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and we are a minor planet circling a minor star, on the very fringe of the galaxy composed of hundreds of millions of stars and planets.  Then place our Milky Way galaxy in the perspective of the universe where it is one of thousands of galaxies and the scale of size moves way beyond what my mind can grasp.

On such a scale how do we ever begin to imagine that any of our actions or lives every truly matter beyond our own limited sphere of influence?  Yet we have a tendency as human beings to inflate our actions and lives to the point we believe they and we are the ONLY thing that matters.  We nurse and harbor grudges to the point that we believe a hurt to us strikes at the heart of reality and the universe.  We have trouble accepting apologies, offering forgiveness, and realizing and accepting that most of the time behavior from others that may hurt us has more to do with them, what is going on with them, what hurts and pain and wounds they are carrying around and trying to deal with far more than it has anything to do with us.

But inflating ourselves and our lives to the center and focus of the universe does not really shift or change the scale of reality at all.  We are still momentary, minor moments of carbon elements and gases congealing to experience a brief flash of time and space on the continuum of eternity and infinity.

The Good News from Jesus though is that God loves us.  God created us for these momentary experiences and God loves us through each breath and God will continue to love us when our little speck of time on this globe has passed.  We are infinitely and eternally important to God and beloved by God whatever we do or do not do. 

So why don’t we embrace our brief time to enjoy it fully?  Why don’t we let go of the anxiety and worry that clouds our actions?  Why don’t we let go of hurts and grudges and embrace our fellow travelers in love?  It is a grand, glorious, beautiful world in which God has placed us.  It would be a shame to waste our brief opportunity to enjoy it!