learning the song of the pilgrim people

I am often asked about my schedule and what I get up to, it seems of interest to some people; I guess Im a little bit of a curious creature at times. ;o) 

Tuesday has become Desert Day, which is another way of saying a day full of bathing in scripture, prayer and inner soul work. Starts off with community prayer, then mass with our wider community after which I walk home through the gardens and back nature strips returning to continue scripture, prayer with structure the Sisters have given me. 

Today I have been with the psalmist, learning the song of psalm 84, the song of a pilgrim people, of those on the journey to Jerusalem to encounter God in his temple. 

This Psalm is for every spiritual journeyman whose heart is set on the day when they will meet Jesus face to face. It is very powerful psalm, shaping and relieving emotions, lifting your eyes from the valleys of this world to the place of God’s glory and great blessings that are recounted here willing delight us and satisfy us until the end of this great adventure and the beginning of the next. 

One deep beauty that touched me is that if we are faithful to our inner pilgrimage to the ‘promise land’ of Gods heart, then we can also become a pilgrim site for others on the way! 

WOW, what a thought… 

Life is a pilgrimage, ever moving, calling us to be pilgrims, quickly learning that in making a pilgrimage, there is a large inner pilgrimage occurring. As dramatic as the outer journey maybe at times, there is an inner journey which can be equally transforming. 

Every pilgrimage is a journey where personal limits are confronted, struggle with natures’s terrain, one’s own mind and the silence. The outer adventure of finding our way in a strange land can be a mirror of the inner journey into our psyche. Every pilgrimage is a journey from our civilised identity to a landscape that is something other, something personal, the mystery of walking around the soul.

Our spiritual awakening may include an outer expedition to leave the mundane and live sequestered from material life by becoming a spiritual monk - thinking of my man Merton in this moment…. yet the real life of a pilgrim is more difficult inner voyage which turns out to be an adventure of self-discovery on many levels, both physically and spiritually. (Possibly to mentally and emotional.) 

The externals of our life may or may not facilitate this growth. Its one of those moments when theory is easier to comprehend than putting into practice. 

Regardless though of what type or label we put on the pilgrimage we make, the inner journey is full of discovery of self and 'no self'. Who are we when identity ends and just awareness rises? The unplugging plugs us into new territory, an inner terrain where nothing is everything, awareness is beauty, an amazing adventure with no boundaries or limits. In a great humility of simple being we want to absorb this essence of goodness, love, joy that is our awareness. 

Psalm rises awareness that this pilgrimage goes through many valleys in this life and our feet at times grow weary from the journeys troubles, yet it is a great blessing to be on the journey, to have the highways of Zion in our hearts. 

It is through the tumult of our ever changing thoughts and emotions that we can feel aimless wandering through a trackless waste, we are to know this truth - our destination is secured.  

Though maybe our bodies grow weaker and life becomes short, the joy of abounding in spiritual strength as we cast all of our effort before the Lord in utter dependence on him.
The Psalmist gives us more though, as people of God we walk hand in hand through the desert places of the world, the dry valleys abound with springs. The presence of the Lord amongst his pilgrim people inescapably transforms our surroundings, wiping tears, destroying injustice and healing brokenness. 

Its through this though that we become the site for other pilgrims to stop and rest. 

We come across many teachers and learners, often at times jumping between the role ourselves. We teach and learn with what we say and do not say. People imbibe much from the baggage we carry: visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious. The baggage of yesteryears can be burdensome. Besides, we being teachers and learners, life itself is a greatest guru if only we see, smell, hear, touch, taste and realise that everything and everyone is pilgrimaging towards final fulfilment. 

Philosopher Heraclitus’ said - 

“You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on” 

Unbeknownst to us, our inner physiological systems ceaselessly transport air, water, blood, nutrients through hundreds of miles of arteries, veins, nerves and muscles.
Our external contexts may change us. But, each of us also has immense potential to change those places we have moved into and make a difference in the positions we newly occupy. 

In this reflection i notedly have not touched deeply on the profound impact we have in becoming the sites for pilgrims on the journey. This I leave to you to ponder in the delight of the truth. Its a beauty that shines and fills your heart with delight as the Lord created us all to be pilgrims.