Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage on Iona.

The Pilgrimage. Iona Looking North East from Dun I

  Iona, late September 2014.  A week in the Abbey with Alastair McIntosh. Alastair McIntosh, leading the Iona Pilgrimage.

Iona is an island on the West coast of Scotland and home to the Iona Community.  For over half the year, in the summer months, guests arrive every Saturday to spend a week together in community in the Abbey or one of the…

Four reasons why The Camino de Santiago Portuguese may be the best winter option.

Well signed, with the sea on your left. Four reasons why The Camino de Santiago Portuguese may be the best winter option.

For the map of the route, with albergues and youth hostels marked, visit this site (in Portuguese).

http://www.caminhoportuguesdacosta.com/pt/o-caminho

  1. Weather. I’d love to know how far this pilgrim went with his wheelie-bag.

Snow and ice can be commonplace on the French…

Making a Mystery of a Real Presence.

Making a Mystery of a Real Presence. The Institution of the Eucharist must have seemed one of the simplest and least complicated of Jesus’ instructions to his Apostles. At the Passover meal there would have been: Zeroah, the leg bone of a lamb, a reminder of the sacrificial lamb on the night of the Passover. Charoseth, sweet rich mixture of fruit and nuts, a reminder of the building of the…

Not quite there.

Jesuit scholastics at Heythrop College, Oxfordshire in the 1960’s

    Custody of the eyes.

Heythrop College, now Heythrop Park, lies about 20 miles north of Oxford. In the 1960’s it was a thriving theological Institute run by the Society of Jesus. It had a certain notoriety for being “advanced” in its thinking and teaching. Some staff members, though, stuck to tradition. To one…

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop.

This is a poem I expect to refer to from time to time. John Ashton who died earlier this year had this poem read at his funeral. I can see why it was one of his favourites.

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

  ‘One Art’ by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the…

A pilgrimage to the heart of the Gospel.

Camino Aragonés to Lourdes

The Camino Aragonés comes over the Pyrenees at Somport. It follows the River Aragon to Sanguessa, going on to join the Camino Francés in Obanos just before Puente de la Reina. My pilgrimage, heading away from Santiago, began in Javier on the spot where Francis Xavierwaved goodbye to the place he was born as he set off on his journey to India and the East from which he…

Camino del Norte – Asturias

Camino del Norte – Asturias

San Vincente de la Barquera last stop before Astirias.

I walked this stretch of the Camino in July which was fine for weather but very, very busy.  I wonder what it was about me in July last year that has left me with few memories of the two weeks I spent in Asturias. It was hard going, that I do remember. Every footstep was a struggle. Life, we often hear, is a…

I have nothing to say.

I have nothing to say. o o o o o o o o o o o o o Less would have been more.

Camino del Norte – Cantabria

Camino del Norte – Cantabria

A Coastal stroll for some.

From Bilbao to Santander.

Many pilgrims begin their Camino in Bilbao because it has a well-served airport and many attractions to visit on the afternoon or evening they arrive.  Starting in Bilbao also avoids the very taxing mountain paths in the Basque country which, hospitaleros have told me, account for a high drop-out rate.  This they…

Spontaneous gifts from the Heart: Camino de Santiago.

Fainthearted about doing the Camino? 

John and Grace, Korean pilgrims: we shared food and songs.

An extraordinary coincidence became a common event in the early stages of my Camino last year.  I had begun walking with an arrhythmia in my heart.  I began to notice that when I spontaneously gave or received something the arrhythmia stopped.  On the first day I had passed Kathie a woman from the USA…

The Engagement.

Preamble

In November 1942 a 20 year old boy from Glasgow was spending his third year in the north of India, separated from the girl he had fallen in love with while at University. The Second World War was to keep them apart for 4 years.  He kept a detailed diary of his this life full of war’s uncertainties; a diary in which he reveals just who he is.  His writing and his dearest…

REALLY NEW EVANGELISM. THE 3 R’S. (3).

REALLY NEW EVANGELISM. THE 3 R’S. The third “R”. Relax Relax. “Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”  Mark 4:27 I occasionally feel that some who wish to evangelise don’t trust in God enough to leave Him to get on with His own work.  Evangelists can appear to see their job as sowers of the seed, as in the parable of the sower.   Of…

REALLY NEW EVANGELISM. THE 3 R’S (2)

REALLY NEW EVANGELISM. THE 3 R’S. The second “R”. We see, through a glass, darkly. (1 Corinthians 13: 12-13) Recognise. In the context of New Evangelisation I often hear the phrase..”In this de-Christianised world of ours…”  or something similar.  When people say this what are they seeing?  How do they see the world?  Very darkly indeed, I presume. Maybe they are seeing the sharp decline in…

Really New Evangelism. The 3 R’s

Really New Evangelism. The 3 R’s.  The First “R”. We are all inside of our skin. Receive. When we come across good news we long to tell it and to share it. The more it excites us the more urgent is our desire for others to listen, to hear our news. We want to impart, to give. The reality is that we each live within our own skins.  People think I am always on the move, changing places.  Not at…

Camino del Norte: The Basque Country.

Camino del Norte: The Basque Country.

A typical Basque home in the forest with a Lada Niva.

Bilbao.

When I first visited Bilbao in the early 70’s I thought it should have been twinned with Glasgow.  Both invisible through the smog, the only difference was that instead of smoky black fog Bilbao hid under a blanket of exotic red pollution: and both, down river,  have beautiful seaside resorts.  In…