{"id":22188,"date":"2023-03-05T14:39:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T19:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22188"},"modified":"2023-03-06T08:46:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:46:12","slug":"22188","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22188","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ELW 326 Bless Now, O God the Journey with vocals\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FRNnYs9TiN8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Always a Perfect Moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This week we explore the contemplative tradition of pilgrimage. In 1983, Father Richard Rohr went on a teaching pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Lourdes, Assisi, Rome, and several locations in the Holy Land. Richard\u2019s first talk took place in the great Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Lourdes, France. This basilica stands above the Grotto of Massabielle, the place where Mary is said to have appeared in 1858 to a teenaged girl named Bernadette Soubirous (who was named a saint in 1933). Here is how Richard introduced the topic:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the centuries,<strong> pilgrimage of some type is found in many religions<\/strong>. Pilgrimage took the form of the Jewish exodus, Islam\u2019s Hajj to Mecca, vision quests, walkabouts, and classic heroic journeys about leaving home. In the fourth century, many Christians began to travel to Jerusalem. Each century took on a new form; the interesting thing is the spirituality that went behind it. It was<strong> an exercise in letting go, a search for wonder, a constant discovery of the new. It kept older religions from becoming staid and expecting God only in the familiar and customary. Pilgrimage accustomed people to change and growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, major Christian pilgrimages would go to Jerusalem (later travelers would visit saints\u2019 shrine or relics) and oftentimes they\u2019d go for a whole year or more. They traveled at great expense and with great difficulty, and their goal would be to reach the River Jordan. Then, at the River Jordan, they would dive in the water and swim across. This was of course a way of re-experiencing the baptism that Jesus experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help us to understand pilgrimage in its ideal sense, it has to do with the <strong>sanctification of both time and place<\/strong>. Let me give you a mantra that the New Jerusalem community [<em>Father Richard\u2019s spiritual community before he founded the Center for Action and Contemplation<\/em>] have come to know. The mantra is<em>&nbsp;<\/em><strong>\u201cThis moment or this place is as perfect as it can be.\u201d Our temptation is to always look to the next moment to be more perfect, the next place, and then the next moment or place.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You see, we are<strong> always disappointed in what we actually have. We are always rushing into the future. The reason we\u2019re rushing into the future is because we\u2019re not experiencing a wholeness in the present. And when we haven\u2019t grasped the present, we always live under an illusion. It is an illusion that the next moment or place is going to be better. <\/strong>When I get around this corner, when I see this church, when I get to Jerusalem, when I get to the hotel\u2014whatever it might be. But pilgrimage helps us see that attitude is essentially wrong. As long as we think happiness is around the corner, it means that we have not grasped happiness yet. Because<strong> happiness is given in this moment and this place, and this moment and place are as perfect as they can be.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pilgrims, Not Tourists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>We continue sharing excerpts from Father Richard\u2019s 1983 talks on pilgrimage. In this presentation in Lourdes, France, Richard offers some historical background on the practical actions that pilgrims had to take before they underwent a spiritual pilgrimage.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the high Middle Ages, there were all kind of books written for pilgrims. These were spiritual books guiding pilgrims as to how to prepare themselves. <strong>Preparation was required before they went on pilgrimage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First of all, you had to make amends with everyone you had ever wronged. Also, if you went on pilgrimage holding any kind of unforgiveness, it could not be a good pilgrimage. <strong>You couldn\u2019t leave your town until you\u2019d forgiven everyone who\u2019d ever wronged you.<\/strong> Certainly, this is an attitude that we can pray for at the beginning of any pilgrimage: <strong>that God would keep our hearts open and loving, because a pilgrimage can\u2019t just be a tourist trip. The meaning of a pilgrimage is an interior journey. Primarily, it\u2019s an interior journey enacted exteriorly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard shares his hope that his fellow pilgrims embark upon such an interior journey:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we return home in three weeks or less, <strong>if no interior journey has happened, we really haven\u2019t made a pilgrimage. <\/strong>Understand? We\u2019ve just been tourists. We\u2019ve traveled around and said, \u201cI saw this, and I saw that, and I bought this,\u201d and so forth. But that\u2019s what a tourist does, not a pilgrim. And God has called us on pilgrimage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondly, and a practical, interesting thing, is that if they were going to go on pilgrimage, pilgrims had first to<strong> ask permission of their wife, husband, and family.<\/strong> The idea was that they had to leave everything in right relationship at home. If they had any material debts, they also had to pay those before they left. They couldn\u2019t go on pilgrimage until their spiritual and physical debts were paid, and they had permission from all the right people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, they had to <strong>go to confession before leaving<\/strong>. Sometime in the course of a pilgrimage, celebrating some kind of reconciliation was deemed very appropriate. Again, there\u2019s that cleansing, that letting go. Perhaps those of us who\u2019ve already been down to the Grotto [1] have seen the basin of water on the far end with the words that Mary spoke to Bernadette. It states, \u201c<strong>Go wash your face and cleanse your soul.\u201d What a symbol of reconciliation! It\u2019s a prayer. Above all else, pilgrimage is praying with your body, and it\u2019s praying with your feet. It\u2019s an exterior prayer, and the exterior prayer keeps calling you into the interior prayer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1-500x357.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22190\" width=\"834\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1-500x357.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1-300x214.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1-768x549.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1-1536x1098.png 1536w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1.png 1794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Always a Perfect Moment This week we explore the contemplative tradition of pilgrimage. In 1983, Father Richard Rohr went on a teaching pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Lourdes, Assisi, Rome, and several locations in the Holy Land. Richard\u2019s first talk took place in the great Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Lourdes, France. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22196,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions\/22196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}