{"id":22197,"date":"2023-03-07T07:40:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T12:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22197"},"modified":"2023-03-07T10:26:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T15:26:46","slug":"22197","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22197","title":{"rendered":"Extroverted Mysticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ten Thousand Reasons  Matt Redman   -Lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qoxZFtWNHd8?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\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For ecumenical leader and author Wes Granberg-Michaelson, pilgrimage invites passionate spirituality:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pilgrims move in two directions at the same time\u2014an outward direction toward a holy destination and an inward journey seeking an encounter with the sacred. Two of the best academic scholars of pilgrimages, Victor and Edith Turner, explain it in this one sentence: \u201cPilgrimage may be thought of as extroverted mysticism, just as mysticism is introverted pilgrimage.\u201d [1] Pilgrimages, they suggest, were, and are, no walk in the park, or plain, or mountain. Embarking on such a journey, we become untethered not just from our physical normalcy. These uncertain, trusting steps also move us out of our spiritual familiarity. The pilgrim is <strong>invited not only to walk out of boxes of dogmatic beliefs, but also to walk away from practices of comfortable spirituality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider historically the life of peasants or serfs in medieval Europe who were tied to specific places\u2014a manor, and a particular piece of land. Religious life was likewise confined to a local parish, with its repeated, routine practices. As pilgrimage opportunities began to be possible for a wide range of people, their journeys liberated them toward places unknown, with spiritual intensity. Pilgrimage sites were places where miracles had occurred. The bones of saints were living; the apparition of Mary created a rarified space. Healings occurred, continuing the miraculous nature of these sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As journeys to Jerusalem became insurmountable or impossible, numerous pilgrimage sites sprang forth throughout Europe. Yet those embarking on pilgrimages faced clear and present dangers. They were <strong>walking into liminal space, with a familiar past of place and spirit left behind and a future promise of spiritual power, wedded to tangible, material things, in the distance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their own context, this was a<strong> reckless spirituality, a form of extroverted mysticism<\/strong>\u2026. For most, this was a once-in-a-lifetime embodied quest of spiritual abandonment. In the words of the Turners, <strong>\u201cpilgrimage was the great liminal experience of the religious life.\u201d<\/strong> [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For today\u2019s pilgrim it can be the same. A pilgrimage is a rejection of modernity\u2019s expectations and assumptions about time, place, perception, satisfaction, speed, predictability, and the material world. As in ancient times, motives for contemporary pilgrimages are mixed. Lines between pilgrimage and tourism become blurred for some while breaks in employment prompt others to a pilgrimage more than a thirst for embodied forms of holiness. Yet pathways that move simultaneously in inward and outward directions prove irresistible to throngs roaming pilgrimage paths today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>The embodied movement of pilgrimage is an opportunity to step outside our habitual rhythms with God:<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Spirit yearns to break out and to break open our old practices, our protective shells of comfortable spirituality, connecting our inner selves more deeply to God\u2019s love and to God\u2019s world. <\/strong>Your soul no longer stays still. It\u2019s moving with God in the world, and moving toward God, revealed in signs or shrines or saints or surroundings. <strong>The pilgrim\u2019s walking body holds incarnate this inner journey of the soul.<\/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-2-500x355.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22199\" width=\"703\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-2-500x355.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-2-300x213.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-2-768x546.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-2-1536x1092.png 1536w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-2.png 1764w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For ecumenical leader and author Wes Granberg-Michaelson, pilgrimage invites passionate spirituality: Pilgrims move in two directions at the same time\u2014an outward direction toward a holy destination and an inward journey seeking an encounter with the sacred. Two of the best academic scholars of pilgrimages, Victor and Edith Turner, explain it in this one sentence: \u201cPilgrimage [&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\/22197"}],"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=22197"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22205,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22197\/revisions\/22205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}