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Pilgrimage Practices (#6): Coming Home

Photo Â© Jamie Noyd, 2023. Used with permission.

Many people assume that arriving at the destination of a pilgrimage such as the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral at the end of the Camino in Spain is the highlight for most pilgrims. After all, that was the reason for going – to reach the storied place that draws someone to step out.  However, I’ve heard most people say that when they look back, these sacred sites are not necessarily the most significant parts of their journey. Instead, the community, the prayer practices, the walking, and even the interruptions along the way played a larger role in their spiritual journey. 

Perhaps this is appropriate since the arrival at a single location is not really the end of the pilgrimage.  Returning home may be just as significant. Home is where you continue to live out any transformation God worked on the journey. 

Recently as I led a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, following in the steps of the saints Francis and Clare, I again experienced this reality. These two individuals left their secure family houses in this small town to begin new communities centered on Jesus. Living out of their moment-by-moment interactions with the incarnate Christ they not only found a renewed sense of home, they drew others into this way of life and deep belonging.

Yes, seeing and sitting in the massive basilicas that were built to commemorate Francis and Clare after their deaths was awe-inspiring. But I also noticed how God was working in me along the way – over dinners, in times of silence, and through failures. These were the types of moments in which Francis and Clare also formed their lives of following Jesus. Ultimately it wasn’t one aha moment that prompted change, but quiet and continuing steps on the road.

Reflecting on this journey I realize that in the walking, the places, and the prayers, I was becoming more attuned to God’s invitations.  As I returned home I sensed a quiet presence and nudge from God.  Be with me.  Walk with me.  Welcome others along.  Where you are.  Be at home in me.  In every space you are.

How is God inviting you to live in his presence on your pilgrimage journey on campus?  In her book, Born To Wander, Michelle Van Loon, encourages readers to “reclaim a pilgrim identity,” that is, an identity of wandering this earth lightly becoming more and more aware of God’s presence, and living out of this reality in all parts of our lives. It’s a journey we see throughout scripture and one that we can embrace today. 

Maybe there isn’t a sacred center that is easy to define on campus, but you’ve been walking toward stories that God has called you to.  Toward a degree in your field of study.  Toward tenure.  Toward teaching a certain course.  Toward a research project.  Along the path, God has shown up and been transforming you. Looking back, what are some of the practices, the people, and places that have given you life, that have helped you be attuned to God’s presence? These things you can bring home to your walk every day as a pilgrim on campus.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Van Loon, Michelle.  Born to Wander: Recovering the Value of Our Pilgrim Identity, 2018.

In anticipation of the next Via Divina online pilgrimage, The Harmony Way, pilgrimage director Jamie Noyd is sharing six spiritual practices of pilgrims over the next weeks before The Harmony Way begins on October 14. This is the sixth in the series. Visit the landing page for The Harmony Way for more information and to register.

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THE SERIES:

Pilgrimage Practices (#1): Becoming Aware of our Stories

Pilgrimage Practices (#2): Walking

Pilgrimage Practices (#3): Place

Pilgrimage Practices (#4): Praying

Pilgrimage Practices (#5): Community

Pilgrimage Practices (#5): Community

Photo © Jamie Noyd, 2023. Used with permission.

The community you interact with on pilgrimage – both those people traveling with you and those you meet– is a vital part of the experience. Because of a shared focus on arriving at the sacred site and perhaps engaging in ritual practices along the way, people who would never encounter one another outside of this journey find themselves relating deeply. Moreover, as we listen to and interact with these different people and their stories, God slowly reshapes our own story. 

I’ve heard from so many people who have walked the Camino de Santiago and, to a person, they mention that conversations they have with strangers who become friends are a transformative part of the pilgrimage for them.  Conversations about the place and weather quickly move into more vulnerable topics such as spirituality, fears, and dreams. But in addition to conversations, this community steps in to help one another on their common journey – perhaps with sharing a much-needed snack, retrieving a walking pole that has been left behind, or just being present on a difficult day.

All over media as well as in private conversations, I hear about the loss of and longing for such community in our everyday lives.  Author and creator of Black Liturgies, Cole Arthur Riley, describes this longing as a fundamental part of being created in God’s image.

“People talk about God as three distinct people in one.  If this is true, it means the whole cosmos is predicated on a diverse and holy community.  And if we bear the image of God, that means we bear the image of a multitude.  And that to bear the image of God in its fullness, we need each other.” (73)

Following Jesus together.  The mission of InterVarsity’s faculty ministry acknowledges that a key part of the Christian walk is community.  It is possible to walk through our lives, careers, and even faith relatively alone. Yet, this is not how God created us and that is not how we best flourish. 

I wonder what it would look like to step on our campuses and into our neighborhoods more often with a pilgrimage mindset and build community from there.  Seeing the people in our departments, our teams, and even those we pass in the halls on a similar journey and laying down some of the barriers we put up that separate us. Then see what God does as we share a bit of life together.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Who are one or two people on campus that you would like to reach out to?  Find time in the next month to do so – perhaps by stopping by their desk, sending an encouraging email, or inviting them to coffee.

Check out online and in-person community gatherings with InterVarsity Faculty Ministry at https://gfm.intervarsity.org/our-ministries/faculty.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Arthur Riley, Cole.  This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us, 2023.

In anticipation of the next Via Divina online pilgrimage, The Harmony Way, pilgrimage director Jamie Noyd is sharing six spiritual practices of pilgrims over the next weeks before The Harmony Way begins on October 14. This is the fifth in the series. Visit the landing page for The Harmony Way for more information and to register.

Previous posts in the series:

Pilgrimage Practices (#1): Becoming Aware of our Stories

Pilgrimage Practices (#2): Walking

Pilgrimage Practices (#3): Place

Pilgrimage Practices (#4): Praying

Pilgrimage Practices (#4): Praying

Photo Â© Jamie Noyd, 2023. Used with permission.

Let your prayers rise like smoke to the Great Spirit, for he will see and answer you.  Every step is a prayer, and as you dance upon the earth for the things you seek, the way will open before you.  In the same way, as you search for the true ancient pathways, you will find them.  Answers will come to the ones who ask, good things will be found by the ones who search for them, and the way will open before the ones who keep dancing their prayers.

I love the imagery in the First Nations Version (https://firstnationsversion.com/book/first-nations-version/) of Matthew 7:7,8, that every step can be a prayer. Every step can be an awareness of our connection to God – praising, confessing, lamenting, asking, thanking, being. Yet, even on a pilgrimage to a specific site, such as I was recently on to the Isle of Iona in Scotland, this focus can be difficult. 

Between the story that pilgrims leave and the story to which we are going, we are in an in-between, a liminal, space. Such a place can be uncomfortable, raise questions, and even foster fears. In this place of uncertainty, we can be tempted to heed calls that take us away from the focus of our journey in order to alleviate the discomfort for a while.  For me this included paying more attention to finding the next restaurant, activity, or souvenir instead of facing some of the hard realities God was bringing to light while I was on Iona.

Yet, as pilgrims come to learn, being attentive to God during the journey is a key part of the process.  Practices such as saying morning, afternoon, or evening prayers; praying short phrases of scripture while walking; bringing images of Gospel stories to mind; and even taking time to feel God’s pleasure in play can help us attune to God’s presence and God’s invitations along the way.

These practices don’t merely keep us heading in the right direction, God has created us so that these practices can help transform our minds.  As the psychiatrist Curt Thompson writes,

All of the spiritual disciplines both require and support the skill of mindful attention, which enables us to set our minds on the Spirit. When we pay attention to what we are paying attention to and when God’s voice (telling us we are his sons and daughters whom he loves and in whom he takes great pleasure) is the most resonant tone to which we are listening, our minds – specifically the prefrontal cortex-tend to be more integrated.” (178). 

While on pilgrimage to Iona God was gracious to continue turning me back to him, especially through the creative practices that our pilgrim guide invited us into, as well as some breath prayers and journaling.  Slowly it became more natural to be aware of God than to distract myself.

However, such practices aren’t only for times of pilgrimage away from our homes. Each day we find ourselves in liminal spaces and in need of ways to help us be aware of God’s presence.  While walking across campus to the class, waiting for the response to a grant proposal, or researching the next project, we encounter opportunities to turn our minds to God.  This could look like repeating a prayer of thanksgiving before turning on the computer or praying words of praise while taking deep, slow breaths before entering the classroom.  It could be writing a psalm in response to a conference or singing a hymn as you drive to work.

Who knows, with the work of the Spirit in such practices we may come to a time when we do see every step as a prayer and God’s presence with us along the way.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

What spiritual disciplines (prayer, journaling, scripture, community) help you be more attentive to God’s presence with you on campus and in your work? 

Is there a new practice you would like to try during this season?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Thompson, Curt. Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices, 2010

Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg.  Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us, 2015

In anticipation of the next Via Divina online pilgrimage, The Harmony Way, pilgrimage director Jamie Noyd is sharing six spiritual practices of pilgrims over the next weeks before The Harmony Way begins on October 14. This is the fourth in the series. Visit the landing page for The Harmony Way for more information and to register.

Previous posts in the series:

Pilgrimage Practices (#1): Becoming Aware of our Stories

Pilgrimage Practices (#2): Walking

Pilgrimage Practices (#3): Place

Pilgrimage Practices (#3): Place

Photo Â© Jamie Noyd, 2023. Used with permission.

In anticipation of the next Via Divina online pilgrimage, The Harmony Way, pilgrimage director Jamie Noyd will be sharing six spiritual practices of pilgrims over the next weeks before The Harmony Way begins on October 14. This is the third in the series. Visit the landing page for The Harmony Way for more information and to register.

Sacred places and their stories draw us to pilgrimage.  Traveling to that place, you become more aware of the other places through which you are walking.  Centuries of stories inhabit these sacred places.  On journeys when we summit Croagh Patrick and look out over Clew Bay in Ireland, or walk up Mt. Subasio to reach the caves above Assisi in Italy, each pilgrim experiences something different.  Most relate how being in that place – both the physical creation and the stories – invited them into a fresh experience with God. Not that God was in that place any more than when we are sitting in our offices. Yet, in those places people seem to become more attuned to God’s presence.  

However, most of our lives are not lived in such places. What might our daily places have to do with our faith journeys?  Beldan Lane writes that “The imaginative work of tying spiritual experience to the constructions of place we inhabit is one of our primary ways of securing meaning in our lives.”  This reminds me of Jacob when he was forced to leave home because of his and his mother’s deceptions.  On the way he lay down to sleep and “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’  He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’”  (Genesis 28: 16, 17). 

I wonder if we have looked at the places around us deeply enough to recognize God’s presence. 

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Aurora Lee, seventh book

In the midst of the rush of the academic calendar, it may be difficult to experience the stories of place. Yet, ask yourself:  Where have you experienced God’s presence on campus?  Perhaps there’s a green space that speaks to your soul as you walk to the library.  Maybe there’s a bench outside your building where you had a meaningful conversation with a colleague. As you look at the places where you regularly walk, start to recognize more places that hold stories resonating with God’s story. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Where have you have felt God’s presence? 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Beldan Lane, Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality, 2002

Previous posts in this series:

Pilgrimage Practices (#1): Becoming Aware of our Stories

Pilgrimage Practices (#2): Walking

Pilgrimage Practices (#2): Walking

Photo © Jamie Noyd, 2023. Used with permission.

In anticipation of the next Via Divina online pilgrimage, The Harmony Way, pilgrimage director Jamie Noyd will be sharing six spiritual practices of pilgrims over the next weeks before The Harmony Way begins on October 14. This is the second in the series. Visit the landing page for The Harmony Way for more information and to register.

Walking is a key element of pilgrimage.  This may be walking a route such as the Camino de Santiago for hundreds of miles.  It may involve walking around a sacred site such as the mountain retreat of Laverna, where Francis of Assisi received the stigmata or marks of Jesus. Or it may involve walking across campus – from your office to a classroom. Whatever the length of the walk, something happens in this common, everyday movement.

Physical acts such as walking are not an accessory to our lives, but a key part of being human. The entire biblical narrative affirms the goodness of our embodied reality. In the beginning, God called his creation good, including human beings made in the image of God. Jesus’ incarnation – the one who is the perfect image of God – dramatically affirms our human existence as God came to be with us, to suffer with us, and to interact with us in a tangible way to show us what God is like. Throughout the scriptures, writers use walking as a metaphor to represent God’s relationship with us. And Jesus walked.  We see him walking with disciples and talking along the way, walking in communion with his Father, walking in ministry.

Walking seems to be the “speed of our souls,” as Mark Buchanan writes.  At this slowed-down speed, we become more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences of our body (i.e. mind, heart, and strength). I’m sure we have all experienced how ideas come to us in the middle of a walk when we are no longer focused on the problem. The movement itself frees the working of our brains to think anew. This movement can literally take us out of the feelings of fear in which our amygdala may have us trapped and can help us to consider new ways. Walking heals. 

So, on the way to the story in our pilgrim practices, walk.  Whether for two weeks or two minutes – a walk takes us out of our former places as we move to a different location – from the old story to the new. Walk beyond getting from one place to the next.  Observe.  Enjoy.  Delight.  Invite.  Get to know the speed of your soul.  Be curious about the thoughts, feelings, and experiences you encounter.  Walk with a companion and share stories. In this space between, this liminal space, we are open for God to enter and shape us.  Step by Step.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Go for a walk. How does walking affect your thoughts and emotions?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Mark Buchanan, God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul, 2020

Pilgrimage Practices (#1): Becoming Aware of our Stories