Tag: walking

pilgrimage

Walking with Werburgh 3

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

“Creator of all, have mercy on us

Jesus bearer of our sins, have mercy on us

Spirit of grace and truth, grant us peace”

The prayer above emerged in the course of a 12 mile walk this morning along the Macclesfield Canal as I prepare for my June pilgrimage along The Two Saints Way. 6 miles one way, 6 miles plus breakfast on the way back ( I left early, to catch the bird song!)

And what I realised I had done was to craft a trinitarian prayer. The Holy Spirit can seem the poor relation of the trinity – She is mentioned far more rarely in our Christian prayers and liturgies than the other two persons of the trinity, traditionally God the Father and God the Son. And I make no apologies for prefering to gently balance the overwhelmingly masculine language of protestant Christianity by naming the first person as Creator, whatever the theological arguments against it (and there are many! There always are!)

One of the books I have been reading this Lent is a beautiful new translation of a spiritual classic, the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (a 16th century friar). This translation is called Practice of the Presence and is by Carmen Acevedo Butcher

Butcher speaks of the ‘kind divine community of the Trinity’ that weaves throughout the friar’s teaching as a bedrock of Christianity, a ‘healthy threeness’ often somehow missing from theology and church language.

So I am choosing to prepare for my pilgrimage in conscious company with that kind, divine community, as well as with St Werburgh and St Chad and my Franciscan friends, St Clare and St Francis.

And as I prayed I began to wonder who, exactly I was praying for? And indeed who I was going on pilgrimage for in the first place?

And at the start of today’s 12 miles I found I was praying for people I know and love – my own family and friends and the people of St Oswald’s, Bollington whom I have been privileged to serve and to grow to love these past 3 years. And then my prayer widened ….and I realised I was praying, too, for the wider world, and asking Jesus to bear the structural sins of inequality and poverty, war and racism, sexism and homophobia.

And then my prayer widened still more. Last night I was attending a Lent Course with my sisters and brothers of the Third Order https://tssf.org.uk/ which you can find here https://www.spiritoffrancis.com/europe/,. And we were asked what the land, in this case of Europe, asks us to remember truthfully. And perhaps because of that I found myself, this morning, praying for the land I was walking upon and asking the Creator to have mercy upon Mother Earth and Christ to bear the sins that we inflict upon Her and the Spirit to bring peace between humanity and the rest of creation, as well as peace between people and nations and peace to the heart of every human.

And I pondered, too, on the purpose of my pilgrimage. At a simple level it’s a kind of retreat, time out to mark the end of my ‘training curacy’ and the beginning of…..whatever the future holds. But I began to see, as I walked and as my prayer widened, that I would be walking and praying and letting my walking BE prayer for many people; for my churches, St Oswald’s, Bollington https://stoswaldbollington.org.uk/ and St Peter’s, Windmill Street https://stpetersmacc.org/; for the schools and carehomes I have worked with, for the diocese of Chester in which I serve https://www.chesterdiocese.org/ ; for our nation and the nations of the world and, yes, for Mother Earth itself on whom I will be walking .

St Francis understood the relatedness of all people – and all things. He called all humanity Sister and Brother but he extended that relatedness and mutual dependence to all of creation.

I hope to quietly, prayerfully, do the same.

And did I mention that the porridge at Waterside Cafe https://www.facebook.com/cafewaterside is REALLY good?

pilgrimage

Walking with Werburgh 2: When to press the pause button….

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

So this morning I set out at 8.30am planning another 12 mile walk, in preparation for my June pilgrimage. And I had excellent intentions. Three miles along the Macclesfield canal, before a pause for breakfast at the excellent Waterside Cafe https://cafe-waterside.res-menu.net/ . Then I was planning 3 more miles towards Marple before pausing for lunch, turning around and walking the 6 miles home

And breakfast WAS excellent – porridge with peanut butter and toasted hazlenuts. I thoroughly recommend it. But as I sat there I realised that my head was aching and I was feeling pretty exhaused after a busy week. And it was hot!

And I COULD have pushed on, of course I could. But instead I turned back, had lunch at home, had a rest and then walked a few more miles later in the day.

St Paul, more than once, uses the metaphor of a race for the spiritual life (e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:24). I don’t find it a particularly helpful one, if I’m honest. The metaphor of a race suggests winners and losers and I find that hard to reconcile with the generosity of God that Jesus preached, with his images of the kin-dom of heaven as a feast to which all are invited.

If I were going to pick a personal metaphor for the spiritual life I think I’d pick something gentler and more playful than a race – a circle dance perhaps? Something collaborative, not competitive. Something kind.

Because I don’t think the spiritual life is a competition. I don’t think life itself is a competition for that matter. I don’t think we have to prove ourselves to others. We are all human, all imperfect and for the most part all doing our best. And we all need other people – not to compete with but to help and be helped by them, to walk alongside, to enjoy life with.

And for those of us with aging bodies, a bit of kindness, a little gentleness towards ourselves seems to me a wiser, more fruitful path than always pushing, always striving onwards.

So today I pressed the pause button, came home, rested and then did a little, not a lot, more walking later. I failed to achieve my goal. And failure, too, is a surprisingly important part of the spiritual life.

St Werburgh was famed for kindness towards creation. Well, I am part of creation too. So today I chose kindness towards the little bit of creation that is me. Sometimes I forget, if I’m honest. Sometimes I push myself too hard and try to be ‘best’. But today I remembered to walk with Werburgh and to be kind.

And I really do recommend the porridge.