Your Way

Lunasa was one of the major Celtic holidays in August in the old countries, sometimes heralding up to fifteen days of fairs, markets, wrestling contests and matchmaking.   

The traditional ancient festival celebrates the beginning of the harvest festival, with the crops still swaying and ripening in the fields. Like most Celtic festivals, it anticipates an event.

Swaying and Ripening?

It is also a time of village patterns and pilgrimages.  A pilgrimage is when someone travels a distance to pay their respects to a religious location & or icon.  Often this time of the year, the Irish will visit a place called Cough Patrick in Mayo, Knock in Mayo, or Lough Dreg, Ireland. 

Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century.  Muslims make a pilgrimage once in their lifetime to the city of Mecca because they consider this their holy city. 

Many Catholics have gone to many places around the world where there have been alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary. 

Churches offer pilgrims the option of attending a one-day retreat, weekly, or more.  You can attend at your own pace, or attend very well organized tours or retreats all over the world.  The traditional arduous ways pilgrims have done it with days of fasting, walking barefoot and going without sleep used to be popular and some to this day, still make this strenuous sacrifice.

"This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever"  Sigmund Freud (about the Irish)

My father will travel to one such a site yearly.  It is called Medugorje, in Croatia.  He met an American priest there a couple of years ago.  The mission priest asked my dad if he knew why Our Lady appeared and spoke  to children in Fatima, Portugal.  He then queried if me father knew why Our Lady did the same at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico, and Medugorje, Croatia, the former Yugoslavia.  As for the emerald isle; Our Lady has been known to have appeared only in Knock, Ireland.  She did not speak to the villagers there.

My father admitted he had known that she did appear, but did not speak to the Irish people.  The Mission Father from the US had the answer…”It is most likely because Irish folks wouldn’t shut up for two seconds to let her talk”.  As my father was trying to tell me the story, I realized I was interrupting him telling me this story!  It is no wonder she didn’t speak to us and why pilgrimages - the silencing of my head; is so difficult!!!  How about you?

The Route of a Pilgrim, the Sound of Silence.  How scary is this?

Some pilgrimages can be an extremely long journey that is meant to strengthen and expand someone’s religious faith and beliefs. 

There are silent meditation retreats, done with most faiths, including Buddhist centers.  It sounds peaceful and relaxing; but without a map for a journey inwards to your mind and heart, this is scary -- for many of us may have rather large opinions and big gobs to boot.  

There are civic pilgrimages without regard for religion, but rather of importance to a particular place or society, like visiting the Queens of Hollywood, or a trip to Washington to see the Declaration of Independence.

What’s Your Way?

I was intrigued by the movie The Way.  It is about a father who heads overseas to recover the body of his son who died while travelling to “El Camino de Santiago” Spain, and once there, decides to take the pilgrimage himself.

Our family hopes to complete this same excursion on foot to Santiago de Compostela in Spain on the Way of St. James (El Camino de Santiago in Spanish) someday once the little legs become a bit stouter of heart.

The movie served as a great reminder to me of the world inside of our head and how noisy is gets.  What sort of people travel on pilgrimages? Maybe ME?!?   

They are not always the deeply religious, the overtly Holy Mary’s among us.  They are often people desiring to unleash the storm of thoughts, ideas, worries, inner pain, slow healing; or to share wisdom, happiness, sadness, faith, quietness, and sometimes a lack of faith.

How can patience be rewarded if no adversity tests it?

Rick, my husband often takes a trip to Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), located in St. Francis, Minnesota.   You can experience a wonderful hermitage dwelling in this Franciscan run Center.

This year he left on a trip to the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo.  At this retreat, there is no talking from Thursday to Sunday. He seems to thrive in this environment of silence.  It would be no cakewalk for me, I’ll tell ye for nothin’.   

If you are anything like me, an environment where there are only a few opportunities to listen, none to talk yourself, no computers, plenty of books / paper and pens -- and with just enough space to watch your mind at work… is scary. 

Are you like this?  In similar experiences, my mind would race - almost impossible to follow one thought through to some sort of ultimate conclusion of reality - difficult to let go without getting caught up in the true struggle.  For me, I would find it exhausting because the thoughts were not being diluted with conversation and more manageable stimulation.  I’m almost driven to the brink resigning myself to patience rather than comfort.

At the Jesuit retreat this summer; I noticed how the enforced silence and the avoidance of eye contact turned the dining room details into uncomfortable amplified sounds coming from only a few but seemingly more pronounced – people forking their food into their mouths with tongues elongated, noisy eaters, slurpers, hackers and gluttons. It is an assault on your senses.  Those thoughts are bothersome and annoying.  And, you are annoyed at being bothered and we can all be annoyed at the behavior of others.

Mix in some good conversation and your mind focuses less on these subtleties.  

Indeed, you could go to the Himalayas in the middle of a deep winter as more, in mid-life deliberations consider; or go on one of the main 1,000 km Camino pilgrimages routes in Spain to imagine oneself a medieval monk on a mission from God; performing, with diligence one’s devout spiritual exercises to deepen your thoughts, faith or sense of accomplishment. 

A truly interior man or woman?

It is said that man is upset and distracted, often displeased and disturbed; when all our investments are engrossed in external affairs.

I haven’t fully mastered the humble mind that triages / sorts the noise of words, clutter of opinions, and all the pride that needs to be detached. Sometimes, like people watching at the State Fair, we believe we’re participating until we see we are only an observer. 

 By asking a few subtle questions and studying; I do find some sweetness in being quiet when I can.

If you do make one of those Pilgrimages (even a quiet hike through Itasca State Park), witnessing the freedom of knowing who you are, bearing no masks, cleaning out the debris in the brain… THAT is a place you can ‘hang your hat’ proudly. 

Imagine being able to wake up where you can almost touch the sky and anxiety / fear melts into awe / surprise.  And, having the HOPE that you can’t wait to do it again