5-2-15
A Special Pilgrimage and Day Two of Novena to St. Ann------plus my Notes
From a Book titled, "Pilgrim In Time"--- by Rosanne Keller
"It's possible to have a Pilgrimage close to home. We can do something as simple as put a bench in a quiet corner of our backyard, perhaps plant some aromatic herbs on the path that release their fragrance as we walk or make a small altar, and 'journey' there for a quiet, peaceful, sacred moment.
When I lived in MINNESOTA, I went out, as often as I could, to a small knoll of the corner of the five acres behind my house. This was often my early morning pilgrimage. My ritual was always the same.
I rise early on a damp, foggy morning and I feel drawn to the bench I had put on the knoll. I walk along a path I have mown across a small hay field and through woods to get there. My small dancing dog and two cats play hide-and-seek in the wet grass. This is where I like to start my day.
There is no danger there. Nothing is foreign. All is familiar. The risk in this early morning pilgrimage is that I will go there with my mind already full and spinning with lists, unfinished arguments, complaints, vague discontent, preoccupations with myself or some mundane issue that I won't let wait until later, and that I will notice that the bench is damp or that there are too many mosquitoes or flies or that..... I will look but not really see, and not listen at all.
Sometimes I find deer grazing on the hillside---- silhouettes, like pewter statues. They are familiar with me and, unless the dog barks, hardly turn to see who is there. I've also seen rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, geese, and once a great blue heron family eating the corn remnant after harvest.
When I go there I do not think of Spain or Wales or cathedrals or cloisters of medieval monasteries.
I do not think at all. I breathe the peace of this CORNER OF GOD' CREATION. Each blade of grass, each gilded branch, the smell of growing things.
I go there at other times to read or to pass time with a friend, but IN THOSE EARLY HOURS I AM ALONE WITH GOD'S CREATURES AND THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH.
Sometimes I stay until 6:50 when bells from Saint John's Abbey peal the call to Morning Prayer. I lean back, my feet propped on the table I've set before the bench and breathe in the broken silence. And each cell thrills to the AFFIRMATION OF FAITH THAT EACH DAY THE SUN WILL RISE AND DAYLIGHT WILL CREEP INTO THIS SPOT. Of that I can be sure. Summer, and winter, spring and fall, beginning each morning in this holy place sets the pattern, meter, and cadence of the day. And though I have many questions and serious doubts about some of the most basic precepts of the church, I am reminded of my SIMPLE STATEMENT OF FAITH, THAT GOD KNOWS WHAT GOD IS DOING WHETHER I APPROVE OF IT OR UNDERSTAND IT OR AGREE WITH IT ..... OR LIKE IT. THIS GIVES ME GREAT COMFORT.
If the goal of pilgrimage is transformation, do I return to the house from this small SACRED JOURNEY transformed, ready for coffee and conversation? We are changed sometimes by small gestures in some of the smallest ways. I do know that the day I begin in a hurry, frustrated that I cannot find things, angry over any little mishaps, also has a pattern, meter, and cadence to it. WE NEED TO BEGIN THE DAY WITH A SMALL PILGRIMAGE. STOP.... AND BE STILL.... AND LISTEN.... AND REMEMBER TO BREATHE IN AND OUT AND BE RENEWED IN THE FAITH THAT ALL WILL BE WELL, THAT THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL IN ITS CREATION......OF WHICH WE ARE A PART.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Day TWO of Novena to St. Ann ---- for (Anna and Enga on Rainbow Bridge)
From the depths of my heart, good St. Ann, I offer you my homage this day and ask you to shelter me under the mantle of your MOTHERLY CARE. You know, good mother, how much I love you, how gladly I serve you, how happy I am praise you, how eager I am to call on you in tiem of distress.
Good St. Ann, be pleased to extend your helping hand to all my wants. listen to my prayers, for I place my trust in your gracious bounty. Make all my thoughts and desires worthy and righteous.
Jesus, I thank You for all the graces which in Your infinite goodness You have lavished upon St. Ann; for having chosen her, among all women, to be Your grandmother on earth and exalted her in heaven with such great and miraculous powers. In the name of her merits, I humbly recommend to Your infinite mercy.
XXXXXXXXX
Notes:
This past few days has really been a drain on me since losing my dear dog, Enga, very suddenly on 4-27-15 at 1:18 a.m.------it still seems so surreal.
I love the story about the backyard Pilgrimage, because that's what I've doing for more than 40 years----being an avid birder and gardener all those years added to the peacefulness of those very special moments. The past 11 1/2 years Enga did the pilgrimages with me---- she too understood and appreciated God's Creation.
The past few days have been very tough going out there without her at my side---- I still throw the ball for her to chase and count the first 15 species of birds that wake up and check out how all my plants,shrubs, and trees or doing. Very, very painful not having her on my early morning "PILGRIMAGES."
Amen
Peace
Year of Consecrated Life
Year of Faith Plus 3
Happy Eastern Season
grandpazach@yahoo.com
