ON THE PILGRIM ROAD
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I don’t usually get this personal in my blog, but I’d like to share something that happened to me in church this morning during my meditation time as I was reading the chapter in Pilgrim Road assigned for today. (By the way, I’m very conscious of the fact that there are dozens of people in far-flung places who are on the Lenten journey with me via the book; for some of us this is our fifth year together.)
Anyway, I was reading at 6:00 this morning in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Today's chapter, as some of you may remember, takes place in a bus traveling across Paraguay as the sun is setting. Of
the forty meditations this is probably my favorite. Suddenly I paused halfway through the story and closed the book. I held the little volume in both hands and said to myself “How did I ever deserve to write this book?” I was just filled with gratitude to God for giving me the privilege of experiencing all these adventures and then touching so many people by sharing my meditations with them.
ON READING ONES OWN BOOK...
Most of the reflection questions in Pilgrim Road were based on my own personal challenges, some of them many years old at the time I wrote them. It's interesting to me that I still find my own questions speaking to my heart today, and can still use the book to good effect each Lent. Is it odd that my reflections keep surprising me and challenging me even though I'm the one who wrote them, or should they be more valuable to me than to my readers precisely because I wrote them from my own experience? All I know is that I've been using my own book each Lent since 2007 and I still find it "still full of sap, still green."
REJOICE!
Whether you are one of my fellow pilgrims using “Pilgrim Road” this year or simply a brother or sister in the Lord traveling with the Church toward the joy of the Easter Feast, let us celebrate the fact that Sunday April 3 is “Laetare Sunday,” when the Pilgrim People of God rejoice that Lent is now half over.
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.....Newark's Cathedral framed in cherry blossoms in 2009
......Newark's Cherry Blossom Festival is April 9-17 2011.
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I, too, am one of the pilgrims travelling with you this lent, but for the first time. Every day I open your book is as if you wrote it for me, for that day. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteLisa, Thanks for letting me and the rest of us know that you're in the group! I pray that the journey will be a special time for you.
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