IN APRIL, 2016, 23 PILGRIMS SPENT A WEEK TOGETHER ON THE ISLE OF IONA; HERE ARE A FEW SNAPSHOTS OF OUR OUTER JOURNEY. THE INNER PILGRIMAGE, WHILE IT MAY TAKE LONGER TO UNFOLD AND UNDERSTAND, WAS EQUALLY VIVID AND BEAUTIFUL.
Arrival...
Our pilgrimage began with a two-day trans-continental journey, finally crossing the glens and lochs to Oban, a seaside town with some of the best seafood we could hope for!
Iona is a "thin place" - only a tissue paper separating the material from the spiritual.
- George McLeod, founder of the Iona Community
Settling in...
The rhythm of our days
Each day was different (on Iona, each quarter-hour is different weather-wise!) and yet the daily rhythm was similar as we formed a house of prayer, reflection, and discovery together. The balance of individual freedom and community pattern - all bathed in the intensity and vastness of this very alive landscape - made the week rich.
Walking the island on pilgrimage
Iona has been a major pilgrimage destination in Europe since the Middle Ages. In modern times pilgrims are again coming to the island in significant numbers. Yet when we arrived, our pilgrimage had just begun. We continued the journey spiritually as we created a community of prayer and reflection, and we continued it physically by walking the island, individually and together. Instinctively, we visited those physical points of connection between the present and the past, like so many pilgrims before us.
South of the Abbey: Columba's Bay
The south end of the 3-mile-long island is the untamed end - rocky and boggy, with a beach that is remembered to be the spot where Columba landed in 563 to begin his work. We made station-stops along the way, circling for readings, prayers, and song at sites of memory and meaning: at the Nunnery / the Crossroads / the Common grazing ground / the loch / and finally Columba's Bay.
What wonders are there to behold.
- Bobby McFerrin
(we sung this song all over the island, everywhere we stopped to read and pray)
North of the Abbey: the Hermit's Cell, Dun I, the Spring of Eternal Youth, and the Reilig Odhrain (burial ground)
Next day, we set out from Bishop's House to gather around the standing cross at the Abbey, then crossed overland to the Hermit's Cell on the other side of the island and then to the top of the highest-point hill, "Dun I". Sounded easy. It was not. We got lost, and sunk into bogs, and the road was steep and cold and windy and slippery. Many of us would not have walked it if we had known what we were getting into (- and the accomplishment of arrival at the top was exhilarating, and the memories of that day are becoming epic). In that sense, it was a lot like life's pilgrimage.
At least once in your life / Take a crazy diversion / Visit the top of a mountain / Be storm swept by wind and rain... / Stand under a tree and look up / In a rock pool and look down / Spend time in your own company / Listen to the sound of waves through a window / Discover love / Discover silence.
- Fiona Caley
Exploring the abbey...
The Abbey building is a world all its own, with a rich history and a strong presence on the island. It's on the site of Columba's 6th-century monastery, which was a major center of learning, arts, and mission in the British Isles and Europe for hundreds of years until it's refounding as a Benedictine community in the 12th century. Ruined and now rebuilt, it is home to a thriving ecumenical Iona Community with a worldwide mission of reconciliation and justice.
Outside
The play of light...
The counterpoint to Iona's ancient exposed rock (2.5 billion years - some of the oldest on the planet!) is the light, one of its most arresting features. Water all around reflects the light up; clouds refract and interpret the light back down in an ever-evolving expression of beauty. At this outer edge, creation feels full, not empty.
Small things
As vast and immersive as the ancient and living landscape was, so much of the beauty of the island was found in the smallest of things, which took time and attention to notice.
spring time flowers coming up everywhere
Wild geese, the Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit, wheeling overhead all week.
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
- Mary Oliver
Ferns growing in the Abbey windows.
Grass on the path that has endured hundreds of feet and keeps coming back
The whole worlds that exist on rocks at the shoreline
the moss, brown from a distance but vivid and diverse up close.
The generosity of the islanders on hand at every turn
The isle of Iona framed through the cave on Staffa.
Accumulated pilgrim offerings in a window of the burial chapel in the ancient burial ground of the Reilig Odhrain,
Found objects on our walks were added to a shared altar under the Paschal candle.
The bonds of friendship
Everyone started as a stranger to someone on this trip. About two thirds of the group were parishioners at Trinity; others were friends, spouses, or those who joined from sister churches. But through the week we began to matter to one another more and more deeply. One member said on the last day:
Making this journey with other pilgrims really is what made this a pilgrimage for me.
Through struggle...
Nothing brings a group together like a common goal. Setting out on our walking pilgrimage to the Hermit's Cell that led through a bogs and over treacherous climbing became a wonderful connecting event, maybe more than some of the sunny days.
Through conversation...
"Conversation" and "Conversion" share the same linguistic root. Our afternoon gatherings were rich opportunities to go deeper, using Listening for the Heartbeat of God a wonderful book on Celtic spirituality with which we launched our discussions - highly recommended!
No one narrator or slideshow can tell the story of these pilgrims because it was told in a hundred different conversations, solo walks, communions, clean-up assignments, journal entries, etc. Each person made a heroic journey, and discovered God and themselves more deeply on this island, often described as a thin place, where the visible and invisible worlds seem united.
On the last day one of the pilgrims said "I'm realizing that I am the thin place". YES! We have traveled far from home to learn the truth that is closest to us. Now we begin the further, equally heroic work of living out of this awareness in the world to which we return.
Saying our Farewells
One of the most important insights of pilgrimage is that the return journey matters as much as the outbound one. One pilgrim said, "I feel we are returning home but we are not going 'back' - we are traveling forward. So we say our farewells and start that further journey. The pilgrimage continues.
another old Gaelic saying:
Am fear a thèid a dh'Ì, thèid e trì uairean ann.
"The one who is destined to come to Iona will come not once but three times."
So, till next time!
The pilgrimage continues...
Credits:
Daniel Simons, 2016