A Sacred Journey

practicing pilgrimage at home and abroad

Are You a Traveler or Tourist? 5 Things That Make Travelers Different

The travel season is fast approaching, so before you set out on your next adventure, consider this: Are your a traveler or a tourist?

The ability to travel the world is an amazing privilege that has the potential to be one of the most fulfilling opportunities of your life. When you travel to new cultures, you encounter new worlds, but to truly have the most authentic experience, you have to be intentional about it. That’s why it’s important to know the difference between a traveler and a tourist.

Here are five marks of intentionality that make the traveler different:

read more »

Want to Learn More About Celtic Spirituality? 7 Books to Get You Started

Since returning from Iona, I’ve had Celtic spirituality on the mind.

And what better season to explore Celtic spirituality, really, than in Eastertide? The Christian stream of this ancient way of encountering the Divine highlights the life-giving themes of Easter through its emphasis on experiencing God through creation (the living example of death and renewal) and prepares us for the season of Ordinary Time to come by focusing on the sacredness of everyday life.

If you’d like to learn more about Celtic spirituality, here are 7 books to get you started from my very own bookshelf:

read more »

Easter isn’t over yet! Why you should celebrate all 50 days…

Like Christmas, Easter is not simply a day but a season.

Lasting fifty days, the season of Easter, also known as Eastertide, is a time for celebrating new life. After journeying with discipline and devotion through our own desert-places during Lent and walking alongside Christ through the realms of darkness, uncertainty, and betrayal evoked during Holy Week and the Triduum, the light of Easter morning brings the assurance of resurrection and redemption.

As the earth bursts with new life around us and the day grows longer than the night, we are reminded of the significance of the process of metamorphosis to the spiritual journey. We must surrender what is old so that we might be made new. Without it, there would be no transformation. It is this truth that we savor and celebrate during the fifty days of Easter.

While Easter is the oldest and most significant feast in the Christian church, however, it begins not with the sounds of celebration, but in the quiet corners between longing and liberation. Christ’s resurrection isn’t a triumphant event proclaimed with fanfare so that all might know of his return, but rather a mystical visitation to those who remained faithful and had eyes to see.

Because we, too, know of the redemption that awaits, we are not fully disheartened by the darkness faced during Holy Week because it is death that gives resurrection its meaning. Instead, we inhabit the hours leading up to Easter with patience, awareness, and anticipation, keeping vigil as we wait for the appearance of the risen Christ. In the final leg of our communal journey along the path of the passion of Christ that began during Holy week, we recount the stories that led to the coming of Christ and progress toward the moment in which we can finally declare, “He is Risen!”

This is the proclamation of Easter and the manifesto of the season to come. Just as we were invited during Holy Week to enter into darkness and contemplate how we have in our own ways crucified Christ, we now are invited to live in the resurrection as we celebrate the risen Christ and honor the things that bring us new life, both big and small.

For fifty days we are called to view all of life through the lens of a Sunday feast, dwelling in the abundance of the kingdom of God as we name and celebrate our places of resurrection. These places of life serve as guideposts for the journey, for they are where we continue to encounter Christ—the way, the truth, and the life, and the pathway to the Divine—on our journey of awakening.

The invitation of Eastertide, then, is to look for these guideposts in everyday life and lean into them as we seek to live out and celebrate the kingdom of God and the renewal that it brings.

This is an excerpt from the Sacred Seasons perpetual liturgical wall calendar. Let it guide you through the fifty days of Eastertide and the rest of the liturgical seasons year after year! Available in the Journey Shop »

PS: 25 ways to celebrate Life this Easter Season plus more posts on Easter.

How to Pray the Hours

The time is drawing near; Easter is nearly here.

But first, we must eat with Jesus in the Upper Room, pray with him in the garden, follow him to the court of Pontias Pilate,  watch as he is crucified, and keep vigil as we wait for resurrection. As we enter the throes of Holy Week, what better way to pray than with the hours?

Scripture invites us to do just that, outlining in great detail each event of Jesus’ final days, allowing us to fully enter the scene as we keep watch and wait for the most powerful story to unfold. For our final spiritual practice in the Lent 40 Days to Pray series, I invite you to join me in praying the hours in these last few days of Lent, whether you follow along with the liturgy of the Church (find resources below) or keep vigil with the gospel of your choice.

Easter isn’t the same without the descent that comes before it, and I have a feeling praying the hours during these final days and keeping vigil with Christ and his Church will leave you transformed.

Have you followed along with the 40 Days to Pray series during the season of Lent? I’d love your feedback. Fill out my survey here and let me know what else you’d like to see!

ABOUT PRAYING THE HOURS

The Liturgy of the Hours is a rhythm of public or personal prayer set to specific hours of the day, an opportunity to regularly pause and sanctify the day with spiritual practice. Birthed out of the Jewish tradition, the practice of praying the hours can be found throughout the Psalms, where Psalmists proclaim, “Seven times a day I praise you” (Psalm 119:164), “At midnight I will rise and thank you,” (Psalm 119:162), and “In the morning I will offer you my prayer” (Psalm 5:3).

The early Christians carried on this tradition (Acts 10:3, 9; 16:25), and with the rise of the Roman empire, the hours of prayer began to coincide with the hours of the bell that rang to mark the work day at 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, and 6pm. The Church Fathers continued the practice with morning and evening prayers, and the Desert Mothers and Fathers, who were the founders of the monastic tradition, followed a similar liturgy of the hours to help them to “pray without ceasing.”

In the sixth century, St Benedict (there he is again!) formalized the practice by naming each hour, and it has since formed the basis of prayer for many monastics as well as those in religious life. The day begins with Matins or Vigils (midnight to dawn), followed by Prime (originally at 3am, but since omitted), Lauds or Morning Prayer (dawn), Terce or the third hour of the day (referring to daylight, usually around midmorning), Sext or the six hour (noon), None or the ninth hour (mid afternoon), Vespers or Evensong (twilight), and Compline or Night Prayer (before retiring, around 9pm).

Practitioners follow a breviary—a collection of Psalms, prayers, hymns, Scripture readings, and antiphons (responsive chants), the most widely known being the Book of Common Prayer within the Anglican Communion (containing the Daily Office) and the Divine Office within the Catholic church. Today many independent breviaries are being published that follow specific themes, including special editions for the sister seasons of Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter, as well as volumes drawing from Celtic spirituality or the rhythms of the seasons of the earth. Such guides serve as a way for practitioners to make the practice their own, providing simple ways to gather in intention with a communion of believers far and wide and continually return to the presence of the Divine throughout the day and remember what it is that we seek.

HOW TO PRAY THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS

  1. Set a daily rhythm. You might want to simply start with a morning and evening office each day, or follow the rhythms of the early Christians by praying at 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, and 6pm. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are natural times to pause and pray. Or, you can go all out by following the full liturgy, from Matins or Vigils in the hours between midnight to dawn to Compline or Night Prayer as darkness takes over.
  2. Choose a guide. You could keep it simple by reciting a prayer and reading a Psalm, keep things classic by following the liturgy of the church or another breviary (a collection outlining the service for each day—see my favorites below), or you could get creative and make your own.
  3. Show up. If you’re praying throughout the day, set an alarm on your phone to serve as a call to prayer. It might also be a good idea to notify family members and coworkers of your intention, so they can honor your time. Who knows? Perhaps they might even decide to join you!

GO FURTHER…

Resources About Praying the Hours
Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day by Macrina Wiederkehr
In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson

Resources for Praying the Hours
Divine Hours (online)
Daily Office (online)
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove
The Divine Hours series by Phyllis Tickle
Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community
Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace by John Philip Newell
Book of Common Prayer (Anglican Communion)
Liturgy of the Hours (Roman Catholic church)

Have you followed along with the 40 Days to Pray series during the season of Lent? I’d love your feedback. Fill out my survey here and let me know what else you’d like to see!

 

How to Pray the Examen

As we round the corner into Holy Week, it’s time to look back.

So far in the Lent 40 Days to Pray series we’ve explored Welcoming Prayer, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, Breath Prayer, and praying with Prayer Beads. It’s been quite the journey so far, with each prayer practice progressively guiding us along the path in our Lenten pilgrimage. With Lent soon drawing to a close, this week we’ll be praying the Ignatian practice Examen. Let’s review (seriously—that’s the practice!):

ABOUT THE EXAMEN

The Examen is a practice and prayer of discernment developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola. A sixteenth century priest and spiritual director, St. Ignatius founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus, whose members are known as Jesuits. (The most well-known Jesuit today? Pope Francis.) One of the greatest legacies of St. Ignatius is his Spiritual Exercises, a treatise published in 1548 and a compilation of meditations, prayers, and contemplative practices to help seekers deepen their spiritual journey and relationship with the Divine.

One of the greatest gifts the Spiritual Exercises offer is their emphasis on interior reflection and what St. Ignatius called the “discernment of spirits” or the “motions of the soul.” While St. Ignatius was referring to the impulses of the heart toward good or evil, today we recognize them more as “spirits” because of the spiritual nature of the struggle. This struggle plays out in our everyday thoughts, feelings, imaginings, emotions, desires, and resistances, each tending to influence our level of intimacy with God.

To discern between those that are “evil” and those that are “good,” St. Ignatius invites practitioners to consider areas of consolation, which bring us close to God and our true selves, and desolation, which take us further away. Thoughts and emotions that offer consolation energize and inspire us, providing a sense of rootedness and clarity that deepens our connection with the world around us and allows us to look outside beyond ourselves, revealing where God is at work. On the contrary, thoughts and emotions that are desolate in nature drain us of energy and cloud our internal compass, turning us in on ourselves and disconnecting us with our community and the ways God is at work around us as we spiral deeper into cycles of negativity and despair.

While the discernment of spirits and the naming of areas of consolation and desolation runs throughout the Spiritual Exercises, the Examen offers a structured way to pray through these areas and invite God to breathe insight into your thoughts, emotions, and actions, offering guidance each day. As you begin to name your experiences, bringing them out of the shadows of the past and into the light, the Examen will help to return you to your intention, reminding you what it is you seek and utilizing wisdom from past experiences to light the path ahead.

HOW TO PRACTICE THE EXAMEN

  1. Choose a time. Because the Examen focuses on reviewing the past, it is typically practiced at the end of the day. However, it could also be practiced first thing in the morning as you review the previous day and prepare for the day ahead, or even on a larger scale, such as at the end of a retreat, liturgical season, or calendar year.
  2. Become aware of God’s presence. Set the scene by lighting a candle or reading a prayer or poem and then settle in with silence and stillness as you sink into the presence of the Divine.
  3. Review your day. Beginning at the start of your day, review the events that have passed, with gratitude for the gift of life.
    Pay attention to the thoughts and emotions that arise. As you review the events of the day, pay attention to the memories that come to the surface. When did you feel consolation? When did you feel desolation?
  4. Seek insight. Lean into an area of desolation that feels especially significant, bringing it into the light through conversation with the Divine and asking for wisdom and guidance.
  5. Look ahead. With gratitude for the insight you have received, look prayerfully ahead with clarity and hope for tomorrow.

GO FURTHER…

Reimagining the Examen app
The Discernment of Spirits from ignatianspirituality.com
Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn
A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen by Jim Manney

EXPLORE

ABOUT
JOURNEY SHOP

DISCOVER

CONNECT

GET UPDATES + A FREE GUIDE
FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM