UPDATE: If you’re reading this after the 3-week Aidan’s Way pilgrimage is over on Lectio 365, it will continue to be available from the 24-7 Prayer website so we can return to it any time.
This month, June 2023, “Lectio 365’s” founder, Pete Greig, is taking listeners along on “St. Aidans Way,” a three-week, 300-mile pilgrimage, following in the footsteps of the 7th-century Celtic saint Aidan. He began on June 11, but you can jump in any time. I am loving it.
Followers can pray the Bible each day along the journey with Pete as he shares insights and reflections from Aidan’s Way and explores how we can know Christ and make Him known today. The reflections offer audio and transcript, but I highly recommend listening, because Pete’s voice and energy are stirring. You can also find additional fun video footage (which they’re calling “The Pilgrim Podcast”) on Facebook or Instagram.
One recent piece moved me profoundly because it highlighted some of my favorite scripture passages from Psalm 139, verses 1-4 and 13-14 (ESVUK: English Standard Version Anglicized) :
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Think about how a pilgrimage — short or long, real or virtual — might strengthen your connection with God or otherwise enrich your spiritual life. When we set time apart, we make space for Spirit to work in us. In his reflections, Pete Greig said, “Through silence, solitude, and stillness, the sediment of life is settling down and things are getting clearer.” He also spoke of the “longest journey of all” not being the 300-mile pilgrimage, but “the 18 inches from my heart to my head.”
Oh how that resonated with me!
Greig’s daily prayer is also one any of us could adapt to our own prayers and pilgrimages:
High King of Heaven, would you walk with me and talk with me as I seek to follow in the footsteps of your servant Aidan today? I have set my heart on pilgrimage, so challenge me and change me, cleanse and rearrange me, until the fire that burned in Aidan’s heart burns brightly in mine.
Perhaps my Heartspoken Morning Checklist will be a helpful aid to nourish your prayer life. When you sign up below, you’ll receive links to two versions: one with a Christian orientation and Scripture references, the other with more generic spiritual language that would work with other faith traditions. You’ll also start receiving my occasional newsletter, which will include an unsubscribe link with every issue if you find it’s not for you.
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I think I’m already a subscriber, but if not, I just did it again. 🙂 I’d like the spiritual edition. I was raised Episcopalian and loved my time in church and choir. As I grew into myself, I also explored (and still explore) other faiths and religions. The most wonderful thing in doing that is realizing that the prophets and wise ones like Jesus all lead us in similar ways – to find God within, to stop and listen and feel the silence to find Peace and Understanding. To LOVE. I really enjoyed the passages you share with us here, Elizabeth. Thank you!
Yes, you were already a subscriber to this “Essential Connections Edition”, and it’s always wonderful to hear your comments and insights. It has been one of the joys of getting older and reading more widely to realize that TRUTH with a capital T transcends labels and boundaries of all sorts and points us in the right direction. Thank you for being such a loyal reader and friend!