Well, we’re back from an amazing time away together of feasting and celebrating, praying and pilgriming (is that a word?), laughing and soaking up beauty and sunshine and space… We tasted a little bit of the renewed earth and have come home energised and enormously thankful!  The ThirdSpace pilgrimage day took us to Newport Sands where we began with the words ‘The Father has called you, the Christ walks with you and the Spirit will surely surprise you’.

There we found treasures representing our heart’s prayer and there we drew and named the ‘angels’ God has sent us at key times in our lives (as he sent his angels to St Brynach on Carn Ingli); we wandered through the dunes and took shelter and reflected on what ThirdSpace has meant to us saying:

 ’May the God who is community be with us   as we seek to be community’.

From there to Nevern to the wonderful St Brynach’s Church with its ancient Celtic cross and time to rest and to meditate in the intense stillness there. 

For many of us the Pilgrims’ Cross on the pilgrimage route to St Davids was the most poignant part of the day, as we placed our treasures in the cracks in  the stones and placed a special blessed piece of driftwood for our good friend Tony who was still in hospital and so not with us…

The final part of the  day was at St Non’s with an unforgettable time in the chapel there, as we anointed one another with water from the well, echoing those first words of the day and ended with the ‘companion’ liturgy.

We were then treated to such hospitality that we cannot expect to see again this side of eternity from the Sisters of Mercy at the St Non’s Reatreat House. What a day. What a privilege. What wonderful companions.

Today at the bandstand we rememberd our core value on journeying and S led us on what we might learn from Jesus’ own spiritual journey as reflected in the story of the temptations and from then on. It was helpful to consider that he didn’t have it all sown up from the start, but that he had a journey to make to reach the understanding of his role as suffering servant and then to see that through.

Our prayer time adopted prayers found on the web on the idea of God circling us – an important concept when the journey is not without dangers and risks.  We drew chalk circles around us for each prayer…

We prayed:

Circle us, Lord
Circle us with the light of your presence within this dark world
Enable us to be overcomers of fear and temptation
Enable us to be victors over sin and despair
Enable us to become that which you would desire
(Silent prayer)
Lord of creation, Lord of Salvation
ALL: Circle us with the light of your presence

Circle us, Lord
Circle our family within the shelter of your outstretched arms
Protect them in each moment of their daily lives
Protect them in the decisions that they face
Protect their homes and relationships
(Silent prayer)
Lord of creation, Lord of Salvation
ALL: Circle our families with the light of your presence

Circle us, Lord
Circle this world with the joy of your Salvation
Where there is sickness and disease bring healing
Where there is hunger and despair bring hope
Where there is torture and oppression bring release
(Silent prayer)
Lord of creation, Lord of Salvation
ALL: Circle this world with the light of your presence

The kids had fun drawing witht he chalk at teh end. Rather like this image:

That's one way to advertise!

More thought-provoking stuff!  B & G led last week, focussing on blessings as part of a Celtic pilgrimage experience. Loved the youngest blessing us oldies in the giving of bread and wine and loved so many of the blessings used in our time together. We closed with these words:

Blessings on you

who stand in the tension and the flux

of understanding God.

In the struggle to understand what is

and what isn’t

what was and what will be,

what we are

and what we should be.

Blessings on you who step out of the battle

waging on.

Who choose to be at peace,

who choose to listen,

and who choose to be humble in a world that

seems so very sure

and so very lost.

Blessings as we revisit places we’ve been

and look forward to the places we’d like to see.

As we embrace dialogue,

as we choose to love,

and as we rejoice in this journey,

continually thankful for the chance to grow,

the chance to think,

and the ever-present chance to change.

Amen.