Message from the Rector: June 2023
June 9, 2023
Solvitur ambulando: It is solved by walking.
–Attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo
My sabbatical begins on Monday, June 19. Much of my three months “away” will be spent close to home, mostly reading and maybe getting some projects done around the house. There might be a few trips to visit family and friends. In August, all that will change. My family will be on pilgrimage, along a route called St. Cuthbert’s Way. We’ll be walking from the town of Melrose in Scotland to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, some 70 miles away off the northeast coast of England. The itinerary has all been mapped out by a company in Edinburgh and our job is just to walk it.
I have no doubt that by the time I get to Scotland in August, I will have done all my homework and tried to learn all there is to know about Lindisfarne and St. Cuthbert and why people follow this particular path when they want to pay homage to this particular saint. But right now, all I’m really thinking about—worrying about, mostly—is the walk itself. I’m worried about the weather and about my shoes, and about how I’ll ever get into shape for the journey. I’m toggling back and forth between feeling excited and kind of terrified. I’ve invested all this money and all this energy and all this time into a weeklong walk and I don’t even know if I’m going to enjoy it. Sometimes I’m not even sure I’m going to survive it!
Recently I saw an online ad for a bus tour that would take us through all the must-see places in Scotland before arriving at the same destination where our walk is going to end up. I must admit that, after I got over the unsettling feeling that my phone is spying on me again, I was pretty tempted. A bus to Holy Island! Why didn’t I think of that? After all, far fewer things can go wrong on a bus trip than on a seven-day walk.
But what I keep trying to remember is that a pilgrimage is not the same as a tour, or even a hike. If the weather is bad, or I get blisters or shin splints, or I don’t get one single perfect picture to post on Facebook, as long as I keep putting one foot in front of the other, I will achieve the goal. Because the goal is not arriving on the Holy Isle; the goal is to walk. It is the walk itself, not the destination, where the transformational work of a pilgrimage is supposed to happen.
I chose Scotland as the place to go on pilgrimage because I spent a year there in college, at the University of St. Andrews, and have wanted to return ever since. St. Andrews was the first place I seriously considered studying theology and, in one of those rare “turning point” experiences in life, where I first articulated my desire to be a priest.
The journey between that moment of admitting out loud that I felt the call to priesthood (to a roomful of Roman Catholic students, to boot!) and my actual ordination took 20 years. It was a rough road. From this vantage point, all I can say is, I’m grateful I kept walking, even when the path felt steep and thankless, and I couldn’t see what new obstacle was hiding around the next bend. It turned out there were beautiful vistas indeed, and the indescribably rich experience that comes from going where God calls you.
So, there is a “full circle” feeling to this trip. I will be giving thanks for my 13 years as a priest, and especially my nearly six years as the rector of St. Martin’s. I will keep all of you in my prayers, and I ask that you keep me in yours. It will be such a joy to return in the fall with pictures and stories to share—your own as well as mine.
We’re not quite at my last Sunday, but in case I don’t get to talk with you individually before the 19th: Be safe, be happy, be brave. Most of all, be faithful. We’ll see each other again soon!
Blessings,
Pamela+