Under the tinsel and glitter

Today is the day after the feast of the Epiphany. All is now peaceful for the Christian priests of the world. We have blessed cribs and parishioners, taken services and celebrated the Divine mysteries, whilst we have been overtaken, as has everyone else, with celebration of a family Christmas. The Kings have come and presented their gifts and departed another way. And so, at last we can return to the life of meditation, prayer and teaching that we are better suited to. And a time to return to matter of pilgrims, the posting of a blog and an invitation. Well two actually. . So here goes. We are having a party to celebrate the arrival of St James in Galicia,that is Peterborough Pilgrims to Santiago and me. It is on 30 Jan 2010 at noon. Pilgrim mass followed by a Spanish lunch, pilgrim conversation and fellowship, a talk on Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in literature, a short business meeting and tea. All are invited some come and join us. There is no charge, but if you want to make a donation towards costs that is fine. If you would like to join us~numbers to ianholdworth@aol.com. It will be at:- St Mary's Church, Towcester Road, Northampton NN4 8EZ. I will also need to know if you are a veggie. . The second invitation is to leave a comment on this blog site. Discussion is the best form of communication. If you do not relate to what I am saying, I really want to know about it. I also want to know if you disagree with what I am saying. Should I be in error, I want to be out of it , so if you can help me with the truth , that would be great. So speak up. If you have nothing much to say, how about ticking the boxes at the bottom of each post. Thanks a mil. . It is of interest to reflect on the busy-ness of Christmas and the peace of the present season. It rather brings out the nature of reflection. When all is action and celebration there is little time to think and centre. This is fine for a while, but it becomes too much after a time. The over extension of life leads to a sort of death.This pattern is repeated so often throughout our lives. We built a life that has little contact with the reality that is really life. We need to stop and take a step aside so that we can centre and draw from what is deep within us. Touch base if you will. The base that we touch is in fact God himself. He is deep within us. It has a direct link with pilgrimage. . Pilgrimage allows us to centre. That time of quite walking without many distractions or responsibilities, permits us to be honest. We are helped by the anonymity. There is no need to pretend that we are anything other than a pilgrim on the way. The differences of status and wealth are hidden. There is nowhere to hid, or to be modest in an albergue. So we cease to feed the false self. It dies, so to speak for a while.The layers are stripped back. For some it is a new experience. It can be painful. We take the dead flesh of our humanity on pilgrimage and it is there that we begin to admit to ourselves and God what a rotting corpse we are and in that honesty God is able to begin to breath life into us. . On return the challenge is to maintain that true self and not allow the false to get a hold again.