This month of August, I am setting out on pilgrimage with a group of seminarians and priests from St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver - where I serve as an assistant professor. We are meeting in Krakow on August 9 and traveling by bus to Madrid for World Youth Day. Along the way we will stop and pray at cathedrals, shrines and monasteries in Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Southern France and, of course, Spain. For those who cannot physically participate in this pilgrimage, I invite you to join our group spiritually. In whatever time you make for daily prayer, remember to pray for us and our deeper conversion to the Lord. By such prayers we realize together a solidarity in the Holy Spirit which is greater than all space and distance. To help you pray with us, I will post pictures and short reflections about the places we visit along the way.
Our Sunday Visitor's Guide in the Internet 4.0 described this blog as presenting a place for prayer on the Web with a message that we are in the world but not of it. I am grateful for this mention and to all the readers who have joined me in prayer over the years - I am glad we have encouraged each other in so many ways. We are in the world, but not of it: concerns for material things and the affairs of this world are a part of our lives, but not the main part. We are meant for something more. This world, entrusted to us for the brief span of our lives, is not our true home. Making a pilgrimage, even joining one spiritually by prayer, reminds us of this great truth. We are travelers here, on a journey to our heavenly homeland, the Father's house, the very bosom of the Trinity.
As follow pilgrims, it is important for us to encourage each other, not only with the words of the Holy Bible and the great saints who have gone before us, but also with our own words, our very lives. Our lives are a pilgrim way through this land of shadows into a fullness we are incapable of imagining. The path we trod is that forged by our crucified God. We must take up our own cross and follow Him with all the devotion of our hearts. A pilgrimage helps us renew our devotion. I hope that you will join this pilgrimage by praying for our seminarians on their way. You will be in my prayers that the Lord will pour out his blessings on you and your loved ones.
Our Sunday Visitor's Guide in the Internet 4.0 described this blog as presenting a place for prayer on the Web with a message that we are in the world but not of it. I am grateful for this mention and to all the readers who have joined me in prayer over the years - I am glad we have encouraged each other in so many ways. We are in the world, but not of it: concerns for material things and the affairs of this world are a part of our lives, but not the main part. We are meant for something more. This world, entrusted to us for the brief span of our lives, is not our true home. Making a pilgrimage, even joining one spiritually by prayer, reminds us of this great truth. We are travelers here, on a journey to our heavenly homeland, the Father's house, the very bosom of the Trinity.
As follow pilgrims, it is important for us to encourage each other, not only with the words of the Holy Bible and the great saints who have gone before us, but also with our own words, our very lives. Our lives are a pilgrim way through this land of shadows into a fullness we are incapable of imagining. The path we trod is that forged by our crucified God. We must take up our own cross and follow Him with all the devotion of our hearts. A pilgrimage helps us renew our devotion. I hope that you will join this pilgrimage by praying for our seminarians on their way. You will be in my prayers that the Lord will pour out his blessings on you and your loved ones.
We will definitely lift you and the others in prayer during your pilgrimage. Please pray for us as well. Blessings. dt/d
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