Saturday, January 26, 2019
Walk to Jerusalem
Is anyone else's parish doing the Walk to Jerusalem? Our parish is starting the program this weekend. It will run until Easter. The idea is to find out the approximate distance in miles from your location to Jerusalem. The participants log their walking miles or other activities. It's not a competition, there is no pressure to achieve a certain distance. There are devotional pages each week, and you learn about the culture and geography of the places you are walking "through". The hope is that people will improve their physical fitness and grow spiritually. The web site linked above lists a $35 fee, but I believe that is for the whole parish since no fee was mentioned for individuals participating. Since both our priest and our doctor are promoting it heavily, we decided to take part. Will let you know if the parish makes it to Jerusalem. Some of the other congregations in town are also doing it.
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I have never heard of it before but it's a neat idea.
ReplyDeleteYeah, our parish did this some years ago during Lent. The Church Ladies set it up with a prescribed number of miles and put announcements in the bulletin of where you were "supposed" to be.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm hoping we don't manage to suck the enjoyment out of it. Maybe it'll be motivational to me since I have been in hibernation mode since it got cold.
DeleteThey figured out the mileage, and, collectively, we were supposed to walk that distance. You recorded and turned in your mileage, which was posted each week, and there were resentments that Some People were having to carry Other People. I could see this coming a mile away, and I think I read Flannery O'Connor that Lent instead.
DeleteI honestly think that the Church Ladies enjoy their sense of martyrdom and being put-upon.
And inexpensive pedometer (this one works well for me) might be helpful here.
ReplyDeleteYes, in some way it sounds like a promo for FitBit. We have the 10 Commandments in fake stone on our campus, courtesy of the KofC helping Darryl F. Zanuck promote "The Ten Commndments." Sheesh.
DeleteI'd never heard of the Walk before, but it seems like good mental and physical exercise. Of course, not everyone who walked to Jerusalem back in the day had only good thoughts. Some stopped en route to kill Jews and Eastern Christians; and some were thinking only of loot. But it wouldn't hurt to think of those things, too, while working on the spiritual part.
We do have a large canvas labyrinth that a parishioner owns and sets up each Lent with "stops" at the side that semi-abstractly represent the Last Supper, Calvary and the Cross. A lot of New Age mumbo-jumbo has been tacked on to labyrinths lately. But originally they were seen as symbolic pilgrimages to Jerusalem for people who didn't have the time or money for a real pilgrimage. The most famous labyrinth probably is the one at Chartres. I walk ours at least twice each Lent and look forward to it as a cleansing experience.
When I was still working they gave out free Fitbits, so we already have them. They aren't the fancy ones that tell how well you slept, etc. That would just be depressing.
DeleteAbout labyrinths, the Benedictine convent where they hold deacon formation classes has one. It's permanent, and is in a garden. The sisters were originally from Germany and have a Brother Cadfael-esque gardening tradition. They had some pretty pink poppies that I commented on, and was told that they had come from the old country with the original sisters. I'm pretty sure they were opium poppies, but I didn't say anything about that.
They could very well have been opium poppies. In the olden days, monastic infirmaries would have those types of plants on hand.
DeleteI have a plain old pedometer I use as a nudge/nag. It helps me remember to move around and keep that sludgy blood from coagulating.
There is a "healing labyrinth" at the cancer center. I walked it once. I was not healed.
I enjoyed a St. Francis Canticle of the Sun walk once. I thought about setting one up around the back yard, but Raber nixed it because the posts would be a pain to mow around.
My dance teacher wears her gadget on her foot. Apparently, dance steps don't register well on these devices. Once we teach the neophytes not to bounce, no points for dancing to Jerusalem.
DeleteA dancer would be better off wearing it in a side pocket, next to their thigh. We have found that our devices count steps on a mini elliptical if we put them in our shoe.
DeleteOff topic: Katherine, back to Schubert's German Mass. We have new paper sheets with proper credit given to the arranger...It is Richard Proulx as you reported when last the subject came up.
DeleteI am happy to report that we regularly sing this at 11 am Mass. Of course, the choir leads, but increasingly the rest of us have gotten the rhythm and increasingly it's sounding like more and more of us are joining in ...proving that when you get a melody in your head you can't avoid at least humming it when you can't get the words to fit the music....as is definitely an issue with the Gloria. Cheers!
I clip mine to my shoe. What is a mini elliptical? I do little "dances" while waiting for the microwave to heat my tea water, 3.5 minutes per cup. Between that, walking around the block, errands, and my bike to nowhere, it adds up to ... not enough, but better than nothing. Though at my rate, it would take me 16 years to walk to Jerusalem.
DeleteMargaret, the German Mass is beautiful. I've listened to it on YouTube. It could be a brain worm, but at least it's an uplifting one!
DeleteIt takes the congregation a little time to learn a new Mass. I'm not thrilled with the one we are using, "The Mass of Renewal", but people are gradually catching on, so I suppose we will have it for awhile.
Jean, this is a mini elliptical. My husband uses it sometimes. I'm not that crazy about it. I always feel like a hamster in a wheel with those types of things. I'd much rather walk outside, but too wimpy to do it in bad weather.
DeleteKatherine, that's my bike to nowhere. I didn't I know it was called that.
DeleteAnd it can be used while sitting! It is now getting close to my wheelhouse. If we could only eliminate the footwork...
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