A Sacred Journey

practicing pilgrimage at home and abroad

Wisdom of the Body: An Interview with Christine Valters Paintner + a Giveaway!

Winter always makes me think about the body.

Not in the play-all-day show-some-skin ways of summer, but in the gentle rhythms of rest and relaxation, hibernation and holy listening. Winter encourages me to listen to what is moving below the surface and waiting to patiently to sprout like a bulb in spring. Just in time for the arrival of spring and the season of Lent, Christine Valters Paintner is releasing her latest book, The Wisdom of the Body: A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women, inviting us to attune ourselves to the Sacred insight stirring within, from breath to bones, waiting to be released.

Today I’m sharing an interview with her on her new book and how to begin to tap into the body’s wisdom. The book doesn’t release until March 3, 2017, but you can enter to win a copy of your own at the bottom of the post! (Only US readers eligible.)

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Comfy, Cozy Hygge: A Danish Pilgrimage Right at Home

If you’re an avid blog reader, it’s likely you’ve heard of the Danish tradition of hygge over the past year.

Pronounced “hoo-gah” (its adjective is even better: hyggeligt, pronounced “hoo-gah-lee”), hygge can translate to “cozy,” and who doesn’t love that? It especially is attractive in the cold winter months. Multiple books have come out on the subject just this year, and even the New York Times has caught on to the trend.

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Packing Essentials for the Intentional Traveler

With my upcoming pilgrimage to Iona just over five weeks away I’ve got packing on the brain, so I’m sharing my list of packing essentials for the intentional traveler again, below.

With pilgrimage focused on leaving what is known behind and seeking Sacred Encounter beyond your borders, the pilgrim can’t be weighed down by heavy luggage and excess creature comforts.

However, packing light doesn’t come easy to most, especially when traveling to a new place. In fact, it requires some the intention of a pilgrim. Thankfully, if you’re already here, you’re well on your way.

Here’s a list of packing essentials for the intentional traveler:

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The Pilgrim’s Call to Welcome the Stranger

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me….”

These are the words of Jesus (Matthew 25:35), and yet in light of recent events, somehow they seem so foreign. How can a country that is made up mostly of immigrants deny those who seek the refuge that their ancestors once sought? How can a mandate drafted by those who claim to follow Jesus (wrongly) prioritize Christians and yet completely neglect Christ? And how can pastors and priests step up to the pulpit and not utter a word about the injustice being done to the least of these?

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Divine Destination: Bali

It’s been three months since my husband and I traveled to Bali.

With the holidays soon after our return, I thought I’d wait until the new year to share my experience. Besides, any good pilgrimage needs some time to sink in upon return, right? Now that it’s January, however, and things are likely a bit cold where you are (unless you’re in Bali!), I feel it’s high time to share.

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It’s All About the “Why”: For When You’ve Already Broken Your Resolution

Since we’re two weeks into 2017, I’d like to make a new resolution, one that starts with the “why” instead of the “what.”

Don’t know what a what resolution is? For an example, let’s go with the archetype of all New Year’s resolutions: you join a gym. You commit to work out everyday, but then one morning your 6am alarm seemed particularly early, and before you knew it you rolled over and pressed snooze. This is a what resolution, a fleeting intention that dies quickly once you become distracted. It’s focused on doing, and once the doing ends, the resolution often ends with it.

It’s not that it wasn’t good resolution; it just didn’t give you the grace and guidance you needed to really make a change. My theory? It’s because we often start with the what instead of the why.

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Are You, Like the Magi, a Seeker of the Sacred?

This post on the feast of Epiphany and the Magi it commemorates is an excerpt from the Sacred Seasons Perpetual Liturgical Wall Calendar. Let it guide you on this feast day, season, and beyond when you purchase a calendar of your own in the Journey Shop. Learn more about Epiphany in the Epiphany episode of the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast »

Epiphany immediately follows the Christmas season, concluding twelve days of celebration and feasting.

Like the bright star in the night that it commemorates, it offers guidance for the seasons to come. While many Christian traditions simply mark Epiphany on its feast day of January 6 and return to Ordinary Time until the season of Lent, some traditions are now celebrating it as an entire season lasting from the feast of Epiphany until Ash Wednesday.

Rooted in the Greek word epiphaneia, epiphany means “a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being” or “a moment of sudden revelation or insight.” In the Christian Church, Epiphany marks the manifestation of Christ to the world, particularly through the visitation of the Magi to the Christ child—a journey made by scholars of astronomy and Seekers of the Sacred who followed a radiant star in the heavens in search of Truth.

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12 Ideas for the 12 Days of Christmas

The season of Advent is coming to a close, and Christmastide is finally upon us—twelve days of it, in fact.

Because I didn’t grow up in a liturgical church, my only exposure to the twelve days of Christmas was the popular Christmas Carol, and while I knew all of the words by heart (my chamber choir performed it multiple times each year—complete with actions), I never quite knew when the twelve days of Christmas actually were. (The twelve days before Christmas? Whenever Ellen Degeneres does her Twelve Days of Giveaways?)

Whenever I discovered the liturgical calendar and learned about Advent and the Christmas season that followed, I finally found my answer. (The true Christmas season is twelve days after all—who would have thought?) And while I finally knew the exact date for when to expect to receive ten lords a-leaping, I wasn’t quite sure how to mark each day. Because I had embraced the invitation of waiting and keeping vigil that Advent brings, I wanted my celebration of Christmas to be as filled with intention as the season that had passed. And so I dug a bit further, uncovering multiple feast days and invitations already imbedded in the season, and filled in the blanks with invitations and traditions that seem equally fitting to mark the light that the season brings.

Want to join me in this full-on celebration? Here are twelve ideas for marking the twelve days of Christmas (way cheaper than the song, I promise):

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What to Do With the Wait: My (In)Fertility Journey

I have been pregnant for 534 days, or at least that’s what it feels like.

534 days ago I found out that I was pregnant, and while we miscarried at six weeks, it feels like I’ve been in a liminal space ever since—body, mind, and soul.

During our first month of trying, I was so grateful to finally be in this season that the entire process seemed exciting. I began haphazardly tracking my cycle using the fertility awareness method, taking my temperature each day and monitoring cervical mucus to discover my fertile days. Once I knew I had ovulated I bought a box of pregnancy tests—First Response, early result, because I wanted to know the outcome as soon as possible. When the first day I could take the test rolled around, I woke early and took it in the bathroom, my hands shaking at the gravity of it all. The results were negative, and while disappointing, I found comfort in knowing that this was only our first cycle of trying to conceive—we were just getting started.

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