Blog (Latest News, Info and Updates)

Reflections on Ensay

Thursday 21st March 2019
Carole Hodgkins

I'm an oystercatcher wild and free Soaring in flight over the Ensay sea. I am boldly patterned in black and white, My orange-red legs are a brilliant sight. I have a stout red bill and shrill piping cry. There are people on Ensay and I'm wondering why. Is it the stillness, the peace, or the sheep, The house or the chapel, or the charms of the deep? High I fly over sand and dune, Freedom and song my good fortune. Who is the figure I see below? Where has she come from - where will she go? I'm an oystercatcher without discontent. To follow the Master is my intent. The figure I see is an Adventure Pilgrim, Who strives like me to follow Him! To share the earth, the sky and…

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The Skellig Isles

Monday 18th March 2019
David Gleed

Ten pilgrims, a small boat and a distant island... Eight miles off the coast of County Kerry the stark pointed rock of Skellig Michael explodes out of a 280-foot-deep sea and soars up a further 720 feet. For years, Great Skellig, the larger of two adjacent islands, was home to perhaps the most isolated Christian community the world has ever known. Pilgrims take risks - the Christian journey is an adventure! It was barely four years since our previous trip to these shores. On that occasion, we had become marooned on an island and becalmed on a boat without fuel! But on this particular June morning, with the sun shining and a well-equipped boat waiting to whisk us off to…

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Borders Mushroom

Saturday 16th March 2019
Paddy Allen

On Holy Mountain

Tuesday 12th March 2019
Cate Macfarlane

Vast, immovable, haughty in her grandeur, the mountain drew us towards her. Soft and rough, grey and green, she revealed more of her great expanse as we climbed ever upwards. Reciting Brendan's Prayer, we remembered fellow pilgrims who had conquered different trails on the towering rock. Mount Brandon, on the south-west coast, in Dingle, Co. Kerry, is the second highest mountain in Ireland, 953 metres high. In June 2004 I travelled as group leader with fellow pilgrims from Pilgrim Adventure. The ruins of St Brendan's Oratory mark the summit of the mountain. The legend is that the navigator saint climbed the mountain with his seafaring monks to prepare them physically and spiritually for their journey to the promised land of…

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Oh Small Cross

Saturday 9th March 2019
Ryan Smith

O Small Cross
 O small cross between land and sky
 Connecting earth and heaven, bye and bye.
 How you change the landscape, as you portray Christ's choice to the sons of men
 Everything for me or all for you, nothing more or less
 That is the choice you offer, O small cross of Lindisfarne Written along 'St Cuthbert's Way' (Image courtesy of www.lindisfarne.org.uk)

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Latest News

Wednesday 6th March 2019
Dave Gleed

A few updates from the Journeying team: Day Walks The first walk of spring... Tintern and the Wye Valley, Saturday April 13th Holiday Programme news: We have a few places available on this year's programme: Exploring West Cornwall Rievaulx Abbey and the North York Moors We are also have an additional pilgrimage journey for the Way of St David, Pembrokeshire, Wales: Saturday 17th - Friday 23rd August: Way of St David

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Night Prayer

Wednesday 6th March 2019
Cynthia Spey (with introduction by the editor)

1991 on the banks of Loch Sunart. The weather had been perfect with clear blue skies by day and wonderful sunsets by night. On one particular night, but I'll let Cynthia tell the story... "We stood in the customary circle on the shore, on the night of the full moon, reiterating our constant desire for a quiet night and a perfect end. A moon of huge and astonishing proportions suddenly appeared, filling the whole sky with its presence and painting a blinding path across the sunset-coloured loch from the mountains on the horizon to the waters gently lapping at our feet. It was an awesome sight and the total silence and stillness created a magical scene that was quite uncanny.…

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Isle of Skye

Sunday 3rd March 2019
Paddy Allen

View from on top the Quiraing and a solitary thistle. Paddy lives in Scotland and has been leading holidays with Journeying since 2018. Both drawings were painted during our Isle of Skye holiday, 2018.

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Lundy Island

Thursday 28th February 2019
Janet Wilkes

My first 'Journeying', 6 years ago, to Lundy Island, was memorable. Not just for the epic sea voyage getting there and the swathes of late bluebells and black rabbits but for a unique relief inside St Helen's, Lundy's Parish Church. Similar to other churches of its age there was, behind the altar, the Ten Commandments. But to its right, instead of the Creed, there was a relief of Aaron putting on the head of a goat the sins of the people before releasing it into the wilderness. This concept of forgiveness I have never seen elsewhere. And, in an urban setting, it could well be lost. But on Lundy Island, with its vast sweeps of lonely land, the symbolism seemed perfect.…

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Candlelight

Monday 25th February 2019
Hilary

Candlelight circles hallowed stones, embraces the expectant. Prayer emptied out until silence listens for the Unseen. Surprised by wordless Wisdom. Simply enfolded. God being present. Written following a service in Iona Abbey ... Hilary went on to say, 'The Sunday evening Abbey service was one of quiet reflection. In the stillness, I came to the end of my questions to God. I gave Him space.'

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