If you’ve ever dreamed of going on pilgrimage (and if you’re reading The Holy Rover, you almost certainly have), I have a suggestion for you: sign up for Iona: A Celtic Pilgrimage of Renewal, to be held July 12-19, 2014. Iona, a small island in the western Hebrides of Scotland, is the spiritual birthplace of Celtic Christianity. During the early Middle Ages, it was one of the most important and influential centers in Christianity. Remote and windswept, it is a... Read more
At last we come to the end of our Holy Rover tour of northern Europe. This last post is about a place some of you may be familiar with because of its music: Taizé, an ecumenical community in France whose influence has spread throughout the world. In my home church, we sing Taizé chants nearly every Sunday. These meditative, simple songs typically feature a line or two from the Psalms, creating a kind of lectio divina in music. Those who sing this... Read more
Today’s post is by guest-blogger Bob Sessions: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” — Blanche in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire As regular readers of this blog know, last November Lori and I took a three-week sojourn in northern Europe. We weren’t on an official pilgrimage such as the Camino de Santiago, but our trip had many of the characteristics of one. In this post I want to talk about something we experienced nearly every day: the... Read more
Are you up for one last post on Hildegard of Bingen? I wrote the following essay for Next Avenue, a website affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Some of this will be familiar if you’ve read my previous posts on Hildegard, but the lessons on aging at the end are new: From Meryl Streep to Sting to Dame Judi Dench, we have plenty of contemporary role models for aging well. But when I think of how I’d like my next decades to... Read more
Today we cross the Rhine River (it only takes about five minutes by ferry) to explore Hildegard of Bingen’s legacy in the town of Rüdesheim, Germany. Remember I told you that Hildegard founded a second convent here when her Bingen abbey was full? Like her original abbey, her second one was destroyed hundreds of years ago. But I’m pleased to report that Hildegard’s legacy is flourishing at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard, which is built on a hill overlooking... Read more
I love this sign, don’t you? I’ve traveled to a lot of holy places, but Bingen, Germany, is the only place where the pilgrimage route is marked by a nun sign. Hildegard is their most famous resident, and they want to make it easy for pilgrims to follow in her footsteps. And more people are doing just that, for Hildegard of Bingen is enjoying a surprising career resurgence for someone who’s been dead for nine centuries. Her fan club is... Read more
Today we come to Bingen, Germany, home to one of the most remarkable women in history. If Hildegard of Bingen had a resume (unusual for a 12th-century mystic, I admit, but humor me) it would have been many pages long. She was an abbess, healer, writer, musician, visionary, counselor, preacher, linguist, naturalist, poet and an adviser to kings, bishops and princes. She wrote more than 70 liturgical songs, the first sung play, and books on theology, medicine, diet and natural history.... Read more
Today’s post is by guest-blogger Bob Sessions: Unlike the Holy Rover, I had no official assignments on our trip through northern Europe last November. But nevertheless I quickly found myself traveling with a sense of purpose—the very definition of a pilgrimage. Whether taking pictures or simply reveling in the wonders I beheld, I learned a great deal about opening myself to spiritual experiences and growth. I have long known about the Buddhist concept of Beginner’s Mind, but this trip made me... Read more
Today’s post begins with a literary mea culpa. I’ve written a number of travel articles in the past about the upper Mississippi River, which is not far from my home in Iowa. Almost all of them have included some variation of: “This part of the Mississippi is as beautiful as the Rhine River in Germany,” a region to which it’s often compared. I hereby confess the error of my ways. While the upper Mississippi is lovely, after having cruised the... Read more
Before our son Carl left for his study-abroad semester in Belgium, I played a trick on him. “Think of me every time you see an image of the Virgin Mary,” I said, to which he blithely agreed. Hah! I knew that given Belgium’s strong Catholic heritage, he was likely to see her all over. But even I was surprised when I entered Carl’s rooming house on our visit in November and discovered that there was a large stained glass window... Read more
Holy Rover
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