Wednesday 3 February 2010

On Not Throwing Stones.


Day 1: Iona.

Miles: 9.7

Lowest Temp: 1ºc

Highest Alt: Not very high.

It was a clear blue morning as we drove across Mull to Fionnphort for the ferry to Iona. Having spent so long now reading about that little island and it’s great legacy, it was wonderful to look across the Sound to it, and more wonderful still to arrive on it.

We began by walking the three miles down to Port na Curaich, where St Columba and his twelve companions are supposed first to have set foot on the island they were to make their home. This was the most moving moment of the day for me as I felt so many different kinds of beginning there; it is the place where Columba began a story that was to reach across Britain to another little island off the coast of Northumbria, and therefore the place too where my small story of a pilgrimage was truly beginning.

After saying midday prayer there on the beach we headed back north to the Abbey, and then on to ‘the White Strand of the Monks’, the beach at the north east of the island where on Christmas Eve 986, the Abbott and fifteen of the monks were killed in the last viking raid on the island.

A tradition has grown for pilgrims to Iona to gather two stones from the beach, one of which they keep as a remembrance of their pilgrimage, and the other which they throw into the sea to symbolise a casting away of bad memories or parts of their character which they’d like to renounce. I knew on the beach that I didn’t want to throw any stones into the sea, because there is no part of myself which I want to be rid of, just many many parts of myself which I would like to see transformed.

The great journeys the Celtic Saints made were about their faith, their growth in faith, their transformation, and that’s what I want my pilgrimage to be about too. What I need to be careful about is creating unrealistic expectations of myself though. I know there is a part of me which hopes to walk onto Lindisfarne in three weeks time a so much better person than I am today, but I also know that with very rare exceptions that’s not how we change and grow. I hope God doesn’t get as impatient with me as I do!

Each day as I walk I will stop to say prayers at midday, three and six (although I hope I’m never still walking at six). Each set of prayers will end with the words below which were composed by one of the monks of Iona; if you want to say them with me some days that would be a great gift to me:

The path we walk,

Christ walks it.

May the land in which we are

Be without sorrow.

May the Trinity protect us

Wherever we stay,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations - you've started! I hope every day is as fulfilling. Love you xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Stuart,

    Here's some thoughts on transformation to think about as you walk and pray. Transformation "work" requires the kind of listening and speaking that realizes a future that in the current context was not going to hppen and which fulfills the concerns of the relevant parties. By "transformation" we mean that something entirely new is created. By "work" we mean causing something to happen that otherwise would not have happened and which fulfills the concerns of the relevant parties. By "context" we mean an abstraction in the background which grants meaning to what is in the foreground. By "concerns" we mean matters of fundamental interest or importance to a person, what after all really matters for that person.

    United in your prayer, hope and work on behalf of transformation,

    Michael

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  3. Stone throwing, or not stone throwing was interesting. Means we have to make a return trip to Iona for purpose of carrying out this exercise. Were there nine years ago. White sands is correct description. From sand dunes dramatic views of huge waves breaking on Staffa. Turbulent seas after overnight gales: excursion boat skippers refused to venture out. Another reason for return trip to Iona. Hey ho!

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