Quotes from Murray Bodo

Pilgrimage, then, is an image of what the journey of life is about. That, I believe, is the reason it endures—not because of relics and shrines, but because we sense intuitively that this holy journey is a rehearsal for death and resurrection. We go on pilgrimage to see our life in miniature, to walk physically and geographically the journey of the soul to God.

The Pilgrim's Credo I am not in control. I am not in a hurry. I walk in faith and hope. I greet everyone with peace. I bring back only what God gives me.

That very night Pope Innocent and Francis had both dreamed the dream that revealed the Lord's will that made of these brothers standing on the Tiber's bank more than a band of men united in their love of Christ and his Gospel.

His Holiness told us how he saw the Basilica of St. John Lateran falling, and how a poor beggar had rushed forward to support the falling church with his shoulder. Each of you, my brothers, is that poor beggar. No sword is placed upon your shoulders like a man being knighted, but the pillars of the church itself rest on your shoulders. And that is what we are now sent to do.

This spiritual journey also involves leaving something behind. It involves letting go, trusting that what we love will somehow be okay without our being there. Pilgrimage from the very beginning, and of its very nature, involves surrender—surrender to a power beyond ourselves, a power we trust in, a power we are both leaving behind to care for those we love and that at the same time is drawing us away from them to another place that will help us better relate and love.

In his "Canticle of the Creatures," Saint Francis says, "Blessed are those whom death will find in your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm.

Before the Bishop led him out into the courtyard, the Bishop had chalked a cross on the old tunic that had once belonged to one of Bishop Guido's serfs. He felt close to the serf and to the Bishop who had covered him with his own cloak. How fatherly he had been! He had stood with Francis against his father, he had listened to Francis patiently when he had tried to explain about the dreams, the voices, the cross of San Damiano. He had welcomed Francis into the embrace of the Church.

THE SECOND TEACHING OF ST. FRANCIS IS that we find God when we become poor enough for God to find us.

He did not know then what he learned later: God works in silence, God works in a darkness in which we think he has abandoned us, that he is no longer there. Back then he thought only of his misery and discouragement which, he was convinced, came from not being able to continue the pursuit of knighthood.

What pain and discomfort people endure to look important.

The final mountain is Subasio, the spiritual mountain I've been traveling toward since I was thirteen years old: Mount Subasio on whose spur lies Assisi where Saint Francis was born and where he is buried.

Mainly it's the stories we carry with us, the tales of those who've gone before, those who've made their own map, as we will make ours. The stories and rituals passed down from generation to generation. They will help us make our map. The stories, rituals, the Spirit of God. Of these shall we be created anew. Of these three is pilgrimage: story, ritual, Spirit. How we listen and do and pray becomes the map we make.

the pilgrim way only focuses and intensifies our experience, which, when we were home, was diffused by distraction, responsibility, and busyness. Unless we are persons of prayer and uncommon contemplation, our daily lives routinely detour deeper thoughts and a quiet looking at the world around us.