PILGRIMAGE

BTW these posts are listed in reverse chronological order. The date at the top of what Blogspot posts is almost never the date it was posted. What remains is less a blog and more an organized passing on of experience had and insights gained through reading, research and walking the trails!

ANCIENT PATHS OF THE TORONTO CHRISTIAN SPIRIT
Sedulius of Liège, a 9th century Irish Celtic scholar, wrote this gloss on the margin of a manuscript he was transcribing about a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Rome

Techt do Róim, mór saítho, becc torbai;
in Rí con-daigi i foss,
manim bera latt ní fhogbai.

"To go to Rome is little profit, endless pain;
the master that you seek in Rome
you find at home or seek in vain."

The postings on this blog witness to the truth that God can be found here in Toronto.

PILGRIMAGE
For ancient Celts, “life was seen as a pilgrimage.” The Northumbria Community speaks both of “the inner journey - the landscape of the heart - and the outer journey – the landscape of the land”. Each is “part of the same life embracing/expressing availability to God and to others.” www.northumbriacommunity.org/sharing-wisdom/428-what-can-we-learn-from-celtic-spirituality?showall=1


WALK THE ANCIENT PATHS
Columba (Colum Cille) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba founder of the monastery / mission outpost on Iona on which the gospel was lived and from which it spread throughout what would become Scotland and England, gave this blessing to his disciples just before he died:


See that you be at peace among yourselves, my children, and love one another.
Follow the example of good [ones] of old,
and God will comfort you and help you,
both in this world and in the world which is to come. Amen.

Ancient Paths Of The Toronto Christian Spirit attempts to trace the ways of some of the good ones of old in the city which is my home. It is my aim both literally and figuratively to walk such paths.

By “Toronto” is meant the region embraced by the ancient name the Toronto Carrying Place. Physically its boundaries are...
South – the Shores of Lake Ontario including Toronto Island
North - the Narrows from which Toronto derives its name above Lake Simcoe
East - the Rouge River Valley watershed
West – the Humber River and associated watersheds

Not by accident the Carrying Place is also the name of a local expression of the Northumbria Community here in Canada. We carry each other in prayer as we walk the ancient paths all the while God carrying us in mercy and grace.

This summer with the Holy Spirit, and miniature schnauzer Zephyr as constant companions, I walked partially up the western side of the Toronto Carrying Place and finished to the east at the mouth of the rouge. These walks have been added to journeys previously done. To date (July 21, 2011) on the "western outer journey" we covered about 28ks as the crow flies - much longer on foot - from the mouth of the Humber to Major Mackenzie (adding a short walk in Nobleton and King City). Easterly we managed a walk in Newmarket and from the Zoo to the mouth of the rouge.

The inner journey will take some explaining.

With the help of historians The Rev Dr. Alan Hayes (Wycliffe), The Rev'd Ed Hird, Wikipedia, Heather Robertson's Walking Into Wilderness, The Toronto Region Conservation Authority's The Humber:the Toronto Carrying Place, a growing number of self-correcting internet sources and other sources, the following brief accounts have been assembled.

The breath of God has long renewed and transformed people of Toronto. The following godly souls lived in or near this city for some part of their lives. My initial hope was eventually to have one story to ponder for each day of the year. These 11 posts are a long way from that.

But a pilgrimage is marked one step at a time.