Pilgrimage

We all encounter times when our spirit feels dry, when doubt looms. The opportunity to tour Israel came at a good time. For months, my life has been a mindless plodding through necessary routine, as monotonous as an all-night shift on an assembly line. Life gets that way sometimes, when nothing specific is wrong but the world around us seems drained of color. Even my weekly worship experiences and daily quiet times with God have felt as dry and stale as last year's crackers. I'm ashamed to confess the malaise I've felt. I have been given so much. Shouldn't a Christian's life be an abundant one, as exciting as Christmas morning, as joyful as Easter Sunday? With gripping honesty, Lynn Austin pens her struggles with spiritual dryness in a season of loss and unwanted change. Tracing her travels throughout Israel, Austin seamlessly weaves events and insights from the Word . . . and in doing so finds a renewed passion for prayer and encouragement for her spirit, now full of life and hope.

A striking collection by the eminent photographer encompasses her visual translations of how people live and do their work, showcasing her images of historically and culturally relevant homes belonging to such famous figures as Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin and Louisa May Alcott.

Like the migrating animals that our ancient ancestors once followed, we have been making planned long-distance journeys for millennia. What was first a matter of survival in time became a celebration of seasonal abundance--even today, many pilgrim festivals remain tied to the solar-lunar cycle that guided small bands of hunter-gatherers to come together at special times and places. The era when we were all nomads is long gone, but the impulse to undertake a ritual journey remains: each year, 200 million of us embark on a pilgrimage of some kind. These journeys of purpose may involve great hardship, great danger, or half a lifetime of waiting just to begin. Ranging from the Stone Age pilgrims of Anatolia to the New Age pilgrims of California, We Are Pilgrims is a quest to understand what drives this rich and varied human behaviour, unbounded by time or space, faith or identity. Victoria Preston discovers that, whether we set forth in search of comfort or liberation, as an expression of gratitude or devotion, journeys of meaning and purpose are always a powerful reminder that we are each part of something much greater than ourselves.

From "the world's greatest tour guide," a deeply-researched, captivating journey through the rich history of Christianity and the winding paths of the French and Italian countryside that will feed mind, body, and soul (New York Times). "What a wondrous work! This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan's case, both." --Cokie Roberts "Egan draws us in, making us feel frozen in the snow-covered Alps, joyful in valleys of trees with low-hanging fruit, skeptical of the relics of embalmed saints and hopeful for the healing of his encrusted toes, so worn and weathered from their walk."--The Washington Post Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium. A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.

If India has always beckoned, but something held you back -- or if you have traveled to India and feel a longing in your heart to return -- make the Chai Pilgrimage through the pages of this book. Patrick Shaw and Jenny Kostecki-Shaw spent four months in northern India, steeping themselves in chai culture. They kept journals, made paintings and took pictures. Using chai as their compass, they also made friends, worshiped at remote temples, and drank a lot of chai. Firsthand, they learned from the extraordinary hospitality of the Indian people that "Guest is God," being treated as family members in many homes. Inspired by the pungent spice palette, they returned to their northern New Mexico home and created this ecstatic book of art. Every page is a song of praise to the Indian people and the Hindu gods, to the healing chai spices, to the small farmers who grow tea, to every chai wallah in every stand along their journey. Patrick and Jenny captured and translated not just the Hindi language and the sweetness of the people but the spirit of love itself. Every word, painting and recipe is suffused with the pure flavor of devotion.

On Literature, New Places, and the Sacred Sacred travel guide. First published in 1998 and updated with a new preface by the author, The Art of Pilgrimage is a sacred travel guide full of inspiration for the spiritual traveler. Not just for pilgrims. We are descendants of nomads. And although we no longer partake in this nomadic life, the instinct to travel remains. Whether we’re planning a trip or buying a secondhand copy of Siddhartha, we’re always searching for a journey, a pilgrimage. With remarkable stories from famous travelers, poets, and modern-day pilgrims, The Art of Pilgrimage is for the mindful traveler who longs for something more than diversion and escape. Rick Steves with a literary twist. Through literary travel stories and meditations, award-winning writer, filmmaker and host of the acclaimed Global Spirits series, Phil Cousineau, sets out to show readers that travel is worthy of mindfulness and spiritual examination. Learn to approach travel with a desire for spiritual risk and renewal, practicing intentionality and being present. Inside find: • Stories, myths, parables, and quotes from many travelers and many faiths • How to see with the “eyes of the heart” • More than 70 illustrations Spiritual travel for the soul. If you’re looking for reasons to travel, this is it. Whether traveling to Mecca or Memphis, Stonehenge or Cooperstown, one’s journey becomes meaningful when the traveler’s heart and imagination are open to experiencing the sacred. The Art of Pilgrimage shows that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered around us. If you enjoyed books like The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho or Unlikely Pilgrim, Zen on the Trail, and Pilgrimage─The Sacred Art, then The Art of Pilgrimage is a travel companion you’ll love having with you.

“James Martin’s riveting new meditation on Jesus is one of the best books I’ve read in years—on any subject.” — Mary Karr, author of Lit James Martin, SJ, gifted storyteller, editor at large of America magazine, popular media commentator, and New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, brings the Gospels to life in Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and invites believers and seekers alike to experience Jesus through Scripture, prayer and travel. Combining the fascinating insights of historical Jesus studies with profound spiritual insights about the Christ of faith, Father Martin recreates the world of first-century Galilee and Judea to usher you into Jesus's life and times and show readers how Jesus speaks to us today. Martin also brings together the most up-to-date Scripture scholarship, wise spiritual reflections, and lighthearted stories about traveling through the Holy Land with a fellow (and funny) Jesuit, visiting important sites in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The person at the heart of the Gospels can seem impossibly distant. Stories about his astonishing life and ministry—clever parables that upended everyone's expectations, incredible healings that convinced even skeptics, nature miracles that dazzled the dumbstruck disciples—can seem far removed from our own daily lives, hard to understand, and at times irrelevant. But in Jesus you will come to know him as Father Martin knows him: Messiah and Savior, as well as friend and brother. WINNER OF THE 2016 ILLUMINATION AWARD (GOLD). WINNER OF THE 2015 CATHOLIC PRESS ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD

For fans of bestselling WWII fiction comes a powerful novel from Lynn Austin about three women whose lives are instantly changed when the Nazis invade the neutral Netherlands, forcing each into a complicated dance of choice and consequence. Lena is a wife and mother who farms alongside her husband in the tranquil countryside. Her faith has always been her compass, but can she remain steadfast when the questions grow increasingly complex and the answers could mean the difference between life and death? Lenas daughter Ans has recently moved to the bustling city of Leiden, filled with romantic notions of a new job and a young Dutch police officer. But when she is drawn into Resistance work, her idealism collides with the dangerous reality that comes with fighting the enemy. Miriam is a young Jewish violinist who immigrated for the safety she thought Holland would offer. She finds love in her new country, but as her family settles in Leiden, the events that follow will test them in ways she could never have imagined. The Nazi invasion propels these women onto paths that cross in unexpected, sometimes-heartbreaking ways. Yet the story that unfolds illuminates the surprising endurance of the human spirit and the power of faith and love to carry us through.

The annual Lenten pilgrimage to dozens of Rome’s most striking churches is a sacred tradition dating back almost two millennia, to the earliest days of Christianity. Along this historic spiritual pathway, today’s pilgrims confront the mysteries of the Christian faith through a program of biblical and early Christian readings amplified by some of the greatest art and architecture of western civilization. In Roman Pilgrimage, bestselling theologian and papal biographer George Weigel, art historian Elizabeth Lev, and photographer Stephen Weigel lead readers through this unique religious and aesthetic journey with magnificent photographs and revealing commentaries on the pilgrimage’s liturgies, art, and architecture. Through reflections on each day’s readings about faith and doubt, heroism and weakness, self-examination and conversion, sin and grace, Rome’s familiar sites take on a new resonance. And along that same historical path, typically unexplored treasures—artifacts of ancient history and hidden artistic wonders—appear in their original luster, revealing new dimensions of one of the world’s most intriguing and multi-layered cities. A compelling guide to the Eternal City, the Lenten Season, and the itinerary of conversion that is Christian life throughout the year, Roman Pilgrimage reminds readers that the imitation of Christ through faith, hope, and love is the template of all true discipleship, as the exquisite beauty of the Roman station churches invites reflection on the deepest truths of Christianity.