On Pilgrimage

MOUNTAINS OF SEGOVIA

Sunshine baths all –

high mountains with snow tops

do not move – quiet in the beauty.

Gentle breezes touch my body –

bring a desired coolness to me.

Wheat fields are still green – summer

heat will turn them yellow – ripe.

Scene has me dream – John

of the Cross dreamt here too for hours.

He would gaze – walk through fields –

woods.  He met someone here – told

his students – this was the best place for the meeting.

I took a long trip to get here – I want

to dream the same – meet someone

in the mountains – fields – sunshine.

All is quiet – rests in silence.

Gentle breeze blows the leaves –

otherwise just peace.

Silence betrays a presence –

language of God is silence.

John felt – heard that language –

walked through the fields listening.

So I sit here – on a bench – listening

to the silence – feeling the presence –

knowing that someone loves me – touches me.

He is happy I made such a trip –

happy to see me here.

Robert Trabold

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ON PILGRIMAGE:

CASTILLA & LEÓN, SPAIN

Robert Trabold

            For many years, I have been active in the Centering Prayer Movement and the John Main Meditation Movement which basically teach and encourage people to grow in mystical prayer, that is, prayer of silence in which we encounter the divine at our center and still point. Because I am involved in these contemplative prayer paths and meditate  this way twice a day, for several years, I have been drawn to make a pilgrimage of silence to Castilla & León in Spain where two great mystics, John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila, were born, lived and are buried. After getting off of my flight in Madrid, I go to Segovia where John of the Cross lived and is buried. From there, I visit the city of Avila where Theresa was born and worked and go to the Monastery of the Incarnation where she lived most of her adult life. I can see the room she lived in, a small museum with samples of her letters and books and other personal items and a visit to the chapel where she worshipped with the community. I then go to Salamanca and from there, visit the small town of Alba de Tormes where Theresa died.  She was traveling, fell ill, died and is buried there. Her remains are in a small church and placed above the altar.

            In Segovia, John of the Cross is buried in a chapel in a church and residence that he himself designed.  It is outside the medieval walls of the city of Segovia and close to the farm lands that surround the city. In the distance are snow capped mountains which make a lovely scene. John is buried in an ornate baroque chapel and when I visit there, I feel the silence of the chapel and the presence of John. I sit there for a long time repeating my mantra and rest in being in the presence of such a great mystic. He told his students that the best prayer is to walk out in the fields and mountains and in the beauty of nature and its quiet, one can have an experience of God. When I am there, I take John’s advice and walk in the fields enjoying the lovely scenery and quiet of the snow capped mountains and fields around me. I feel God’s presence intensely and relish such a gift.

            While in Segovia, I take a one day trip to Avila which is also a medieval city on top of a hill with its walls intact. The visit to the Monastery of the Incarnation is moving because Theresa lived there most of her life. She had frequent apparitions of Jesus and one can visit the sites where these took place and the parlor where she and John of the Cross met since he was her spiritual director and both worked on the reform of the Carmelites male and female religious orders. The highlight of the visit is to go to the chapel and one can see the spot where she had her mystical marriage with Jesus, that is, she entered the unitive way of close love with the Lord.  On that occasion, John of the Cross was at her side. It is good to remind ourselves that we are all called to such a union of love with Jesus, not just the great mystics like Theresa and John. The goal of contemplative prayer with its discipline of silence should lead to a person’s purification and becoming Christ like in our thoughts and actions. With that, we grow in love with the Lord and there is a deep union between us.

            The next step in the pilgrimage is a trip to Salamanca and to a small town, Alba de Tormes, on the outskirts of that city. Theresa was traveling, got ill and died in the latter. The church she is buried in is small and in recent years, has been restored. A new roof, an inside paint job, new floor and pews add to the loveliness of the baroque church. When I go to visit, I always feel a great silence.  I believe that it is Theresa leading me into the silence of God and having me sit there in the presence of the divine. One can now go up a short staircase and to a room behind the sarcophagus of the saint.  It is a moving experience to be so close her remains and it touches one deeply. From the church, one can visit the room where she died and a small museum with her personal items and writings. Her body is uncorrupted and the relics of her heart and arm are still intact. When one looks at her heart, one sees that she was a stigmatic. Her heart has the interior wound of Jesus; she told no one of this in her life time and it was found out only after her death.

            The pilgrimage that I make to Castilla & León in Spain is not with a group but I go alone. I call it a contemplative pilgrimage and am in silence most of the time. It is an immersion in prayer where I attempt to have an encounter with the Lord in the land where these two mystics lived. I look to have a direct experience of the divine who is the ground of our being and the goal of our life. The Lord calls us to have a relationship of love with him which is deeper than any human love we can encounter.  God is present to us as no other human person can be. I make this pilgrimage hoping that John and Theresa will help me in this inward journey to encounter the divine; they themselves responded well to this mystical call from God in their lives and it is an example and inspiration for me to follow.

            When I left for Spain at the end of May, I was concerned about the large demonstrations that we going to take place in Chicago where the NATO meetings were being held. Chicago’s police do not have a tradition of being non-violent. When I arrived in Spain on May 22 and went to my first destination Segovia, I encountered a large demonstration of students and teachers who were part of national strike to protest the cuts in funding for education. I made my contemplative pilgrimage in a world full of injustices and violence. I am hoping that this prayerful journey will bring more justice to our troubled world and give me strength to continue to protest and march until a new world is born. I am sure that John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila will not let me down and encourage us all who are in this struggle.

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