No Passport Needed

Pilgrimages and retreats help us grow. They take us to unexpected places, some we never envisioned. I’ve traveled to some of the major pilgrimage sites in the world, some religious, some secular. Three weeks ago I embarked on a journey that does not require a passport. It is a pilgrimage that is transforming me day my day.

I began an Ignatian Prayer Adventure, an eight-week retreat provided online by Loyola Press. The retreat is based on The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brian, a Jesuit priest.

Each morning I can’t wait to wake up to begin the day’s retreat. I find that offering my reflections in the form of poems makes me stay focused on what God wants me to learn.

Here is a draft of a prose poem I wrote on week two, day two –

An April Psalm of Thanksgiving

Sunday morning without rush; the house keeps silent the hour. I want to make my day a psalm of thanksgiving. No matter what may come, “let the day go through you.” Thankful for the music in the wind as it rushes through the palms, the yellow kiskadee who greets me, for open eyes, for the gift of one more day, for second chances, for a third, fourth, 100 more to find my way. He, in all things, my constant guide. I, his work in progress. The gardenias perfume my backyard even without my asking.