Hiking, silence, and an unrecorded encounter
Sedona, Egypt, and France
Hello friends, and welcome to Issue #8 of Peregrino! This week’s journey I want to tell you about a hike, struggling with silence, and an unrecorded encounter.
Father-son trip
Oliver and I headed north to Sedona last Saturday to go on a hike with our Troops of St. George troop. Five boys and four dads took on this almost 4-mile-long trail. All Trails said this should be accomplished in 90 minutes, however as you can tell from the screenshot below, one tends to move slightly slower when you’re trying to keep boys from falling off cliffs, having water breaks, snack breaks, oh and pee breaks.
The drive to Sedona was uneventful, we even got there with 15 minutes to spare. We needed to use the bathroom so we went to the closest Circle K and got a couple of snacks for the day. When we were about to pay an older man asked “Is that all you’re getting? Is it okay if I treat you?” I accepted the man’s offer and we introduced each other. We later prayed for Paul, the generous benefactor of our trail snacks. We did our business and headed over to the Chapel of the Holy Cross where some members of our troop were already waiting. The black dot on the map marks the spot where we parked our cars. Technically, you could say we started the hike there but I only started recording in All Trails until we got to Chapel Trail.
The loop takes you from Chapel Trail to Broken Arrow Trail to Mystic Trail, all flanking the East and West Twin Buttes. You go up and down the red rocks, through tight walking paths amongst ponderosa pines that open up magnificent rock formations with awe-inspiring vistas.
After I stopped recording our hike we walked a bit more to the Chapel of the Holy Cross where we prayed for a good and injury-free hike. I was very thankful that my knees held up. Oliver got his very first scapular, a small pocket shield with “The Armor of God” Ephesians 6:10-17 inscribed in it, and a San Damiano cross at the gift shop. He spent the rest of the day telling everyone who would listen about his new acquisitions.
We had lunch as a troop and parted ways. Oliver and I had a hotel room waiting for us in West Sedona, mainly because I didn’t want to drive back the same day and I wanted to make this a father-son trip. We got to our hotel, rested for a bit, showered, and got ready for Mass. We went to vigil Mass at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Sedona and I think that Oliver must have been the only boy in attendance. The choir matched the town’s vibe. Fr. Nathaniel Glenn’s preaching on Psalm 40 about how our relationship with God needs to be relational, not transactional was fantastic.
Oliver was a champ at Mass even though he was yawning every five seconds, poor guy was super tired. As a reward for good behavior, we went to Vespa (ciao!) and ate pizza with reckless abandon. We went back to our hotel room, got into pajamas, watched a little TV, and then it was time to sleep.
The following morning we woke up bright and early, had breakfast, and made our way down to Phoenix. It was a good trip, but we missed mom and the siblings.
Getting out of Egypt
I started my fourth round of Exodus 90 on January 9th. Exodus 90 is a ninety-day program for Catholic men that consists of three main pillars: prayer, asceticism, and fraternity.
The prayer goal is for participants to spend an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament daily for the duration of the program. That’s 90 holy hours. On the days this is not possible, 20 minutes of silent contemplative prayer is prescribed. I know this sounds extreme. In the previous three rounds, I was content with getting 20 minutes of prayer in the morning, doing my daily exam at night, and having a weekly holy hour. This year I decided to up the ante and do a daily holy hour.
At the time of writing this newsletter, I’ve only missed one day. I’m spoiled to live a few blocks away from my parish which has a perpetual adoration chapel in it. On top of my weekly holy hour, I’ve been paying visits to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament either during my lunch break or after the kids go to bed.
It’s not surprising how things change when you prioritize prayer. The goal of the program is to bring freedom to men. There are several asceticism disciplines one has to practice during these ninety days like taking cold showers, abstaining from TV, alcohol, sugar, excessive phone/computer use, etc. When all these things are out of the picture, it turns out there’s plenty of time.
I’d be lying if I said everything is peachy keen, early morning or late night holy hours can be challenging; especially if you put down your book and try to enter into contemplative prayer mode. If you’re anything like me, your mind is going a hundred miles per hour. You try to calm your inner voice. You try to focus on your breathing. You say “inhale, exhale” in your head as your lungs turn oxygen into carbon dioxide. The voice inside your head starts humming in order to not speak words. You focus on the ring in your ear and try to make that sound louder in order to drown your own thoughts. Eventually, you give up and pick up the book again.
I’m not saying that reading during your holy hour is a bad thing. It’s just that I heard a priest saying that the way God speaks to us is in silence. And I knew this, however, I never put it into practice. I’ve filled the silence with my words and haven’t made time to listen with the ears of my heart to what God wants to tell me. I haven’t stopped yapping and I thought it was about time. Turns out it’s more difficult than I thought it was but I’m showing up and getting the reps in.
If you would like me to pray for you, leave a comment and I’d be happy to take your intentions with me to my next holy hour. It’ll give me an excuse to talk if I can’t get comfortable with silence.
An Unrecorded Encounter
If you have read the last couple of issues, I’ve been telling you a thing or two about St. Mary Magdalene. This week is no exception.
The Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene in Provence, France has a pulpit (above) with seven wooden engravings that summarize the spiritual journey of the saint, from sinfulness to holiness.
The first image depicts our Divine Lord seated in the authoritative posture of a teacher with his right hand raised, as though He is driving somebody out of His presence. In the crowd, we see a beautiful woman, dressed in a fine robe and extravagant jewelry. This is the old Mary Magdalene, shortly before the moment of her radical conversion to Christ.
If you’re thinking about where in the Gospel would this be depicted, think again. An ancient tradition handed on by St. Maximin and in the last seven centuries by Dominican preachers, says that Mary’s first encounter with Christ is not recounted by the evangelists.
Fr. Davidson paints a beautiful picture of this first encounter. In the book is mentioned that Mary Magdalene could’ve been associated with Herod’s court since Mary Magdalene and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward are two of the women that supported Jesus and His disciples. Maybe she heard St. John the Baptist rebuking Herod, while the baptist was locked up in the palace. Maybe all it took was an invitation to hear the new rabbi of whom all Galilee was talking.
In this encounter, Christ’s gaze reminded her of the way her father used to look upon her as he would carry her in his arms and tell her how precious she was. The purest look of a father into the eyes of his little girl, and it made her feel safe. This encounter was the one that delivered Mary Magdalene of the seven demons.
This makes sense if we take a look at the first mention of Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Luke 7:47 where Jesus says “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but who is forgiven little, loves little”. If this were the first encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene it would be difficult to make sense of Christ’s statement and this woman’s unusual attitude.
Have you experienced something like this in your walk of faith? You know you are walking astray but don’t know how to come back. Then all of a sudden an invitation falls on your lap and it changes the course of your life. You encounter Christ and you can’t go back to your old way of life. That’s, in a nutshell, the blueprint for my return to the faith, but that’s a story for another issue. The point is that St. Mary Magdalene is the prototype for all those who pass from sin to sanctity.
In the words of Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, Christ did mighty works to make men stop and wonder and then miracles for the angels to behold. The greatest of the first kind was the resurrection of the body of Lazarus, the greatest of the second kind was the resurrection of the soul of Magdalene.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading. If you like this week’s issue hit the like button, let me know in the comments, and/or share Peregrino with your friends and family. Do you like the three-section format? Should I do a single topic per newsletter? What do you think?
See you next week.
-W