This is the seventh in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection.  Word for Today: Blessing The gospel reading for the seventh week of Easter shows us Jesus’ ascension, which is ultimately a journey home again. Our own pilgrimage of resurrection calls us home, but we may wonder how we know if we have reached the destination. In our endless seeking and searching, sometimes we miss the reality: home has always been with us. The pilgrimage was to learn how to see this in our daily lives. I sometimes describe the artist as

This is the sixth in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection.  Word for Today: Love In the gospel reading for the sixth Sunday, Jesus invites us to abide in love. Certainly this is a process, a pilgrimage journey toward the resurrection gift of love. Think of all of the love songs, movies about love, poems about love, romance novels, paintings of love, and other expressions of what love is. In many ways love is the primal force behind our creative expression. We create art to understand more deeply what it means to

This is the fifth in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection.  Word for Today: Fruit In the gospel reading for this fifth Sunday of Easter, Jesus offers us the image of the vine and the branches. When we abide in what is life-giving we will bear much fruit. This season is a beautiful opportunity to reflect on what is most life-giving for us and embark on a pilgrimage toward our own growing fruitfulness. Ultimately, pilgrimage is meant to lead us back home again with renewed vision. Resurrection is about discovering

This is the fourth in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection. Word for Today: Shepherd In the gospel reading for this fourth Sunday of Easter, Jesus offers us the image of the good shepherd. Living in Ireland, flocks of sheep are very much a part of the landscape and integral to the farming economy. The “good shepherd” is described as the one who cares deeply for the flock, who is personally invested in the thriving of each and every one. The shepherd is the one who guides to safe pastures.

This is the third in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection. Word for Today: Peace In the gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus invites his disciples to see with new eyes. They are frightened and uncertain, because something so radically new is happening. They have grown accustomed to viewing the world in a certain way, but they are called to open their minds and their eyes in new ways. The Gospels are filled with stories about seeing, or not seeing, as the case may be. On the road to Emmaus, a

This is the second in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection. Word for today: See “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  — John 20:24-25 “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. We joyfully announce it. [And yet] I realize that my faith and unbelief are never far from each other. Maybe it is exactly at the place where they touch each other that the growing edge