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“Raise yourself above yourself.”
~ Saint Bonaventure, Meditationes Vitae Christi.
In order to win a week’s worth of liberty for some healthful retreat time, I needed months of perseverance, patience, and tolerance. Somehow, productively staying the course and my unending chain of purposeful novenas helped me reach my day to get out on the road. The workplace honored my request. Indeed, I was especially prepared- and grateful. I had plenty of lead-time for correspondence with my welcoming hosts, the Marian community at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, which is in the Berkshires. I have a long history of going up to the mountains for contemplative respite and solace. During the weeks prior to the pilgrimage, I was reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, even beginning a novena timed to conclude on the day following my return to Maine. I was so ready that my car was completely packed and provisioned two days before making the southwestern drive to westernmost Massachusetts. That’s where I wanted to be. And more than that, a place of pilgrimage is a place that calls you. Yes, you want to make the sanctified sojourn, but you also need to travel there and attentively be there. I brought writing, reading, and photo material with me, as well as deep-seated prayers including those of friends that asked me for remembrance- intrinsic to pilgrimage. Too much time had passed since my last retreat, and I must do better at flexing my constraints. Alas, there are always logistics, but at least I have the wherewithal to get to the wellsprings!
Though not quite as steep as the neighboring mountains, the Berkshires are contiguous to the Adirondacks, the Taconics, and the Green Mountains, and they are equally scenic. I’ve hiked Berkshire portions of the Appalachian Trail that wind between Sheffield and the Adams area. The Divine Mercy Shrine is located in Stockbridge, northwest of the Trail and south of Lenox. Being there in late-September, I enjoyed early-autumn colors, temperatures in the 50s, and cooled mountain air. In their constant motions, the sharp breezes gave me the impression of freshwater streams. Mountain air has a sweeter aroma than what I know from along the ocean. The swirling cool air was so remarkable that that it was impossible not to take note. The windows of my room at the Shrine, in the St. John Paul II House, faced north toward the sources of these wonderful winds.
Natural elements as those immediately at hand served to cultivate some renewed energies. I’d love a lot more of both. There cannot be enough to help counteract the stagnation that I interrupted at the workplace. And along similar lines, the adornments of a place of pilgrimage offer chances to visit and speak with extraordinary and spiritually-minded people. With the Shrine’s liturgical observances as the center-point, the sum-total made for the sort of otherworldly respite I regularly need.
As my own broader pilgrimage of trust adds still more layers of living the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the practice of the prayer and its spirit become unprompted and somehow infused. Like breathing, reaching for mercy is unceasing. It’s even integral to workplace coffee breaks and bus commuting. Navigating life and surely my as-yet-unresolved search for better employment increase in their difficulties, forcing me to strive harder at remedies. I think I am speaking for many others, too. I suppose I can take stock of cultivated abilities to call forth healthful practices amidst desperate times. Against dead weight are inward devotions. Yet still, flying with anchors shackled to ankles threatens to lower mental altitudes. Reflective times, whether as short weekday breaks, or long-distance retreats, are vital, as I hold things together amidst tenuousness. Intermissions, such as this recent sojourn, thankfully remind me there is a big world that far transcends my confines. Skies above mountain landscapes are always wondrously animated. I have at least the presence of mind to savour the privilege of being able to immerse in beautiful environments of my choosing. Hiking on trails that tunnel though thick trees, a reminder came to me that if I want a worthwhile future- which I absolutely do- I must redeem the moment.
