CP W2 D3 Baptism and Temptation of Jesus (Matt 3:13-4:11)

(Personal note: I'm posting this as I'm visiting Holy Cross Monastery for a few days... follow along on my visit here... http://georgevisitsholycross.blogspot.com/ )

We are asked in our reading if we have ever felt like God is out to get us. I did. For several years after Billy (our youngest son) died, as much as I tried, I couldn't seem to "find" my faith. This was a complete "wilderness" period in my life. I wasn't only grieving Billy's death, but also my relationship with God - and my sense of His fairness and goodness - which had always been an important part of my life up until then. Of course, there have been other wilderness periods for me (many of them), but this one lasted almost seven years.

During my passage through it, I found that each time I tried to do something to turn back to God, He always seemed to be moving away. No church we tried seemed to fit right. No practice relating to my journey with God seemed to work. On Sunday mornings, I found my best sense of peace walking or riding along the Henry Hudson Trail.

Looking back, I now realize that God was with me the whole time, allowing me time to reflect on the loss and I can view the wilderness as a time of growth. But it was difficult while going through it. Perhaps my feeling that God was moving away as I was approaching was simply the fact that He was leading.

As today's reading says... "sometimes the desert chooses you" meaning that we can't choose the times that we feel pain and loose track of God's love. But we can turn to him - following Christ's lead - during tough times by turning to the scripture. And yes, sometimes we have to keep turning until we find the way. A friend in our Men's group says "fake it 'till you make it."

Re-read the grey box in today's pages... "There are few shortcuts in our faith journey." This is true, and even if we feel we are walking in circles, God is with us and we have a companion in Christ who has gone through the wilderness before us.

CP W2 D2 Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1-13)

In today's readings, the spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days and nights. There, Satan (in some Bibles "The Tempter" or "The Devil") tempts Jesus with offers of power and glory if He will only do Satan's bidding. It's the classical challenge story... will Jesus remember who He is? Part of that challenge is being placed in an enviroment that is uncomfortable... alone... no food... no shelter... that's when Satan goes after Jesus.

That is when Satan comes after us too... when we are tired, lonely, hungry, feeling left out, etc. That's when Satan's "voice in our heads" comes to us and we are most exposed to temptation. Of course, these are feelings we frequently have. You'll notice that Jesus turned to the words of scripture for support, answering each of Satan's temptations with "It is written:..." and citing a scripture to go against Satan's tempts. These words of support in our Bible are available to us too when we are being tempted.

The reading asks who/what are the wilderness voices in our heads? Are they friends... teachers... coaches... others? While I'm not (quite) insane, I have voices in my head. They're not the typical friends, etc., because nowdays I don't really surround myself with people who don't share my beliefs. My struggle is with my own thoughts. Thoughts that by my own power or control I can achieve the power and glory (same offers Satan made to Jesus) that I seek. At some level, we all seek the same thing - mostly through the approval of others (a family member once told me we want kids to look up to us, elders to approve of us and women to adore us). Our task is to remember who we are - beloved children of God - as we go about on our journey.

So remember that you are God's beloved child. Remember...

PERSONAL NOTE: After I post this, I'm heading to http://www.holycrossmonastery.com/guesthouse.html for a few days of personal retreat. I will try to keep this blog up, but it depends on what kind of computer access I have. Please pray for me while I'm there....

CP W2 D1 The Baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11)

Today's Bible reading is about Jesus' baptism. We're focusing on the baptism itself in these verses (you can read Mark 1:1-10 for the back story). As Jesus comes up out of the water He hears God's announcement - "You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased."

As I read this, I thought of the times in my life when I have heard such unmitigated love. Of course I heard this from mom and dad when I was little. I even have a photograph of it from my wedding day. Dad was beaming as we got ready in the "groom room" and the photographer was able to capture it. It was a happy day, and I was drinking in dad's love. Jesus must have felt the same energy from His father's love and it tells us something that this is the first interaction Mark records between God and Jesus. We all seek this kind of love in one form or another.

For me, I'm a praise junkie. I've noticed over the years that if someone tells me they like or are pleased by what I'm doing, that gives me energy that pushes me into overdrive. (Of course the opposite is true as well. Criticism just kills my energy and I have to reach really deep to keep going on something after I received harsh words about it.) Love... praise... affirmation... why is it that these are so important in all of us (and why is it so difficult for us to offer these to others)?

As I prayed this morning, I imagined the possibility of God being pleased with me. We're working through a book in the Men's group called He Loves Me. It talks about how difficult it is for mamy of us to accept God's love. We (and I) frequently focus on our faults and shortcomings, letting them add "baggage" to our relationship with God. That's one reason I especially like the part in our new J2A liturgy where we write out our "baggage" we're carrying for the week and tie it in a scroll and place it on the altar. We sort of give it to God for the duration of the meeting. I don't know about you, but I find that when I unroll the scroll afterwards (before shredding it) that God has done a little something each week on the problems I listed.

This week we will focus on the early days of Jesus' ministry. How was He called? How did he respond? I'm glad we started the week on His baptism for our journey with God started when we were baptized. And I liked the interpreted story version of his Baptism on p.23 - especially the grey part...

"Only when Jesus hears and knows that he is deeply beloved by God and deeply pleasing to God can he begin his pilgrimage of ministry. At the start of this journey, Jesus does not receive a command or decree from God; instead he receives a blessing. Jesus does not receive a map or itinerary from God; instead he receives a calling."

Can you accept God's love for you?

Hearing the Call

We spent the week hearing God's call to Abram, and to us as well. As a pilgrim people, we are called to always be walking with God and towards God as we realize that it's the steps of the journey, not the destination which matters most. Additionally, we are called to be a "blessing to others" along the way. In this case, "others" refers to everyone we meet along the jouney - our family, our friends (both at school, and within our J2A group), strangers we meet, people crying out for help who God puts in our path.

How do we become that blessing? We start by tuning into God each day, asking Christ to guide us. I find that if He leads a person into my path, He also guides me in how to respond to them. For example, I like to take walks along the Henry Hudson Trail at lunch. During this summer, I've noticed more men hanging out with nothing to do as the economy has continued to degrade. A few days ago, one of them stopped me near this bridge and asked me for spare change. Honestly, I didn't know how to respond, so I shook my head no and quickly passed by.

You'll never guess what happend. The next morning I was flipping through my Bible looking for the story of the Road to Emaus, and it literally opened to the story of the Good Samaritan. (can you believe it? Sometimes God is NOT subtle.) The man was at the same bridge (waiting for me?) during my walk that day. This time, I gave him a five and chatted briefly with him. As I was talking with him, Christ lead me to share with him about our soup kitchen just a mile away on the trail. Lately, I've noticed him walking back from Keansburg... a little less down. He said his name was Carl, but I'm pretty sure His name is really Jesus (see Matt 25:31-46).

So God will guide you in how to be a blessing to others. In fact he already has. Last week in class I was personally blessed by how open everyone was to this new class format. I especially appreciated the prayer that you all wrote and how everyone took part in writing it...

Dear God, I will try to be a better person by connecting with you daily, spending time with family and helping others. Guide us and inspire us through this pilgrimage. Give us strength and determination to complete this journey, and become like a family through Christ our Lord. Amen.

I'm already looking forward to our meeting tomorrow!

(Check out this video segment. We'll see the rest of it in class.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugGL7G2IAzM

CP W1 D5 The Call of Abram (Gen 12:1-3) part 5

We have all experienced times when we feel connected and in sync with the world around us. Times when, for a brief moment, everything we see and do seems to be exactly what's needed and we are able to perform precisely as we should in the situation. I remember one Sunday morning when I used to volunteer at Liberty Science Center. That morning I was on floor duty and it seemed like all of us (volunteers and guests) connected. Each guest I encountered was pleasant. I knew all the answers. I was able to have several intensive sharing conversations with a number of guests that day. There are many other times I can recall this feeling (a particular day in high school Physics class comes to mind).

We all have also had many days when we felt disconnected or out of sync with the world around us. Days or times when no matter what we did, we couldn't get something to come out the right way. This morning I thought about a day in college when I finally got up enough nerve to ask a certain girl to a dance. I probably tried 20 times that day to connect with her alone (girls always travel in packs), all to no avail. (I even went to her room that night only to walk up to her door at the same time as a friend of mine. He stayed forever chatting away aimlessly and after an hour or so I gave up... it turns out he asked her to the same dance.) Again, this is one of many times I've felt this way.

We are asked to imagine that the "beat" which we are to be in sync with is Christ, and we're charged with finding ways to synch up with His beat. (The prayer of St. Patrick we've been working through is a nice start.) Synching with the beat... have you ever taken a walk (or perhaps a run) while listening to music on your iPod? When I do, sometimes I find myself almost "marching" to the beat of the tune. So synching up with Christ is really finding His tune and marching to that beat. Hmmm... marching... walking... this is leading directly to the concept of pilgrimage as a way of life? Remember the video from last week?

(Go ahead and scroll down... I'll wait a second.)

The pilgrimage we are called into -- and the same one Abram was called to -- really involves many small steps in sync with God. Yes he will sometimes call us to a journey to different locations (perhaps to move us out of our comfort zone), but the real call is to walk in sync with Him and be a blessing to those we meet along the way.

We are asked to pray for God to show us how we can be a blessing to our group.

How will you be a blessing?

CP W1 D4 The Call of Abram (Gen 12:1-3) part 4

We focus on verse 2 today. God tells us that if we follow His call "... I will bless you..." AND that "... you will be a blessing." Here He is setting up His covenant with Abram (and us) understanding that He asks a lot in terms of Abram leaving his land, friends and extended family, but He promises much in return.

So what does this mean? Well, God has blessed me in many ways. He's given me a family (immediate and extended), great health, a good mind, some measure of financial success, and an overall feeling of security in general. Considering all this, it would actually be quite easy for me to sit back in the comfort God has provided me in a sense of thankful worship. But there's that other part -"...you will be a blessing." What is that saying? If I'm sitting in God's comfort, how does that make me a blessing to others?

As I ponder this, I suddenly realize that this is a "call" as well. God is providing the blessing to us, but we are called to action to pass the blessing on to others. Maybe that's the part of the "we are pilgrim people" concept we are hearing in the videos and introduction we read last Sunday. We are always moving, striving & seeking to connect with others on our journey so we might pass on God's blessing to others.

God comes along on the journey as we do this... many times in the form of the people we meet along the way. The reading for today focuses on the story about the road to Emaus (Luke 24: 13-35... yes you have to look it up and read it) God travels along with us in our journey, even when we are troubled as the disciples were, and a appropriate times, He reveals himself to us.

This all makes me think about the time I first joined our church. I was really seeking comfort from God and He provided it in the rhythm of the worship services throughout that spring, and in the connections I was making through the Men's Group, etc. But then I felt that familiar feeling that I was to do more than just sit in a pew. We are a pilgrim people, it was time to get moving again. But this time the journey was to Dean and Vicki's offices to discuss becoming part of this "Rite13" thingy. That all lead to a challenge as I got to know all of you... then to a feeling of comfort as we all started "clicking" together... then later I felt another sense of call... more movement... suddenly I'm leading a 30 hour famine... now another sense of call.

You can see how it works. This energy of blessing ebbs and flows inward to me and outward from me to others. This is a brand new concept for me today, but I can see God's beauty in it.

So (as the prayer section today asks) where or for whom are you called to be a blessing today?

CP W1 D3 The Call of Abram (Gen 12:1-3) part 3

In today's excercise for reflection, we're asked to draw a picture of an island representing our lives so far in order that we might better understand where we have been (before looking towards where we are going). What was your island like?

Mine had an X marking the place of my birth, a garden where I grew up and was "tended to" by people of faith in my home church, the dark jungle of public schools, a sunny beach representing my college days at LVC, a warm medow of grad school (I guess I like learning about chemistry), I then started climbing the Career Mountains only to fall over the edge of the waterfall of Billy's death and be swept away by the Grief river. Right before being swept out to sea, I was able to get out and start rebuilding the house of my faith and I'm now in the playground of sharing my faith with others. Hovering menacingly above it all is the meteor of sin which threatens to destroy it all.

The book asks "where is God in this picture?" I guess He would be the sunlight falling on the island... energy available everywhere... perhaps a little hard to find in the dark jungles, but available nevertheless. In some areas of my life, I'm laying out absorbing as much of that energy as possible, in other areas, I'm probably shielding myself from it.

I like spending several days on the concept of God's call. We are to pray today "What are you calling me away from?" and "What are you calling me toward?" I don't usually think of a call "away from" something, but pondering it this morning, I do believe God is clearly calling me away from the wasteful aspects of my life - where I'm expending his energy in persuit of things that don't build the kingdom.

What is he calling me towards? That's harder to answer. I can feel the call to something big, but yet unknown to me. But at the end of the reading, the questions are simpler. How do I hope to grow in the coming weeks? What aspects of my life do I seek to open to God? In what areas of my life am I seeking God's guidance? These I can begin to answer, and I'm sure those answers will help me in the bigger questions.

CP W1 D2 The Call of Abram (Gen 12:1-3) part 2

(No, it's not a mistake. We read the same lesson today as we did Yesterday. In fact, if you look ahead, you see we will be on these Bible verses for the whole week. I guess they're important.)

Today we approach the call of Abram from the viewpoint of looking at our comfort zones. God called him and Sarai to leave their country in trust of Him to a promised better life. We are asked to think about how our avoidance of leaving our comfort zone sometimes can keep us from following God. Our lesson also talks about our travels as pilgrims contrasting them to travels as tourists.

I thought about a business trip I took several years ago to The Netherlands. It's my only experience traveling to a non-English speaking country. I was definitely a tourist - well a business tourist - for most of the trip. I traveled with my boss and guides or colleagues met us and the entire trip was conducted in English. But I took one vacation day in the middle of the week to go into Amsterdam (no not for THAT) and I struck out on my own. Our host just told me to walk 10 blocks in a certain direction and I would find the train station. So I took off, and for the walk to the train station during the business day (the town was empty), it was just like taking a walk in a very clean American neighborhood.

When I got to the station, however, I realized that all the signs were in Dutch. I was now lost. After a few minutes I swallowed hard, and approached a person asking a question, but they shook their head as they didn't understand English. I had to do that 2 or 3 times and each time, I was less willing to stick my neck out. Finally I approached an older couple and once they figured out I wanted to go to Amsterdam, they told me "two train" and stayed with me until the second train came along, and we were able to share random thoughts along the train ride as best we could. It was really rewarding to chat with local people who could point out things along the way.

While reading the lesson, I reflected if I needed to go to a foreign country to experience this feeling of being out of place and I remembered that I'm reading "Queen Bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman. (I figure if I'm responsible for caring for so many teenage girls, I should know at least something about their daily experiences.) This book describes the jungle that modern school life is for many kids but for girls especially, with constantly changing "rankings" within groups and the crushing pressure to conform at all levels. She describes a typical "cafeteria moment" when a girl comes off a lunch line and has to choose where to sit. You evidently are not always welcome at every table. Of course similar feelings face us from time to time in the adult world as well. We always try to sit with people we're comfortable with.

But as this reading points out, God sometimes calls us away from our comfort zones. It's hard to do, but as I found out on the train to Amsterdam, it can be rewarding.

I wonder how this applies to the high school cafeteria?

CP W1 D1 The Call of Abram (Gen 12:1-3)

(To explain the code in the title, it's Choosing Pilgrimage, Week 1, Day 1 - to make it easier to find things on the right-hand panel.)

Today's reading is about God's call to Abram to leave his country and journey to another. When I opened the book this morning, I was looking forward to focus on something other than God's call, so this hit me by surprise. You see, all summer long, I've been wrestling with a growing sense that God is calling me to do something different. Throughout the summer, different options have come into my mind, only for me to realize they wouldn't work out. Maybe it was because I couldn't see a way to get there from here, or the call involved more than just myself and God didn't seem to be calling a key partner as well. Most recently a flyer inviting me to apply for a very prestigous position in a neighboring state came across my desk.

Throughout my life, I've let "calls" with respect to my education and employment determine my path through life. Each one has taken me to a different faith community where, like Abram, I have received many blessings from God (and hopefully have provided blessings in return). I can think of several like growing up in Holy Trinity Lutheran and learning about God, imersing myself in the faith community on the Lebanon Valley College campus, starting work with youth at Luther Memorial church while attending graduate school in Blacksburg, and passing on my faith to my children while at High Bridge Reformed.

As I think back on these "calls", each of them was preceeded by a period of searching that lasted a year or more. None of them were "smooth" transitions - they were all preceeded by several calls I thought I heard, but which didn't turn out to be genuine. The corresponding faith journeys weren't smooth either as each new location brought a (sometimes difficult) search for a faith home.

Going back to Abram, what was his path like? My Study Bible says his path was a journey of around 500 miles - or a month of caravan travel. Today some people do that distance in a day by car and 500 miles by plane is trivial. He brought some of his extended family with him, so he had the core of a faith community, but still had to interact with people who didn't understand God the way he did. I'm sure it was very scarey setting out.

As it is for us... trying this new daily reading, the new spiritually intensive classes, and learning to walk with God while we walk with each other will take some effort, and determination. I'm sure it will turn out quite rewarding as well.

It's going to be an incredible journey!

Bringing it all together

You know, in the middle of the summer when you're contemplating making a change to your youth program, you never know quite how it's going to be received. Last year when we started our Journey to Adulthood (J2A), I thought we had come up with a really neat way to build excitement and get everyone thinking about our pilgrimage to England in summer of 2010 and... well it was too complex, and it fell completely on its face, causing a whole host of issues. It was easily the lowest 3 months in youth ministry I've ever had.

This summer we did something even bigger. The decision to go with this curriculum was not undertaken lightly. We would have to get the kids to be open to a much more intensive spirituality. We would impact on other programs (acolytes, worship, etc.) within the parish. Leaders would move from a teaching role to much more "guiding and letting go" role. Most importantly, we would give up starting our meetings out with donuts or bagels. It basically required us all (youth and leaders) to reach out to new levels.

So it was with a decent amount of trepidation that I sat down this morning (after stalling for as long as I could passing out paper, string, index cards, pencils, etc.) and started the guided meditation that opens our liturgy each week. But as I read the words encouraging us to calm down and think about our life with God this week, I felt myself calming down as well, and noticed to my great joy that everyone seemed to be approaching all this new stuff with an open mind.

The kids were wonderful. The space turned out to really set a good mood, and we were able to share, contemplate the task at hand (writing a prayer) and even have some fun together. It was a great start.

Now I look forward to starting the daily readings tomorrow morning.

Our Journey Together

Our pilgrimage with God has been going on ever since our Baptism. We have been walking with Him throughout our lives, sometimes aware of his presence, but many times not as aware as we could be. During the next several months together, we'll share tools which aim at helping us become more aware of God's presence in our life.

It's the same journey we've been on for a long time...

... are you ready to become more aware of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV7OCk95VuA

Work, the Final Component

The last part of our program is our work. In this case, we work at the parish events which we host. Of course part of this is to support our fundraising efforts towars the England portion of our Journey with Christ next summer. But beyond that, our work here is a key service to our larger parish.

You see, many of our events (fundraising or others) have become key parts of the parish program, offering opportunities for all people of our Church to come together for fellowship. This connection to others sharing our faith is important for the life of any Christian. We will study this more when we get to the "Companions on the Pilgrimage" section of our curriculum, but these opportunities for Christians to get together with each other really help our parish become "whole" in the same way as the movie nights, lock-ins, and retreats helped us come together as a group.

So while we may earn a little money towards the England portion of our Journey with Christ, everyone else in the parish is connecting with their fellow pilgrims while they discuss the relative merits of pumpkin vs. apple pie at our pie sale, or talk about their gardens at the spring plant sale, or even relax and listen to the music as we serve them pancakes on Mardi Gras.

And... these are opportunities for us to connect with each other AND with the other people of the parish as well.

Care for Others (Other Parts of Our Program)

Our program for this year includes not only the daily Bible reading and Sunday morning classes, but it also has other components, one of which is to serve others. Our group does this in several ways, the most direct being our regular ministry to bake cookies for and serve at our local soup kitchen every few weeks. That serves people in our immediate community, but then we also take part in two activities to serve the broader global community - the CROP walk in the fall and our 30 Hour Famine in the spring.

Why is this important? Well, God has been urging us to do this since the early parts of the Bible. In Deuteronomy 10, we are told to fear the Lord and walk in his ways and it goes on to describe that caring for the "aliens among us" is one way to do that. (No, not little green men, but here Aliens refers to the poor, those less fortunate than us, perhaps immigrants.) Throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells us to care for the poor as well.

But there's another reason (not that we need one). Providing care for each other is a basic human need... yes we NEED to care for others. Empathy (feeling with people in their pain, rather than sympathy, feeling for them) is a key emotion and a big part of the human experience. It's natural for us to feel empathy if a family member or close friend is in pain. God is simply asking us to expand that to those outside our close circle. So we inclue opportunities to serve all of humanity in response to our need and to God's call.

Carving Out Time for God -How Our Curriculum Helps

The real effect of this curriculum is to help us develop habits to carve out time for God in our lives. Why is this important? As lifelong pilgrims, our walk with God serves a deep felt desire we all have to get back to His love and compassion. Our walk in the world, however, has a tendancy to pull us further away. This tension is a fact of life as a Christian.

Taking time for a holy pause so we can recenter ourselves gives us comfort, peace, and a chance to walk closer to God. Doing this once a week is essential, but doing it daily - even for a brief time - can give us a big payback as we allow time for God to speak to us and guide us.

Yesterday I wrote about the "why" we do this, so Today is about the "how."

For me, I prefer to get up at 5:00 (always have) and Kristen prefers I stay quiet at that hour, so that creates a natural space for me to do my quiet time with God. I use the Prayer Book and go through the Morning Devotions on p.137, supplementing that with appropriate canticles, creeds, prayers and the daily office Bible readings. Once we start the curriculum, I'll move from the Prayer Book to our curriculum for the next few months.

I also try and incorporate some different prayer and meditation practices. Sometimes I'll use the prayer beads, sometimes some meditation tracks on my iPod (with headphones, of course), and sometimes I try and just sit in silence (I have the hardest time with that). Journaling will be a brand new activity for me when I start that next week.

This is also a strength of our curriculum, during our class time we will try all sorts of prayer, meditation, and spiritual practices. This will hopefully encourage you to use some of them. Of course, some you may just find strange, others you may like and use, and others still you may use sometime in your future as you continue on your lifelong pilgrimage.

Getting Our Gear Together for the Journey

A key part of The Way of Pilgrimage is the brief daily Bible readings and meditations. This aspect of the program accomplishes several things.

First, it asks us to carve out some brief time for God each day. This "holy pause" in our daily lives helps us to remember that we are followers of Christ all the time - not just on Sunday morning.

Second, the suggested Bible verses help us to guide our thinking along the lines of the curriculum content, so for example the suggested readings will strengthen our section on PRAYER: Heart of the Pilgrimage, when we get to that section, etc.

Third, taking a brief moment each day helps us to remember our week from a daily vantage point instead of looking back on Sunday morning and trying to remember what we were feeling on Monday.

Fourth, by taking a moment to write in our journal, we spend the effort to organize our thinking which can help cement the learning, and prepare us for those opportunities God places before us to share our faith - both by our actions and if really necessary, by our words.

For me, I gathered together a favorite Study Bible, a nice journal and a favorite pen. Not too far away is my prayer book, a candle, and some prayer beads. Most important is some quiet time away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of family life (I achieve this by getting up early). Take a moment and think about what you'll need and get your gear together.

Our Curriculum

We're using Upper Room Book's "The WAY of PILGRIMAGE: An Adventure in Spiritual Formation for the Next Generation" as our guidebook for this journey. You can read more about it at http://www.thewayofpilgrimage.org/. This is a series of 5 units geared to senior high school and college freshmen youth.

Generally, it guides them in developing a series of... I'll call them "life skills" for being a lifelong christian pilgrim. Units include...

CHOOSING PILGRIMAGE

THE BIBLE: Pilgrimage Travel Guide

PRAYER: Heart of the Pilgrimage

COMPANIONS on the PILGRIMAGE

STEPPING into the WORLD

It centers around the essential skill of daily Bible reading and reflection, and through our classes, adds in discussion, various spiritual practices (meditation, prayer forms, etc.) and time to reflect on what all this means in our daily lives. We're adding a healthy dose of christian service to others that has become an ususual theme of our group over the past 3 years.

Finally, the series is supported by a great Leader's Guide and a DVD with a series of videos to support each section.

Our First Meeting

In preparation for this journey, we spent the summer selecting a new curriculum - The WAY of PILGRIMAGE, an Adventure in Spiritual Formation for the Next Generation - from Upper Room. This is an engaging curriculum that trains youth in "faith practicies" which is the how of our contuning walk with God. We have a group of kids coming for several motivations; some have been part of the group in the past and wish to continue, some are preparing to make a special pilgrimage to England in July 2010, and some are part of our group to prepare for the rite of Confirmation.

Today was the first meeting - always an occasion for some butterflies. But it went off well. I had a flury of activity last evening to bring some props in to prepare a worship space for us (we are tranforming our youth lounge into something more "worship friendly") and that seemed to help set the mood. Our group seemed open to a more meditative meeting and we explained the process, requirements, and the like.

So we're off and running...