“The destination of a pilgrimage is not the holy site, but home.
One passes through the holy site to return home anew.”
--Brother John, Taize’

Returning home and writing intersect as practices that serve my rediscovery of God’s grace in the ordinary. My sabbatical will be a pilgrimage to places that have been spiritual homes to me in order to write about the gifts of grace I received. The places include:
• My parental home and congregation, where I was baptized, confirmed and ordained;
• Holden Village, where I engage faith practices permeating daily life in community;
• Good Counsel Convent, to pray again with the teachers with whom I trained as a spiritual director.

In moving toward home and penning the observations, I seek new focus and deepened trust that God is at work in utterly human stories, including my own. I embrace pilgrimage as a practice of incarnation and freedom, meeting God embodied in ordinary people and surprising places. In one sense the pilgrimage is a return to places that have nurtured my faith and ministry. In a greater sense it is experiencing anew how the clearest moments of God and grace have been in movements of leaving home and returning. It is the journey of faithful people called both to “Go!” and to “Return!” Writing is the particular, concrete practice of words that help us, like Adam, name the life God is creating, calling and redeeming. The sabbatical will be a two-way dialog between events and writing. Pilgrim movement will stir words and words will help focus what I see in the pilgrim movement.

I’ll study spiritual autobiographies and journals to overhear the witness of others whose faith also engages complex contexts. I hope the listening and writing will serve grace as I support others who grope for God and words in their journeys.

For balance and renewal of relationship, my wife and I will exercise, garden and play piano duets.