A Soul Journey
On Saturday 12th April Sr Monica and Sr Gwen organised a wonderful day of reflective walking at Glendalough to co-incide with the Vocations Ireland ceremony that takes place at the lakeside every year to mark Vocations Sunday. A group of us, coming from many different directions gathered at Tearman, a small retreat centre run by Father Michael Rodgers at 11.30am where we introduced ourselves over hot coffee before making our way to the prayer room to start our Journey.
This was to be a day of many sacred and interesting moments! After our gathering meditation and a bite to eat, Fr Michael met us at the front gate and over the next 3 hours, he took us on a journey of poetry, philosophy, storytelling and history as he led us through the beautiful valley of Glendalough, sharing with us his celtic spirituality and the experiences of his life there as well as the life of St Kevin.
Other than a couple of short showers, the weather held up as we wandered along the riverbed, up the mountain, through the scots pine forest and eventually arriving at a viewpoint to the bed of St Kevin by the lake where we mulled over his life as a hermit in this beautiful part of the world.
Back at the centre, we warmed ourselves and shared our experiences of the Journey taken and our experiences of the day, everyone finding their own little message to take away with them.
The day ended with us joining the Vocations Ireland gathering by the lake where yet again, the beauty of Glendalough was to sanctify us even more as we each sang and prayed and asked for blessings on our journey now and for the future.
Until next year . . !
Rachel