I’ve just purchased and printed my bus tickets for the long journey from Toronto to Murfreesboro, TN.  I’m undertaking this road trip to visit some old friends: Fr. John Oliver and his family, whom I met when we were students together at seminary; and James Bailey, whom I met when I was a student of his at college.  Including a four hour layover in Buffalo, it’ll be about 24 hours from the time I leave my home tomorrow morning until I arrive in Murfreesboro.  My Kindle e-reader is fully charged and I’m bringing along Early Christian and Byzantine Art to keep me occupied on the journey.

Unless I find free WiFi along the way, I expect to be more or less offline until Sept 19.  I will, however, be bringing along my SPOT Gen3 GPS tracking device.  (This is what I’ll use on my pilgrimage to Jerusalem to auto-update my progress through Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Holy Land.)  This is not intended to help me find my way.  Rather, I’ll be using it to send automated “check-in” messages to family and friends (and this blog, my Twitter account, and FB) and to generate a map showing my progress.  Starting Tuesday, my Greyhound road trip map will be online here.  (Nothing to see until Sept 9, 2014 at 09:00 EDT.)

Once I return to Canada, I’ll have thirteen days to finish off my preparations and say my good-byes, and then I’m off!  Excited? You bet!  Insane?  Undoubtedly.  😀

* * * * * * *

The title of this post is a nod to a song off the debut album by Whitehorse.  I first heard it when they performed it live in Richmond Hill at a Vinyl Cafe show.  I’d had no idea they would be the musical guests, so I was thrilled at the chance to see these great Canadian musicians sorta up-close and sorta personal.

Message:Systems test! Short road trip to the US before the pilgrimage begins.

If you’re reading this, then I’ve successfully integrated my GPS tracker with my blog, Twitter, and FB.  Once I start travelling, my location and links to a map will be included in this message.

peregrinus

You have received this message because peregrinus has added you to their SPOT contact list.

Ready for Adventure

FindMeSPOT.com

St. James the Apostle is commemorated on April 30 in the Orthodox Church, but western Christians celebrate his feast on July 25.  This is a huge feast in Spain — if you hunt around, I’m sure you can find videos of the fireworks display at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Earlier this morning I finished watching a six part documentary called The Naked Pilgrim: The Road to Santiago.  The host, Brian Sewell, is a British art critic and a lapsed Catholic who had done the Camino forty years ago.  He never mentioned why he had done it when he was in his early thirties, but one of the goals of this journey was to speak with pilgrims and learn why they were walking to Santiago de Compostela. (It was moving to see how his own brusque agnosticism became less certain the longer he travelled.)

I don’t remember when I first heard of the Camino, but I had filed it away as “Interesting, maybe later.”  I had forgotten about it until one day in mid-November 2009, I read an article about it in The Walrus.  By the time I was done reading, I had decided I needed to do this.  Six weeks later, I was on my way.  If you have a few minutes, I encourage you to read Walking the Way.  If you don’t have a few minutes, bookmark it and read it later.

When I walked the Camino de Santiago in January and February 2010, one of the most precious aspects of the experience was the solitude.  I’m not an anti-social person, but I do enjoy my own company.  I found that walking for hours on end by myself gave me a chance to do a lot of reflection.  By the end of the day, I’d be ready to sit and write in my travel journal for a bit and then possibly find internet access to upload photos and write a blog entry.  My days began and ended in prayer, and that was a very good thing.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

James 4:13-15

I’d been reminded of this truth while preparing myself for walking the Camino de Santiago almost five years ago.  This came to mind again recently because I have re-evaluated my plans for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

There have been a number of reasons for this.  The deciding  factor was the issue of the length of time I would be in the Schengen Area following my original plan.  While the 90 day tourist visa would be fine for a non-European walking the Via Francigena, my plans included a minimum of an extra thirty days beyond that — walking from Rome to Bari and then following the Via Egnatia across northern Greece.  I looked into getting a long stay (National) visa so I wouldn’t have to worry about deportation, fines of thousands of Euros, or being banned from entering the Schengen Area for up to five years.

In order to apply for a long stay visa within the Schengen Area, one needs to provide an address: a hotel reservation, or family residence, or perhaps something arranged for by a sponsor.  This I cannot do, since my goal is to be in a different location every night.  Most North Americans planning to spend more than three months in Europe are likely there for one of two reasons: school or work.  There were a few other requirements predicated on this assumption which I simply cannot meet.  The hefty visa application fee is non-refundable, so I attempted to contact two different consulates in Toronto to get advice, even if that was to forget about it.  I was rebuffed by both, although the Italian consulate was at least politely unhelpful as opposed to rudely incredulous.

Rather than take this as an indication to give up on my crazy dream of walking to Jerusalem in time to celebrate Pascha in 2015, I’ve refined my plan.  Within the next few days, I will be buying a ticket for a flight leaving Toronto on Oct 8 with a 24 hour layover in Ponta Delgada before arriving in Paris.  From Paris, I’ll hop a train to Switzerland and begin walking to Rome from there.  I expect to arrive in the Eternal City by mid-November.  No matter how long I stay, I know that I will not have spent enough time there, and the 90 day deadline will still be running.  I’m hoping to do an overnight trip to either Florence or Naples from my base in Rome, before continuing on to Bari.

Once I leave Italy, the timer stops until I re-enter the Schengen Area at the Greek border.  That means I can take a few days in Ohrid without feeling rushed.  Perhaps I’ll see the New Year in from Thessaloniki, before continuing on to Istanbul.  Once I’m there, I’ll have about a month to kill before continuing on my way to Jerusalem.  I could simply leave Toronto a month later, but I’d like to avoid snow while crossing the Alps on foot, and Istanbul is as good a place to rest and relax as any.  (Although….. round trip flights between Istanbul and Beirut are quite cheap.  Perhaps I’ll be able to see my Lebanese friends after all!)

In order to arrive in Jerusalem in time for Holy Week (which follows the western Christian celebration by a week in 2015), I should be leaving Istanbul by the third week of February.  Orthodox Christians begin their journey of Great Lent on 23 February in 2015…

So, there is the revised plan.  If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this.

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree,
The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails.
The Son of the virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
We worship Thy passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.

15th Antiphon, Great and Holy Friday Orthros

I am in touch with my emotions, but I am not given to sentimentalism. That is why I was stunned when, on hearing the above hymn for the first time in 1996, I found myself sobbing. This evening, as I knelt in a darkened church with tears running down my face, I tried to articulate the reason for this very out of character response. Here’s what I came up with. (It may seem rather abstract, but that’s the way I interact with the world.)

The crucifixion of Christ is much more than the execution of a failed insurrectionist. Mel Gibson’s movie did a great job of showing the gory details of a Roman crucifixion, but as ghastly as it was, such atrocities have been part of the human experience up to this day. If the gore in The Passion of the Christ bothered you, you likely don’t follow international news. Yes, it’s horrible, but it happens every day to men, women, and children — innocent people who love their families (and are loved by them) are brutally snuffed out of existence. This is the world we live in.

What makes the death of Christ different for me is hinted at in the hymn. The source of Life is killed. The ordering principle (Logos) of all creation is erased. Meaning is extinguished, the abyss of nihilism gazes into each human heart.

The insane man jumped into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. “Where is God gone?” he called out. “I mean to tell you! We have killed him, you and I! We are all his murderers! But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? … God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife – who will wipe the blood from us?

-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

What makes this hymn on this day tolerable is the final line. “Show us also Thy glorious resurrection.” It points beyond death and despair. In just a few more days, we will be celebrating Christ’s victory over hades, the fact that He has trampled down Death by death. I’ll conclude with a few lines from the Paschal Homily (Hieratikon) of St John Chrysostom:

Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns.

Today we got up to -12 C in the sunshine, with a slight breeze out of the

west. While I don't expect to ever — EVER — encounter temperatures like

this on the great trek to Jerusalem, I thought today would be a good day

to do a live test of my layering system.

The results were encouraging. It took me 40 minutes to walk 4 km, so I

was moving at a good pace, especially considering the slush, snow, and ice

that was covering the sidewalks most of the way. The tip of my nose got a

little cold because I can't cover it without having my glasses completely

fog up, my arms felt a slight chill, but my core was actually a little too

warm. (Too warm in the winter is just as dangerous as too cold, since

once most clothing gets damp from sweat it loses a lot of its insulating

qualities.) Next time I'll leave the insulated vest at home and add an

extra long-sleeved layer.