24th June, 2009 - Posted by Ursula Stephens - 1 Comment
It’s Monday and we are back in the bus heading north , following the ancient trade route in the footsteps of St Paul.
We have several hours of travel to cover the distance to our next stop, up through the mountains and then down and across the rolling plains towards the town of Kalambaka.
As the bus climbs away from the coast the landscape changes and starts to look more familiar. We can see why many Greek migrants would feel at home in regional Australia.
The temperature is milder too - the thermometer in the bus is showing about 26C and there are cloudy skies.
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24th June, 2009 - Posted by Ursula Stephens - 2 Comments
It’s Tuesday and we are up bright and early for breakfast. There’s another pilgrimage here from Italy and we share a few words of friendship.
We have another long day ahead. We start our journey with the pilgrim’s prayer and Archbishop Mark reminds us of the Monastic tradition.
We start by visiting two monasteries perched high on these rocky outcrops.
Read More24th June, 2009 - Posted by Pilgrims - No Comments
Photos under the cut.
Read More24th June, 2009 - Posted by Sister Barbara - No Comments
By now the pilgrims have prayed in Mary’s House at Ephesus and reflected on the mystery of her son, the Son of God and rejoiced in her title, Theotokos, given her by the Council of Ephesus as long ago as 431. They have prayed in some of the great monasteries of the early church, monasteries in which the great Jewish prayers, the Psalms became enshrined in the church’s liturgy, the Prayer of the Hours. Our pilgrims, too, have silently stood within one of the ancient centres for the devotion of the icon, a devotion to which we of the west are increasingly being attracted.
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24th June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Francis - No Comments
St Paul was not only a spiritual giant but he must also have had great physical stamina to walk the distances we are travelling in
the comfort of a bus. As we leave Thessoloniki may I join Paul in his blessing to the church there and sent it to you all “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.
24th June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Mark - No Comments
We have made it to the edge of Europe - or at least to the edge of Europe as the Roman Empire understood it. We are at Kavala which used to be Neapolis, the port at which Paul first set foot upon the soil west of the Dardanelles (or the Hellespont as it was the called). This is the thin stretch of water which separated Roman Europe from the province of Asia Minor which included much of the western part of Turkey. Not far from here was the city of Philippi where Paul founded his first European community.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we’re told that Paul came here after a vision of a Macedonian man pleading that Paul come across the water to help them. The vision was convenient because it certainly matched Paul’s sense that he had received a divine commission to preach the Gospel where no-one else had been. At this stage, Christianity had certainly reached Rome, though we’re not too sure how and when. But Macedonia was virgin territory for Christian missionary work.
Whatever about the vision, the decision to launch a European mission was a huge one for Paul and his team. I can imagine long team meetings discussing the pros and cons. Then once the decision was made, there must have been more meetings discussing the strategy - who would go where and when and how they would operate once they reached European soil. The risks were enormous. How would they be received? What if the whole thing came to nothing? Would they even survive, given the likelihood of persecution? What would the Church in Jerusalem think? What would be the response of Paul’s opponents who had created such havoc in Asia Minor? These were surely some of the questions that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy discussed.
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Footsteps of Saint Paul