All tagged sanctifying

Sanctifying Travel: How the Goal Transforms the Way

For the past month, I have traveled regularly from our apartment in Munich out to rural St. Ottilien Abbey, a Benedictine monastery about an hour’s train ride from us.  I go to meet with one of the monks there for spiritual direction.  Sometimes I stay for the night, sometimes I return the same day, but every time becomes a pilgrimage.

Some people think you have to do something, something special, to experience transcendence. Like sitting on a pillow, listening to chants or meditating with closed eyes.  Others think you do not need to do anything at all to experience transcendence. Though it is helpful to go to a monastery to retreat from our busy lives, to share some moments of quiet and rest, or to learn how to breath naturally again, the real art, say some wise teachers, is to find all this in the ordinary moments of life.