Pilgrim Steps

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  • Advent Candle-lighting with your family

  • Kids Activity

  • Journey into our Community Activity

  • Pilgrim Reflection
Take this Week's Journey

Every pilgrimage begins at a particular time and place, a moment in history, and a geographical location. Our Advent pilgrimage begins in a dark location, in troubled times. The people of Israel held onto the flickering hope that their promised Messiah would soon appear to redeem all of God’s creation as foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

But God had been silent for four hundred years.

And then, all of a sudden, out of the darkness came John the Baptist…a strange man with an incredible message.

John the Baptist is the first, and one of the most important, characters we will meet on our Advent Pilgrimage. John steps into history at the fulcrum between the ages. John is the “Messenger” foretold by Malachi at the end of the Old Testament.  John stands at the center of cosmic time to announce that God is on the move, the NEW age of God’s Kingdom is very near…

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” -Malachi 3:1

For lo, the days
are hastening on
By prophets seen of old
When with the
ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold
When peace shall
over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world
give back the song
Which now the angels sing

from “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”

This Week's Scripture: Luke 1:5-25 & Mark 1:1-8

Use your imagination as you listen to John the Baptist’s birth story.

Listen Here

Our Advent pilgrimage is also a good time for each of us to locate ourselves in our own time and place. Take a moment to ponder…

  • Where do I find myself today?

  • Does my current location seem dark to me? How so? If not, where do I see light?

  • If I looked, where might I see God in my current location?

I have tried to set a purpose upon leaving for my pilgrimage, that is a spiritual goal to achieve by the end. This has never panned out. I have learned that for me, I have no choice as to how the Lord will mold me during the Camino. It seems more useful to me, as a Christian, to have faith in God to fill me with his Spirit as he sees fit along this journey. All I need to have is the willingness to open myself to Him, look for Him along my way, practice gratitude, and develop habits that will make me conscious of Him every step along the way.

CKPC Member Julia Carpenter, a Camino pilgrim

Click Here for This Week's Pilgrim Steps

These are the compass points for a pilgrim’s journey:

  • Willingness to open ourselves to God

  • Eyes searching for God along the way

  • Practicing gratitude

  • Incorporating habits that keep us conscious of God every day.