Iona: Day 6 (Gini Barazia)

pilgrimage (noun): a journey of intentional encounter with God that renders the pilgrim transformed.

Today we’re focused on healing and transformation, the core of our shared experience as pilgrims. For hundreds of years, people have traveled to Iona seeking spiritual healing and closeness to God.

For some, the seeking includes a search for the feminine divine through nature, or an opening of the heart, or the study of Mary Magdalene, or a transformation within. Maybe even all these things and more! The blessing of this pilgrimage has been the opportunity to explore, discuss, question, and learn from each other about the richness of these aspects of our faith…a true journey of intentional encounter with God.

Today, after morning Eucharist and group discussion, we enjoyed a free afternoon to explore the sacred spaces of Iona. My own walk brought me past a bagpiper who was welcoming spring on a hill above the sea. We explored the beaches on the north end, including the White Strand of the Monks—one of the sites where dozens of Benedictine monks were killed by invading Vikings around 800 A.D. The last of the monks fled the island twenty years later, and the original abbey was burned to the ground by the Vikings.

The day closed at the current Abbey, built 400 years later. At a healing service in “The Quiet Corner,” several of our pilgrim band offered prayers for family and friends near and far, as well as healing for our country.

Moving into the final days of our time together, I am filled with gratitude for this experience. Thanks to all those at home who are supporting our pilgrimage with prayer and in many other ways.

–Gini Barazia

“…a thin place where only tissue paper separates the material from the spiritual.”

–George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, describing the island