Recently while reading a very nice book on Saint Francis’s life (Brother Francis of Assisi) I was reflecting about two different ways to dedicate our lives: the active one versus a meditative one. I was inspired by the differences between Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi. Saint Francis went off walking all his life from town to town predicating about the Lord, advocating and teaching peace in the more pure way, while Saint Clara spent all her life in prayer and adoration of God in one small monastery.
Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi
My mother loves to use an Italian expression when she talks about me: “Every day a new train leaves the station called Luciano”, meaning that every day I have a new idea or a new project. And this is very true, but although I cannot deny that I cannot envision myself to retire on the top of a mountain in a hermitage with the only company of cats and goats spending my days praying and singing to God and eating vegetables grown in my own garden, at the same time I am fascinated and I have a lot of respect for people that make these kind of life choice and are able to detach themselves from the need of “to do” and to dedicate their lives to contemplation.
Years ago I met in Belgium a beautiful old lady: Suzanne. She was the mother of 5 sons and daughters and I was dating the youngest of her sons. After have spent a life being a mother and a wife, running and working all day long, she just stopped everything and retired in her own little house in the suburbs of Antwerp. Everyday she got up at 5am and spent the day in prayer and meditation. In her prayer room she has few little papers with names of people written on, those were the ones who had a special place in her heart (I was lucky enough to be one of them), she had a couple of pictures of her spiritual Masters (Jesus and Muktananda), a bowl with fresh water and lilies, candles, incense and pillows, and a bowl with sand coming from an Indian temple site that I have brought to her as present from one of my trips. That was one of the most calm and warm places I had ever set in.
What always struck me was that she referred to her praying as her “work”. So one day I asked her why she was saying that, she replied with simplicity and humility: “This is what God wants from me”. That answer felt so true, so genuine; with a smile I replied to her: “And this is what the world needs from you, thank you!”
So I started to come to the conclusion that this is my call: to walk, to keep going, to feel busy, to start every day a new project… to ride everyday a new train that leaves the station called Luciano.
I had several experiences of retreats, where silence and stillness are the only task that one has to perform and to search for. The most amazing was the 33 days Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises. But most of these retreats were a weekend long, almost all following the Christian tradition but also followed some more Eastern influences. Each time that I am in a retreat I feel so at home, so connected with the world, so open, so energized, so… empowered.
Most recently, in preparation of my Mount Everest walk I started a daily meditation, I sit for 10 minutes (the book advises 30 minutes, but I am not there yet…), I gently close my eyes and begin to recite a prayer-word, silently, interiorly throughout the time of my meditation: "Ma-ra-na-tha."
“Maranatha” is an Aramaic word (which is the language that Jesus spoke) and it means, "Come, Lord." It is found in the Scriptures and is one of the earliest prayers in the Christian tradition.
If you ask: “Why a meditation exercise to train to climb a mountain?” My answer would be: “Because climbing, as well as walking a pilgrimage, is a lot about determination, about training your body to endure difficulties, tiredness, adversities, but also training your mind to stay focused in one task: to put one foot in front of another and keep going.”
So maybe this is it, to walk for me is the balance between the need of “to go”, the need of “to feel to do something” and the gravitation toward the need to find the courage to stop and just allow ourselves to live the present and just to be.
Mount Subasio, Italy 2009 - Following Saint Francis's Footprints
It is also a lot about faith: to believe that someone out there is looking after you, and to believe that you will with His help overcome your fears, your difficulties, your tiredness. It is about letting it go and believe in the greatness of the Providence. Allow yourself to believe in the Providence. Just like the solitary monk on the top of the mountain put his life into His hands, you, for the time of your Pilgrimage, allow Him to take care of you. You still have to do the walk, you are still the one that has to put one foot in front of the other, but He helps you in finding the way to your destination.
Maranatha.
Camino de Santiago, Spain 2007
