Discover Contemplation With the Parables & Your Loved OnesSample

When I was a child, I was traveling with my family in New Mexico when I saw barefoot pilgrims traveling on foot to Chimayó, a small adobe church north of Santa Fe revered for its healing soil. It was Holy Week. Many of the pilgrims we saw used wheelchairs or crutches to make their way down the dusty roads. Some carried candles, rocks, or photographs of loved ones. Others bore large wooden crosses on their backs. I vividly remember seeing an old man crawling on his bare knees in the dirt. As I child, I remember being simultaneously fascinated and perplexed: What were they doing? Where were they going? And why? It felt like I was witnessing something from another world, another time.

In many traditions around the world, removing shoes is a sign of respect. A few centuries after Jesus’ life, followers of The Way began making pilgrimages on foot to holy places like Jerusalem, Rome, Lourdes, Santiago, and Croagh Patrick. For many, Holy Week, the final week in Lent, is a particularly important time to walk barefoot quietly in solidarity with Jesus, who Himself walked to Golgotha, the hill outside Jerusalem where He was crucified. A similar kind of solidarity takes place during the Holy Week ritual of the Stations of the Cross, when we walk, pray, and meditate through the fourteen actions leading up to Jesus’ death. You can walk the Stations of the Cross at a church in your town, or you can just download the stations on your smartphone and meditate the Stations of the Cross on a favorite walking path. Walking barefoot can remind us that we are rooted to this sacred Earth.

Wonder together: Have you ever walked barefoot because the ground felt holy? Think about all the places your bare feet might like to walk: on moss, on sand, on large rocks, in a stream, on a cool tile floor, or even down the long wooden aisle of a cathedral. How can a barefoot walk be an act of devotion? How does walking barefoot teach us about Jesus and how the divine merges with the physical?

Contemplate the parable of the fig tree and how the nearness of God’s realm is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings (Luke 21:29-33).