8 posts tagged “footwashing”

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Been a couple of days

A candle burns for each person staying with me - a few donations have been left, which I am using to buy food for the next people to come by.  Rennie has been making peace cranes, and the shells are a gift from one of our guests.

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100_0094

Most of the folks who have stayed took a bed for only one night, but last night and tonight I'll have a few folks who are staying more than one night.  That has provided an opportunity to get to know them a little better, and provide them a place to encourage their lingering in Santiago before they continue their journeys.

So far, folks from Norway, Germany, Czeck Republic, Brazil and Ireland (via US), as well as folks from the States. 

I've learned as much or more from my companion in this ministry, Rennie.  His life experience gives him great insight into people, and his way of discerning about them is incredible, as is his generosity.

People haven't taken me up on footwashing much, but this morning the group let me wash their feet.  I'm feeling a little more comfortable with - figuring out how to run my fingers across and around toes and the heel - some very blistered heels and toes.  Each time I remember the charge from the Maundy Thursday liturgy - that which is done to you, you must do.  I also have etched in my mind the photo of Pope John Paul II kissing the feet he had washed.  It is a beautiful thing to have the privilege to wash the holy feet of a pilgrim

Post a comment Tags: prayer, santiago, pilgrim, st. james, pilgrimage, altar, lingering, hospitality …

Day 2 with pilgrims

100_0057Several folks have come in today, and while some are probably just grateful for a free bed, I think that a few have a need to talk and share about their experiences.  Whether or not this is key to integrating the pilgrimage or not is something I will learn later, but for now, I am enjoying the privilege of being a person with whom pilgrims talk about some of their experiences.  Today I had a person take me up on the offer to wash their feet.  I'm a little surprised people are hesitant, but I shouldn't be - at church, on Maundy Thursday, people don't like the intimacy of having their feet washed, at least many don't.  Last night we had a grand dinner - will not do that every night (cost of the Euro has everything at twice the price for me on my American dollar).


     One pilgrim left a 10 Euro donation this morning (almost $20, now), which will help cover the cost of food for pilgrims tonight.  I'm offering free tapas and story telling at 7:00pm, Spain time.

Rennie put together an awesome dinner, and I put some tapas on the table that weren't too bad (thanks to Rennie for shopping and helping with inviting people, or I wouldn't be able to do this!).


Post a comment Tags: welcome, jesus, tapas, santiago, evangelism, service, discipleship, pilgrimage …

Footwashing

     Maunday Thursday - I washed the foot of a mother - and as I did, it struck me, how would a mother wash a foot?  Or a dad?
     Holding one's foot in my hands and running a wash-cloth soaked with hot water around it, I suddenly pondered the  sacred touch in the mother's work of washing her infant, and often a playfulness - "one little piggy...".  Maybe there was little playfulness that night as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but there was intimacy  -  there was intimacy.
     This gesture of Jesus, which he bids us to pay-forward, is not so much about service as it is incarnated agape (love).  While we need more of what looks like service, it must be love, not mere altruism, that is embodied in those gestures.

Post a comment Tags: jesus, love, god, mother, ritual, intimacy, service, liturgy …

Footwashing


Maunday Thursday - I washed the foot of a mother - and as I did, it struck me, how would a mother wash a foot?  Or a dad?


Holding a foot in my hands and running a wash-cloth soaked with hot water around it, I sensed that there is a sacred touch to the mother's work of washing her infant, and often a playfulness.  Maybe there was little playfulness that night as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but there was intimacy  -  there was intimacy.

This gesture of Jesus, which he bids us to pay-forward, is not so much about service as it is love.

Post a comment Tags: homeless, jesus, love, god, mother, ritual, intimacy, service …

Footwashing



Maunday Thursday - I washed the foot of a mother - and as I did, it struck me, how would a mother wash a foot?  Or a dad?


Holding a foot in my hands and running a wash-cloth soaked with hot water around it, I sensed that there is a sacred touch to the mother's work of washing her infant, and often a playfulness.  Maybe there was little playfulness that night as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but there was intimacy  -  there was intimacy.

This gesture of Jesus, which he bids us to pay-forward, is not so much about service as it is love.

Post a comment Tags: jesus, love, god, mother, ritual, intimacy, service, liturgy …

Footwashing



Maunday Thursday - I washed the foot of a mother - and as I did, it struck me, how would a mother wash a foot?  Or a dad?


Holding a foot in my hands and running a wash-cloth soaked with hot water around it, I sensed that there is a sacred touch to the mother's work of washing her infant, and often a playfulness.  Maybe there was little playfulness that night as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but there was intimacy  -  there was intimacy.

This gesture of Jesus, which he bids us to pay-forward, is not so much about service as it is love.

Post a comment Tags: jesus, love, god, mother, ritual, intimacy, service, liturgy …

Footwashing



Maunday Thursday - I washed the foot of a mother - and as I did, it struck me, how would a mother wash a foot?  Or a dad?


Holding a foot in my hands and running a wash-cloth soaked with hot water around it, I sensed that there is a sacred touch to the mother's work of washing her infant, and often a playfulness.  Maybe there was little playfulness that night as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but there was intimacy  -  there was intimacy.

This gesture of Jesus, which he bids us to pay-forward, is not so much about service as it is love.

Post a comment Tags: jesus, love, god, mother, ritual, intimacy, service, liturgy …

Footwashing redux

Had a fun conversation with a friend Saturday.  He brought up footwashing - out of the blue!  His own reticence to have his feet washed at church (we only do it once a year) is quite normal, I think.  It reflects the intimate nature of the act: it's hard to get that real with someone else - so real that we let them touch our ugly, stinky feet.  And mine are pretty ugly and stinky!


But what a beautiful act.  My heart used to come close to beating out of my chest when on youth retreats folks would bring out the pales of water and the white towels (why always white!).  Nowadays, as embarrassed as I get about my feet, there is something oddly refreshing that washing over me when I feel one hand guide my feet, and another cupped, scooping water over my toes.  There is something in the touch - perhaps a kiss of the Holy Spirit?

Found this AP picture on an article about Pope John Paul II and Maundy Thursday several years back.
_1275193_foot_kissing_300ap
_1275193_foot_kissing_300ap

Post a comment Tags: jesus, love, compassion, intimacy, pope, service, vulnerability, liturgy …