Photographs and Memories

Sacred spaces and spiritual sites can be used interchangeably by the travel industry. The world is one sacred space filled with spiritual beings.

Tina said that this is rather up my alley. She’s right as I travelled as a pilgrim trying to follow the footsteps of the Old and New Testament as well as other spiritual practices. Thank you, Tina, for making it easy for me. Click here to see her post.

On my site, I have a page dedicated to pilgrimage. I have posted some stories here. Below are some photos I’ve posted before. Click on the image.

Mt. Nebo. Moses looking at the Promised Land

Palm Sunday Walk entering Jerusalem

Pergamon, Turkey

Assisi overlooking Porzuincula, Italy

“The living follows their souls, the dead follows their spirit.”

To do these pilgrimages, it took an enormous amount of strength in my body, mind and spirit. Thank goodness I was young and healthy then.

Entrance to Petra

To reach Petra, we walked from the beginning passing through all the tombs. We did not hitch a ride with camels or horse-drawn carriages. To see this crack was breath taking. This part is my most memorable experience of Petra. Inside are more ruins.

Cappadocia, Turkey

In Cappadocia, we did not take the luxury of hot air balloons. We kept on chanting “We are pilgrims, not a tourist.” In this arid place, we visited the caves of the desert fathers, fairy chimneys and underground cave dwellers of Christian refugees.

Alto De Perdon, Camino

The Hill of Forgiveness is part of walking The Way. Pardon me, this is not a small hill. I did ask for forgiveness for all the swear words I mumbled as I climbed up to pass through. My guide lied a lot saying it was just an incline.

Elephanta Cave, India

I must admit, I find India a very spiritual land mine. People here have so much reverence on almost everything. The cows roaming freely. Where they stay, consider that a sacred space. It’s a confluence of world’s religion.

To wrap it up, I am proud to say that I climbed Mt. Sinai, the seat of Ten Commandments. There are two ways to reach the summit: camel ride with a guide or on your own, in the dark. We started just after midnight to avoid the heat and experience sunrise. It took us four hours to see the glory of a rising sun.

Mount Sinai, Egypt

I was supposed to visit the sacred sites of Peru but Covid happened. I haven’t travelled ever since. As for spiritual sites, it’s up to me to make it so.

In closing, allow me to share with you the experience of Thomas Merton of spiritual nature.

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” Merton described it this way Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.