Well - this is exciting...I've just sent the booking form for my walk to the travel company. My plan is to walk from Assisi in Italy down to Rome, following in the footsteps of St Francis. And I've also applied for my Pilgrim Passport - looking forward to that arriving in the post in a little while. I'll be using this to collect stamps along the route and this will allow me to collect my "testimonium peregrinationis" which is a certificate that verifies the completion of a pilgrimage to Rome.
Now, you might be asking why am I following in the footsteps of St Francis? Well, a few years ago now instead of going to university after I'd finished my A-levels I did a year of voluntary service with an organisation called Time for God. Part of my placement was as a nursery worker linked to Memorial Baptist Church in Plaistow, but I also worked one day at week at the local Franciscan Friary where the Friars run a charity called 'Helping Hands'. Whenever I was there, at lunchtime we'd make our way down the garden to a porta cabin which was their chapel space. We sat on the simple wooden benches around the edges of the room and the worship I experienced there was profound and beautiful and so special that the memory of it has remained with me throughout my life.
So as I began to think about what shape this sabbatical would take for me I wanted to go ensure that the Franciscan spirituality that has shaped my faith life since those days was recognised. And so that is why I will be walking in the footsteps of St Francis from Assisi to Rome.
It's also interesting to note that St Francis thought of himself as a troubadour or fool which links rather well with the date of my baptism - 1st April 1990 and my very appropriate Baptismal Bible verse - 1 Corinthians 4:10:
We are fools for Christ
I've always said I've been trying to live up to this verse ever since!
