Dear FBC Family, thank you again for time away to journey to Iona with the Shalem Institute. The gifts of that pilgrimage continue to unfold inside me.
Among the images I brought home, none shines brighter than dear, intrepid Patty Marceron, at nearly 91, trekking across Iona's rocky coastline with her hiking poles and an expression of pure delight — like a contemplative Indiana Jones. She was an inspiration to every pilgrim on the journey — and an embodiment of what it looks like to keep showing up with curiosity and courage.
I want to share Iona with you — not as a travelogue, but as a kind of walking meditation. On our final morning together, I led the group through an Ignatian examen, a practice of prayerful review rooted in the 16th-century Spanish mystic Ignatius of Loyola. The idea is simple: move slowly back through a period of time, not to evaluate, but to notice. Where were you most alive? Where did something quietly open in you?
Here, briefly, is what each day held — and the breath prayer chosen for each day.
Day 1: Arriving and Awakening
We arrived tired and eager, carrying more than our luggage. The ancient Abbey received us. That first evening, something in many of us grew quieter.
Inhale: I let go. / Exhale: I begin.
Day 2: Wisdom and Wonder
The island began to teach — not through lectures, but through light on water, wind, birdsong. We were invited to consider the Celtic way: “original goodness” instead of “original sin”; creation as our neighbor; every aspect of life, sacred.
Inhale: You speak through earth, sea and sky. / Exhale: I’m listening.
Day 3: Structure and Spirit
We walked the 13th-century Abbey in prayerful silence, stopping at each threshold to receive and to offer. Millions have prayed in that place over the centuries. The walls and grounds are soaked in prayer. We drew from that ocean of prayer — and poured our own into it, for pilgrims yet to come.
Inhale: Every moment, holy… / Exhale: …every breath, yours.
Day 4: Earth and Sky
We made the pilgrim’s walk to Columba’s Bay, putting our feet where Columba and his monks landed in 563. Something about walking on actual ground opens in us what a lecture cannot reach.
Inhale: O Holy One… / Exhale: …may I live aware and amazed.
Day 5: Scattered and Gathered
Saturday was free — unscheduled, unled. Solitude has its own wisdom.
Inhale: Wherever I venture… / Exhale: …You are already there.
Day 6: Community and Quieting
Sunday was Pentecost, celebrated in the Abbey with the Iona Community. In the afternoon we began leaning toward the silence to come.
Inhale: Come, Holy Spirit. / Exhale: I am present and open.
Day 7: Solitude and Sacrament
Monday was a full day of silence — countercultural in the most radical sense. To stop. To receive. To not produce anything.
Inhale: You are here. / Exhale: I am here.
Day 8: Weaving and Blessing
And then Tuesday: the last full day. Something had been woven together that didn’t exist when we arrived.
Inhale: Show me who to be… / Exhale: …and what is mine to do.
Day 9: Endings and Beginnings
On our final morning we shared a last breakfast together, then gathered our luggage and began making our way to the dock. The ferry would begin our seven-hour journey to Glasgow and home. What we carried with us was different from what we’d brought.
Inhale: Every ending… / Exhale: …is a threshold.
Iona doesn’t stay behind when you leave. It surfaces in unexpected moments — in the way light hits a window, in the impulse to slow down, to pay attention, to stay present just a little longer to what is right in front of you.
That is the gift we carried home.
