Being Benedictine

Vacation planning is a lot like lesson planning in the classroom and preparing for SoulFully You retreats and workshops I lead. I always over-plan. When my friend Sara invited me to go on a Celtic Christianity pilgrimage, I dove headfirst into researching all the possible places we could spend four days before the pilgrimage began. I found enough possibilities for a four-week vacation!

Visiting the monastic ruins of Glendalough, the holy wells of St. Brigid, and the High Crosses of Monasterboice, to name a few sacred sites on the pilgrimage, was all I had hoped for. But I hadn’t expected to be so enamored by the diversity and beauty of Ireland’s landscape, its rich culture and history, and the hospitality of locals and tourists.

So often, I found myself saying, “Joe would love this.”  I knew I needed to come back with my husband, that he would enjoy the Irish pubs, beautiful scenery, and visiting with locals. And, of course, I was thinking about all the places I had learned about that I still wanted to see.

And so it happened, I asked my husband whether he would like to go in May or September the following year. (See how I did that?) We decided on May, the best time to see wildflowers blooming in the Burren. I pulled up my research spreadsheet and got to work planning a two-week vacation. Again, over planning is my gift, so we decided on a few days shy of three weeks. Our friends, Dave and Kristine, who we met when our daughters were five years old (that’s 26 years ago!) would join us for most of the trip, and to my delight they let me plan the itinerary!

When deciding where to go, I knew I had to return to Solas Bhride in Kildare, the “thin place” where one of our pilgrims, Mike, had a medical emergency and passed away. The Sisters of Solas Bhride Centre & Hermitages had been so compassionate and hospitable, offering a gathering place for prayer and reflection, serving tea and cookies, and welcoming us to experience the presence of Brigid throughout the center, in its garden, labyrinth, and sacred art.

I enjoyed visiting with Sr. Rita Minehan and when I purchased her book Rekindling the Flame: A Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Brigid of Kildare, she eagerly signed it. I learned even more about the sacred sites of St. Brigid nearby, including the Cathedral, the parish church, a holy well, and the village itself.

With the help of Sr. Rita’s book, we planned a pilgrimage day to Kildare, returning to Solas Bhride, where Mike crossed life’s greatest threshold, from the here to the hereafter. Sr. Rita welcomed my husband and me, sharing local art and memorabilia from “St. Brigid: A Woman, A Life, A Legacy,” a celebration of the 1500th anniversary of the death of St. Brigid, and the first year that the Feast of St. Brigid was declared a national holiday in Ireland. More about St. Brigid here.