We may not all be able to go to Mecca, or Jerusalem, or Rome, or the Ganges, but if we want to go on pilgrimage, we can all get to our Cathedral on 38th Street.
A pilgrimage is a physical journey to a sacred place, an endeavor symbolic of the spiritual journey to the life beyond that which we can see, or hear, or touch. Cathedrals have traditionally been centers of pilgrimage because they are sacred places which recall us to the heavenly realities of God.
In January 2008 we invite you to make a pilgrimage of your own to our cathedral in Philadelphia, with the special intention of peace. Peace in a broken and violent world, peace on the streets of our city where on average one person is murdered every day.
To assist us in this pilgrimage of peace, a Buddhist teacher from Tibet, Losang Samten, will be in the cathedral every weekday 13 – 27 January, to construct a mandala, a traditional Buddhist art form which is also a prayer. The mandala will then remain in place until Feb 3.
A mandala is a representation of the universe, made up of millions of grains of sand, and upon completion is ceremonially broken up and returned to the river and thence to the sea, to remind us of the transience of all things. Read more
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