Paroikia

Camino Reflection 4.

In the remotest parts of the Spanish countryside were these small chapels. One in particular had a most ornate and very old altar which reveals its purpose. A sacred place for sacred worship, the Holy Mass.

The parish priest would travel to these chapels to bring Holy Mass to the people remote from the parish Church. In other cases, an Itinerant Priest would come. But they came to the people, not the other way around.

Today these chapels are maintained as sacred spaces for prayer and contemplation.

My photos do not do justice to the sacredness within them. They have become holy ground.

But, but, but.

It is time again to free Jesus from the tabernacle alone. Free him from the Church property as if a prison. Or, understood another way, to live the priestly life of paroikia.

Sent, that’s what Mass means! Go, go now, to the periphery with Jesus, as Jesus, in Jesus and if the Church doors must be locked, let it be because Holy Mass is out in the fields, farms, estates where the servants and serfs are.

This is Church.

Sidebar: I can kick myself for not photographing the one that most clearly shows the purpose and reverence of the estate lord to provide the sacred to his family, servants and serfs. I have photos of others inferior qualities but ignored the inspiration to photo ‘the one’. I can be very dense regards the Holy Spirit.

Paroikia – the word ‘parish’ comes from the Greek ‘paroikia’ or ‘sojourning in a foreign land’.

A revival of sorts. It is time.

Itinerant Priest Preacher

Piece on modern itinerant priests, USA: https://dominicanfriars.org/the-life-of-an-itinerant-preacher/

Piece on modern itinerant priests, France; https://www.google.com/amp/s/international.la-croix.com/amp/religion/the-new-youthfulness-of-itinerant-priests/11980

Among the Saints: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/april-5-saint-vincent-ferrer-priest/

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry