- Category: Books » Religion & Spirituality » Comparative Religion
- Format: Book Learn more about the Book format using Tower WIKI.
- Publisher: Topeka Bindery
- ISBN: 1417717629
- WAPI (Tower ID): 112268039
- Release Date: May 1, 2004
- Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
|
|
|
|
Product DescriptionMore Books by Rosemary Mahoney (Author)Run a Quick Search on "Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground" by Rosemary Mahoney to Browse Related Products:Browse more products related to "Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground"Browse more products related to "Rosemary Mahoney"ReviewSometimes purposeful, sometimes footloose, the act of undertaking a pilgrimage is "both a preparation for death and a hedge against it." So writes Rosemary Mahoney, who knows well whereof she speaks. A reluctant churchgoer, and less interested in religion per se than in the faith that underlies it, she travels in this absorbing narrative to some of the world’s great pilgrimage sites: Ireland’s Croagh Patrick, Lourdes, Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, the banks of the Ganges. "As I got into the rhythm of it," she writes, "I found that the more I walked, the more I wanted to walk." Walk she does, over hundreds of miles, observing and recording along the way, talking with ascetics and skeptics, joining the multitude whose physical beings wander in order that their minds might turn toward the divine. And to what end is all this hard slogging? "Dunno, really," one of Mahoney’s fellow travelers shrugs. "When it’s done, you feel very good about it." Fans of travel narratives and religious memoirs alike will find much pleasure, and much on which to reflect, in Mahoney’s pages. --Gregory McNamee Short DesriptionIn an increasingly secular age of high-speed travel and advanced technology, it is surprising to learn that the ancient tradition of religious pilgrimage is on the rise. Charting this phenomenon from Ireland to India, Rosemary Mahoney turns her sharp eye and discerning ear on the pilgrims she meets in the course of six extraordinary journeys. Never a passive observer, Mahoney is a full participant, soldiering barefoot through the three-day penitential Catholic pilgrimage on Ireland"s Station Island, walking the five-hundred-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain, braving the icy bathwater at Lourdes, where pilgrims beseech the Blessed Virgin for miraculous cures. In Varanasi, India"s holiest city, Mahoney befriends a curious young boy whose intelligence and sensitivity provide startling insights into this ancient culture, with its public cremations and elaborate prayer rituals. And in the Holy Land, she rows alone across the Sea of Galilee to spend an unnerving, hilarious night camped below the Golan Heights in search of the essence of Jesus, a vigil punctuated by a pack of howling cats and a bad case of the jitters. What Mahoney discovers among the true believers and charlatans, the holy and the profane, is the single thread that binds all religions: the desire for a relationship with God. "If I was struck by anything," she writes, "it was the shared human struggle to find reason, to confront the natural fear of uncertainty and obscurity." The Singular Pilgrim is a book less about religion than about belief. "An affecting visit to the ancient, humbling act of pilgrimage . . . [Mahoney] conveys a genuine sense of spiritual mindfulness on the road, and there is no denying that these pilgrimages paid her back in full" (Kirkus Reviews). Customer Reviews for "Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground (Book)" by Rosemary Mahoney (Author)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Comparative Religion Bestsellers
Religion & Spirituality Bestselling Books
Explore More Great Tower Sales & Specials
Books Bestsellers
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
