“‘By the grace of God, I am a Christian, by my actions a sinner, by my calling a pilgrim traveling from here to there. In my knapsack is the Bible and a few crumbs of bread. That is all.'”
“These words in the Way of the Pilgrim can sum up all our lives. Each of us, from the first moment of life until we fall asleep in the Lord, is on a pilgrimage. Each of us has a story of our own journey.”
“It is very dangerous to journey alone as a pilgrim. We are called to journey in community, in the church, by our baptism. It is the community that will keep us safe; it is the community that will support and encourage us, and it is the community through which God works in our lives…
“We must each open our knapsack and break open the Word of God and crumbs of bread and share them with our fellow pilgrims or whomever we meet on the journey…
“We are called to be pilgrims of renewal of the Gospel Life in ourselves in all aspects of Archieparchial life and especially in our families – pilgrims of evangelization, pilgrims of ecumenism, and pilgrims of continual authentic renewal of our Church in the patrimony of the East for these United States…
“Is all of this easy? NO … Is all of this possible? YES … We are nurtured by the mysteries of our Church. Our brothers and sisters in community support us … But none of this can occur without the help of God…”
In the name of the Lord!
+Basil
Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh
