Today, I am flying to Italy - in order to walk. Walking: the original form of transport. A metaphor as we journey with God.

I don't NEED to go to Italy to do it. Nor to journey with God.

And yet.

Walking along the ancient ways, following the paths journeyed by pilgrims, remembering their search for more of God as they walked from Canterbury to Rome, will help me in my spiritual walking.

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Scripture has much to say about pathways and walking with God.

On the Cotswold Pilgrimage, we learn some of the verses each day, to encourage us as we walk and listen to the Lord. I've listed below some we have learned .

And so I am excitedly stepping out to walk with God; and was astonished this morning to read not one but two blogs on Pilgrimage. Each written by one of my favourite authors, Maggie Dawn and Sheridan Voysey.

On why we make Pilgrimages, and what we learn from them and why they have such impact upon us.

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So I'm off to pilgrimage, being joined by 11 others. We will walk the Via Francigena from San Gimignano to Montalcino, over 6 days.

Pray for us? Pray for us as we look at how we can drawer closer to God, face-to-face with Him.

On our walk but also in our everyday lives.

Join us next year when we do this part again, or then the next part, of the VF?

Bless us, Lord Christ, on our pilgrimage,

Be with us and all who are dear to us,

And with everyone we meet.

Keep us in the spirit of the beatitudes –

Joyful, simple, merciful.

(Taize: Pilgrim prayer)

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Genesis 17: 1 The Lord said, “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai);

walk before me and be blameless.”

Romans 6:4 Christ was raised from the dead by the glory

of the Father, so that we might walk in newness of life.

Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on

your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge

him and he will direct your paths.

Philippians 3:12

But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me.

Jeremiah 6:16 (RSV) This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads

and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the

good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Psalm 37:23 The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord; He delights in every detail of their lives. (Though they stumble they will not fall

for the Lord holds them by the hand)