Eleven St. Philippians met for a spiritual hike, led by Sam McClung and the Rev. Vicki Hesse, at Catalina State Park’s Nature Trail on January 19. Under soft sun and idyllic 70 degrees, the one and a half mile loop served perfectly for a reflective time of fellowship and of awareness for God’s revelation this Epiphany season.
We stopped four times along the trail to explore our own journeys. At each stop, we bracketed our time with either prayer or in various readings from interfaith and literary sources.
At Stop 1, we explored the hiking equivalent of “ten essentials” and shared about our own “essentials” in our daily, weekly, or annual spiritual landscapes. At Stop 2, we practiced using our senses to become aware of God’s presence. The view from the plateau filled our eyes, the dust filled our noses, the footsteps and distant traffic fell on our ears, the clear air and sky triggered our noses and the paper from our journals guided us to feel here, now. We sensed each other, in a circle, as a community of love. At Stop 3, we reflected on the “sheer sound of silence” (1 Kings 19: 11-12). This stop was the heartbeat of our time together and fueled discussion about our need for silence in our lives. At Stop 4, we became aware of how this 2-hour time together, outdoors, renewed and restored us.
As John Muir famously said, “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
Our next Spiritual Hike is in the planning! Stay tuned for more information.
Good News from St. Philip's 
This is great! Thanks for sharing it.