May it be a sweet, sweet sound to Your ears.

I will be glad and rejoice in your love,

    for you saw my affliction

    and knew the anguish of my soul.

You have not given me into the hands of the enemy

    but have set my feet in a spacious place. Psalm 31: 7-8

It is the devil's greatest triumph when he can deprive us of the joy of the Spirit. He carries fine dust with him in little boxes and scatters it through the cracks in our conscience in order to dim the soul's pure impulses and its luster. -Francis of Assisi

Hiking a pilgrimage is not quite as dramatic a shift in vistas as cycling, but still there is the anticipation of each bend in the road, and the glorious light and colors and shapes awaiting us.

Well, beyond each bend somehow up a steep path is waiting… how is it possible to have so many mountains in one day?

Certainly there are spacious spaces spread out before us, and my hiking companion Michael and I can only marvel at this gift. 

And I am glad and rejoice in His unmerited love. 

And sometimes some of the Enemy’s fine dust gets in our eyes, so we have memorized the Francis Prayer: O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

Michael is knocking on the door. It is time for a cup of espresso, a sweet cake and cinched belts.

Make me an instrument of Your peace. 

I was reading my meditations from last year in Assisi, and I had written down a reminder from Marco: the music comes not from the instrument, but from the musician. 

May it be so.