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The term, “walking the rounds” might bring to mind a night watchman walking through a building to make sure everything is safe. Instead, it is an Irish tradition of prayerfully meditating on sacred sites and symbols. In her book, The Soul’s Slow Ripening, Christine Valters Paintner tells us that the Irish might walk around a grave, a cross, or the ruins of an old church as a spiritual practice. When walking the movement is in a “sunrise” direction (clockwise) because that is believed to be in tune with the cosmos. You also walk a certain number of times around the sacred site, with 1, 3, 7, or 12 times being most common as they are considered sacred numbers.
As I think about “walking the rounds,” what comes to mind for me is the Lord giving Joshua a vision of circling the city of Jericho once each day. With Joshua, seven priests, and the ark of the covenant, the army circled the city one time a day for six days. On the 7th day they circled seven times. When that was finished and the people gave a shout, the walls of Jericho fell.
In your life what are the issues that you want to understand right now? What walls do you need to fall down? How can you and God conquer them together rather than allowing them to rule your actions?
The Irish often recite a well know prayer such as the Lord’s Prayer as they walk the rounds, but they can also walk in silence, meditating upon the sacred site. Paintner notes that when we are in prayerful discernment, such meditation can allow clarity to come to our minds.
Some people receive insight from God in huge visions, like a dream or a burning bush, but most of us receive wisdom in smaller chunks through our meditation, prayer life, or even conversations with friends.
Like prayerfully walking a labyrinth, “walking the rounds” can bring us new understandings. Paintner remarks that it moves us out of our linear ways of thinking. As we circle an object we see it from multiple points of view.
Often we meet God when we are shaken awake and become more present to each moment. The pandemic has shaken our world awake. As we live through each moment may we live prayerfully, fully embodied so that God’s work in the world might become our work also.
Prayerfully,
Donna
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