I started thinking about this weeks ago, while travelling, as the prayer became more and more important to me. I would often stand in churches or outside my tent with my arms outstretched while I prayed, and I began to imagine the prayer inscribed on me, speaking even when I was without words. Yesterday I made that dream a reality.
The version of the prayer I used was a slightly unusual translation of the Greek which settled with me over the last few months; it reads as follows:
✠ Lord Jesus Christ ✠ Son of the Living God ✠
✠ have mercy on me ✠ your broken one ✠
(The first line on my right arm, the second on my left, so with arms open the prayer reads across from left to right if you're looking at me.)
My daughter commented that, having now spent the summer riding across Europe on a new Vespa and then getting tattooed, my midlife crisis is now complete. She's definitely right ...
(Thanks to TJ and the others at Rohan Tattoo Studio in Leicester for making it such a great experience!)
It's a midlife crisis if you are anticipating living to 110 years old🤪
ReplyDeleteWell, there is that ...
DeleteThanks so much for sharing your pilgrimage with us, Chris. It’s been wonderful!! So glad you got to complete it.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been left with so many questions about your journey - some spiritual and some practical. But on the practical side… how on earth did you take all your clobber with you? Tent? Habit? Staff?
And the tattoos are impressive!!! Andrew Turnbull
I wore my cassock everywhere, and carried the staff strapped across my back. Tent, sleeping bag, washkit and clothes carefully packed onto the moped. Beyond that: simplicity! It's surprising how little stuff you actually need, a lesson life keeps trying to teach me.
DeleteAhh... I've been designing my tattoos in my head for years now, so this may be just the catalyst I need... 🖌️
ReplyDeleteDo it! Do it! Do in it!
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