Winter hiking trail contemplation path

"Path is the primal symbol of our life. Our life story is connected with attempts to walk, departures, detours, wrong ways, dead ends, labyrinths, and goals."

For many people of our time, the search for spiritual impulses in their lives has become a matter of survival. Our everyday life hardly allows silence and listening to one's own soul. This fact awakens in many a longing for "more" and often makes them realize that it is necessary to set out and seek new paths. The contemplation path from Absam to Gnadenwald - St. Martin also offers an opportunity in winter, away from hustle and noise, through conscious walking and observing, through conscious hearing, smelling, and feeling, to trace this longing.

The nine stations along the path are based on the words of the "Beatitudes" of Jesus. They are designed to direct our gaze to the inconspicuous and the self-evident, past which we usually rush in the routine of everyday life. The stations encourage paying attention to oneself, to hopes and fears, small happiness and disappointments, to questions and doubts. The "Beatitudes" show that we can already experience the promised happiness today if we focus on what truly matters in the end. Tip: Station LABYRINTH – ST. MARTIN Labyrinths have been found in many cultures for more than 5000 years, shaped by the need for inner peace and home. This is a Cretan or classical labyrinth. Labyrinths are considered a symbol of the human life path: finding one's own center and the way back to the roots up to the end and new beginning of life. The ceramic-concrete object in the center points to the life principles of sharing (love) and respect for nature (unity): the two saints of the monastery – Martin and Francis – symbolically stand for this. The ceramic hemispheres in the labyrinth indicate the individual variations of the path. We invite you to pause and follow the "life path." We wish the hikers on the contemplation path open senses, moments of reflection, and the experience that the "Beatitudes" occur right in the middle of our everyday life. It is the place where heaven and earth touch.