Another request has arrived. I was asked to share on some of my overseas experiences, and boy, was I excited! I love to share my travel stories, but upon reflection, realise that the same enthusiasm may not exist for other people! For me, I have struggled through hours of photos of relatives and their overseas trips, and I am forever traumatised. Instead, I thought I would share these stories with the underlying sense of their purpose, for me: to go on pilgrimage. In the coming weeks, I want to share some major places of pilgrimage within the Christian tradition, as well places of Marist pilgrimage. Firstly, however, let’s explore together the foundations of pilgrimage.
The act of making a pilgrimage – traveling to a sacred place to encounter the divine – is ancient, probably as old as humanity itself. Its spiritual significance exists in every major religions and faith system. The people of God, descended from Abraham, experienced their seminal formative journey from Egypt to the Promised Land in such a powerful way that it shaped their entire religious, cultural and personal identities.
Pilgrimages are undertaken for many reasons: seeking healing and peace, an attempt to make amends, to do penance, to seek answers to questions, to lose weight or to visit a sacred site. Often, it is thought that the destination is the focus of the journey, and that the way of getting from point A to point B is simply the practical manifestation of getting to this arrival. However, a pilgrim realizes that the journey is essential to the pilgrimage. The journey teaches us about ourselves. Why am I short-tempered with my fellow travellers? Do I dread the details of the journey? What am I feeling on the journey? In addition, the journey allows us to be drawn into a deeper relationship with God. How do I encounter the holy on this quest? What is God inviting me to learn, not only at our destination, but on the way? How is God present with me on the journey?
As Christians, we are a pilgrim people. We are always journeying to the most sacred of places. For some, this is expressed journeying to heaven, or building the Kingdom of God or to holy ground. This sacred place is more aptly described as experiencing the fullness of God coupled with the sense of returning home. This is the invitation and gift of pilgrimage: a journey of growing into fullness, and recognising God is present at all stages. In order to make the most of this journey, we must plan well. We need to be fed: Scripture and the Eucharist will provide some of the sustenance needed. A journey requires a map: the guidance that prayer gives us. We travel with others (family, friends, co-workers, strangers) and we are invited to discern the places and reasons that each of these people are present in our life, into our pilgrimage, for God does nothing by chance.
Pilgrimage is a pervasive theme throughout Scripture. The Apostle Peter refers to it often, and at the beginning of his first epistle, he addresses believers as sojourners and pilgrims (1 Peter 2:11). Similarly, the Apostle Paul constantly reminds us of our pilgrim status when informing us that our citizenship is in heaven: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). The letter to the Hebrews is an operating manual for the Christian’s pilgrimage. It locates the Christian squarely in the desert, likening the Christian life to the wilderness wanderings in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of references, understandings and experiences of pilgrimages. Our Christian understanding of pilgrimage is deeply informed by our Jewish ancestors.
The invitation of being on pilgrimage is more than a physical one. In our current circumstances, we are limited in being able to access, or not access, the traditional geographical places of pilgrimages. However, we are never limited to take on the perspective and heart of a pilgrim.
There is a richness of literature that exists on pilgrimage, especially in the Christian tradition. Please explore it: I will add some more over the coming weeks. I offer a couple of introductory reflections on pilgrimage that may assist you in moving into a pilgrim’s mindset.
From Dee Dyas, The University of York:
The Old Testament presents several physical journeys which also have a deeper spiritual meaning. The journey made by Abraham and the story of the Exodus from Egypt both emphasise the theme of God journeying with his people and stress the importance of being willing to obey and trust God. Abraham, a key figure in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is shown in Genesis 12:1-9 leaving his home to go in search of a land which God promises to show him, becoming a 'pilgrim' or 'sojourner' whose willingness to obey God makes him a model of faith and obedience. In the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites travel through the wilderness to the land of Canaan, experiencing both hardships and God's care and guidance. The Exodus motif plays a key role in Christian thought and the long journey through the wilderness towards the Promised Land was later interpreted as a paradigm or model of the Christian journey through a fallen world towards heaven.
In time, the city of Jerusalem developed into a centre of pilgrimage, a place where God could be encountered in a special way. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the three feasts of Passover, Weeks and Booths became a requirement for all male Israelites who would often have been joined by other family members. During periods of exile, pilgrimage to Jerusalem took on additional emotional and spiritual significance.
The New Testament picks up many motifs from the Old Testament but also shows some important changes in emphasis. The Fall of Humankind, and the stories of alienation, disobedience and conflict which follow, provide the backdrop to the drama of redemption told in the New Testament. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ is shown winning forgiveness for humankind through his death on the Cross, making it possible for individuals to return to God and eventually reach heaven, vividly portrayed in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 21:9-22:5). The focus shifts from seeking God in the earthly city of Jerusalem to finding him in Jesus Christ, believed to be God made man.
New Testament writers stress that salvation will be offered for a limited time only before Jesus Christ returns to judge humankind (Matthew 25:31-33). This event, often called the Last Judgement, will be unexpected (Matthew 24:36-44) and cataclysmic (2 Peter 3:10-13), as the created world dissolves and is remade. Human beings therefore need to be aware of the essential transience of this world and its pleasures (John 2:17; 1 Corinthians 7:31; James 1:11) and prepare themselves to face God's verdict on the way they have lived. Christians are therefore encouraged to see themselves as 'pilgrims and strangers on the earth', 'temporary residents' whose true home is in heaven (1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 11:13). The Christian life itself is thus seen as a journey towards that homeland in which the individual believer seeks to follow and obey Christ through an alien, frequently hostile world (John 14:6; Mark 8:34). Figures such as Abraham are presented as examples of faith to be imitated (Hebrews 11:1-16).
From Robert B. Kruschwitz, Baylor University.
Pilgrimage typically involves traveling to places that are closely associated—through art, architecture, or a saint’s life—with God’s mission in the world. In its essence, “pilgrimage is a journey nearer to the heart of God and deeper into life with God,” Eric Howell explains. “The hope of all pilgrimage is realized when we have renewed eyes to be happily surprised by God’s mysterious presence in all times and places, even at home.” After sketching the history of this practice, Christian George commends pilgrimage for Christians of all ages and abilities, “as a spiritual discipline that reflects our journey to God, that gives great energy to our sanctification, and that engenders a spiritual vitality that is both Christo-centric and community-driven.”
The history of Christian pilgrimage draws on biblical travels to the festivals at the Second Temple in Jerusalem (537 bc-ad 70). Peter describes all believers as pilgrims (1 Peter 2:11), for they join Abraham’s walk toward a city built by God. Christian George notes, “By the time Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena, brought pilgrimage into vogue by traveling to the Holy Land in 326, a living tradition of sancta loca, or holy places, pertaining to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had already materialized.” Detractors from Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 395) to the Protestant Reformers criticized the physical dangers and spiritual excesses of pilgrimage, yet the practice flourished in the medieval period and revived in the eighteenth century. Great European cathedrals, sites of martyrdom, and places where notable saints had served were added to the list of destinations. Even the Puritans, who objected most to the corruptions of pilgrimage, nevertheless “embraced biblical precedents like Abraham’s journey, Israel’s Exodus, and the sacred travels of the Magi, giving great exegetical and homiletical attention to the pilgrim psalms 120-134, Christ’s infant journey to Egypt, and New Testament passages like these.”
Pilgrimage today “to places like Iona, Taizé, Skellig Michael, Mont St. Michelle, Mount Athos, Assisi, Jerusalem, and Rome…can serve as a unifying commonality among Christians of every denomination and tradition, [which] fosters reconciliation and ecumenism,” George notes. Anyone can practice the discipline of pilgrimage—children seeking to concretize their faith, young people hiking across Europe, or adults seeking spiritual renewal. “Those who cannot travel—the elderly, the poor, the hospitalized, or those with physical disabilities” practice pilgrimage by setting the Lord always before them. He explains, “some of the greatest pilgrimages I have ever taken have been in the midnight moments of my life, the hospital moments when I opened up the Bible and travelled to Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down.
As an armchair pilgrim, I went to Egypt and saw the Red Sea stand up for God’s people to march through.” “The discipline of pilgrimage reminds us to slow down and take life one step at a time. It reminds us that life is an emotional, physical, and spiritual journey that requires upward and inward conditioning. It moves us from certainty to dependency, from confidence to brokenness, from assurance in ourselves to faith in God,” George concludes. “A regular diet of spiritual disciplines like pilgrimage can splash our dehydrated Christianity with fresh faith and gives us a greater hunger for the holy.”
Check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays: Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pilg/hd_pilg.htm
For a musical sense of the purpose and emotional heart of the idea of pilgrimage, based on Psalm 23 and 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-17, have a listen to Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys, “Meet Me in the Middle of the Air.”
Buen Camino!