Introduction to a Project

For a long time I have dreamt about embarking on a long journey across my native homeland of Canada.  I want to sink myself into the history and spirituality of the myriad of people that comprises this great mosaic.  I want to be able to meet the people, talk to them, visit places of historical importance, and learn more about the common ground that unites us and defines us.  As I have contemplated this dream, I have recognized that this is not a journey to be taken lightly.  This is a journey that will require a lot of planning and foresight.  This is a journey that has the potential to stretch me to the limits of who I am as a person.  It is a journey that could stretch me to the limits of my faith.

As I pondered the particular consequences that this journey could have on my life, I came to the conclusion that this trip was not going to be some average tourist excursion.  A tourist goes to take pictures of an experience.  My trip will not allow me to be a bystander though; it will insist that I change deep down inside who I am as a person.  A pilgrim goes to be changed.  The journey I want to undertake is, at its core, a pilgrimage.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a woman in church and she asked me about what I was doing in school.  I began to tell her about the project I was working for in my guided study on pilgrimage.  "It's strange," I mused as I explained, "the more I read, the more I realize that people like to use the word 'pilgrimage' a lot.  They use phrases like "pilgrimage of the heart," and "pilgrimage through the Bible with my small group," or even "my pilgrimage to the Mall of America," but they all mean different things.  We like to use the word 'pilgrimage', but I think we do not always know what it means."  She pondered this statement for a moment and then said, "You're right.  Now that I think about it, I have no idea what that word means." 

I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't really know the meaning of the word either.  That is why I started this blog project.  What is pilgrimage?  What does it mean?  When I think of pilgrimage I think of a journey, but what sets the pilgrim's journey apart from every other kind of journey out there?  There are many kinds of journeys in our lives. Some of them are outward, like journeying to another country as a tourist or missionary, or taking a bus ride to go to work.  Other journeys are inward, such as the slow process of maturity from youth to adulthood, or the journey through the pain of losing a loved one.  The word 'pilgrimage' has been applied to many such inward and outward situations.  There is also pilgrimage in its more traditional sense: the medieval pilgrim travelling from Rome to Jerusalem to see the birthplace of Jesus; the visit to the shrine of some great saint; the walking of a path that many other pilgrims have walked before, in an effort to experience just even a small part of what they did.

All of the great religions of the world have held the discipline of pilgrimage to be of vital importance.  Thousands of years ago, Jewish pilgrimage was expressed in the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover meal once a year.  Buddhist pilgrimage started with the visitation to the four places marking the life and death of the great Master, and was fully expressed in the wandering lifestyle of its monks.  In Islam the Hajj, the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca once during a person’s lifetime, is recognized as one of the five main pillars of Muslim faith.  Christianity itself initially borrowed from the practices of its parent faith, Judaism, but the practice of pilgrimage grew as it began to recognize its own saints and holy places.

With all of these perspectives to sift through, I find myself recognizing that there can be no single meaning for the word “pilgrimage.”  It exists within a thousand different contexts and circumstances.  For the purposes of this blog, however, I will be directing my discussion towards the physical practice of pilgrimage as a Christian within a modern context.  I want to understand what the practice of pilgrimage means for me now, a Christian living in 21^st century Canada.  This is not to say there will be no discussion of history; not at all, for one needs to understand their past in order to have a clear perspective on the present.

My approach to this blog will be both topical and reflective.  I will be interacting with subject matter from the research I am doing, not only presenting it, but also responding to it on a personal level.  To keep up an academic style to this blog, however, I will be posting a bibliography of resources that I have read so far on this topic at the bottom of this blog - a list that may be expanded upon as time goes on.