Learning From Pilgrimage

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to go on a pilgrimage back to my hometown of B.C.  Although I often took vacations back to my hometown throughout the year to visit family and friends, I was determined that this trip would be different.  Instead of just going to visit friends, I was going with a desire to meet God in the thin places that had been formational to my life in my childhood.  I would go visit that park by the river and sit on the rocks as I had done in my teenage years.  I would go to the lake where my family used to camp as a child and walk around the trails there.  I would hike up the mountain by the lake to the look-out where I had hiked with my father a few years back.  I would make a point of visiting every place that my soul recognized as holy.  Along the way I would pray, and when I reached my destinations, I would take the time to journal.  I didn't know what I expected out of this pilgrimage, but inwardly I hoped to experience a sense of divine clarity as I explored my sacred places.

The pilgrimage I took was a bit disappointing for me at first.  I experienced no great revelation that provided instant transformation.  I had no overwhelming encounter with God that revolutionized my life on the spot.  The trip was not something that directed me towards a dramatic change.  And yet, something did change with that trip.  It was my first time visiting home where I had truly felt at home.  It was the first time in years that I had experienced such a sense of peace and belonging in my natural landscape.  The connection that I felt with both myself and with God on that journey left a lingering affect on my soul and I realized that never again did I want to visit home with my old frame of mind that was always so caught up in distraction.  I wanted my journeys in the future to be just as intentional in seeking out the presence of God.  Arthur Boers writes in "Walking Lessons" that "authentic pilgrimage bears fruit when we return home" (24).  I think that this is true.  Pilgrimage is not something that will necessarily bring a dramatic shift in our lives, but it does bring about change in small, subtle ways that form us as people.

When I started this blog I announced my intention of using the research that I provided as a launching pad for my own experience of pilgrimage. I hoped that by exploring the spiritual discipline of pilgrimage, I might have a better idea of how to approach the practice in the future.  I admit, I have learned a lot:

• I have learned about how pilgrimage differs from tourism; that it isn't where you go but the attitude that you go with that counts.  I also learned, however, that pilgrimage and tourism can often happen side by side; that if we remain open to an encounter with God on the journey, He can co-opt control and meet us in any place. 
• I have learned that pilgrimage exists in many different forms for many different reasons.  Every great religion in the world has developed the practice of pilgrimage to some sense.  Regardless of the differences, however, the ultimate purpose of pilgrimage remains constant: we journey so that we might come into contact with the transcendent - with that which is greater than ourselves, or the One who is greater than us all.
• I have learned that practice of pilgrimage is an outward journey that mirrors an inward journey. It requires purgation, a cleansing of the soul, but it also offers a path towards illumination and union with God.  It requires sacrifice but it also can guide us towards fulfillment.
• I have learned that pilgrimage invites us to engage in other spiritual disciplines.  Silence, solitude and prayer are but a few of the disciplines that are often naturally experienced along the journey.  Pilgrimage does not force us to schedule these disciplines into our lives; rather, it provides the space for these disciplines to interact organically with our journey and with our lives.
• I have learned about the value of walking through the pilgrimage.  Walking gives our souls time to process the journey.  It gives us time to engage with God.  It slows us down so that we can breathe and experience the sense of quiet and solitude that our souls need to heal and be transformed.  Walking can be prayer.
• I have learned that pilgrimage gives value to the natural world.  It is one of the few rare spiritual disciplines that requires contact with the tangible in order to connect us to that which is intangible.  It immerses us into the reality of God as He is experienced in Creation.  Pilgrimage is a discipline that is not for the gnostic - it cannot be separated from the material.  Rather, it is the physical world that connects us with that which is spiritual.
• I have learned that pilgrimage is not a discipline that is easily undertaken alone. Meaning is added to the experience when we engage in the practice of pilgrimage as a community.  There are many aspects of community that may be experienced upon the road: we may experience community with those who have gone before us; we may experience community with those who travel with us; or we may experience community with the strangers that we meet along the way.  Pilgrimage is a discipline that only gives us the space to connect with ourselves and with God, but also with our fellow man.
• I have learned about the prominent presence of pilgrimage in Scripture.  Sacred travel is not something that should be alien to my Christian experience.  Rather, it has been formational to the development of my religion.  If it has been practiced by those such as Abraham and Jesus, how much more should I seek out opportunities for sacred journey in my own life?

Pilgrimage is not always an easy practice to engage in.  In planning for my short one-week pilgrimage in May I have realized that there is a cost that must be taken into account.  The first cost is time.  I must commit my time 24/7 to a practice that removes me from the rest of my daily activities.  The second cost is money.  Travelling is not cheap, especially in today's society.  For my own journey I have been forced to seek out those places of community along the way (such as staying with my brother) in order to keep my expenses down. The third cost is measured in sacrifice. In order to seek out God I have to leave behind my distractions and my guilty pleasures, and instead engage in more alien pursuits such as silence and walking.  I will be leaving behind what is comfortable in order to seek out what is real.  I choose to make these sacrifices, however, because I have faith that this is a journey that I am not taking by myself.  I believe God will meet me half-way, and by meeting Him I will not be the same person when I return as when I left.