Practical Considerations for the Art of Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage involves us in four steps: Call, Detachment, Journey, Illumination.

Call: Through regular times of prayer we may begin to hear God's call to move deeper. This may include physical journeying, but will result in an intentional seeking of new ways to put ourselves in God's sphere.

Detachment: We let go of the practices, and places that may be inhibiting our deepening. This may include trying new prayer postures, or worship styles. For those called to journeying, this will include letting go of familiar places.

Journey: We begin, and we move. In this phase of pilgrimage we learn to become open to surprise as well as frustration. Remember Abram, again, there were many ways in which his pilgrimage was thwarted and his patience was tried. He kept on going and learning more and more about the god who was calling him. The journey gives us a chance to find a new vision of God and new understandings of ourselves.

Illumination: Light sings to light. As we journey or maybe when we began to get the edges of the call, our pathways take on a different light. Like the deep gold of a winter afternoon, things begin to be seen through the new light that we are being given. When we come back, we find that the place is changed even as we are changed.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot
"Little Gidding"

St. John's Chapel-Little Gidding
Pilgrimage site in England

Pilgrimage, then, is about nothing less than recognizing ourselves in the company of God, and knowing ourselves as beloved.

© 2008 The Center for Spiritual Development at Saint James Monkton