A Great Pilgrimage

When this quote slipped across my screen, I paused. I have a particular love for the term pilgrimage. Its etymology and definition can be summed up as a journey to a distant place for spiritual knowledge and/or edification.

I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days, and God came to me.
~Kabir

 Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to go on many pilgrimages. Several of them echoed Kabir's words. Which is likely why I was so drawn to them.

Pilgrimage = journey to a distant place. St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of pilgrimages though she never left her home town of Lisieux. Why?

Thérèse exemplified Kabir's words. Repeatedly in her writings and in the stories of her life are instances of her visitations from the Divine, even as she sat quietly in prayer. Often, she was berated for falling asleep during her prayers. Her response was that she was alseep in the arms of God. So deep in conversation that to those around her, she was not awake nor aware. She was far away.

No matter what we choose to call the Divine, we have repeated opportunities to do as Thérèse did. Our focus on the Divine can be so intense that we appear to others to be asleep. We know we are not. We know the dream world through which we are moving is the realm of the Divine.

Sometimes we have the chance to travel in this world as well. To go on pilgrimage. To walk and move in the holy places, wherever they may be. After my first trip to the Holy Land, a friend asked me to describe how the place felt. Was it different from home? My response came in the form of a smile and an enigmatic statement, That's why they call it the Holy Land. When many people's hearts, minds and prayers focus on a particular place, all that graced energy makes the place itself holy. It enshrines the energetics of the land itself and dedicates it to the Divine.

Pilgrimage can take place anywhere. We bring the holy with us as we move through the world. As long as we continue to move with prayerful, holy intent, we carry that energy with us. The pilgrimage blesses both us and the place of our focus along with all those we encounter along the way.

When was the last time you went on a pilgrimage? Where did you go? Did the Divine come to you wherever you were? Why did you consider it a pilgrimage? How were you called to it? How did it bless you? What blessing did you bring to it? What difference did it create in you when you returned?

Pilgrimage

Pilgrims are persons in motion - passing through territories not their own - seeking something we might call completion, or perhaps the word clarity will do as well, a goal to which only the spirit's compass points the way. Those who pass over thresholds aware of their need to be changed. Listening to this counsel, we recall Merton's meditation that in us God wanders as a pilgrim too.

Richard R. Niebuhr, Parabola Magazine, Volume IX, Number 3 - Pilgrimage

Wandering through the wilderness ... is that what pilgrimage is about? Taking on the ritual and rites of those who have passed through these territories before? Finding oneself in new, creative, perhaps challenging places?

I believe that pilgrimage is about going deeper into the trust and truth of the Ineffable One. Finding our leading edge that connects with that Power. Learning to feel the depth of our link to God/Spirit/the Universe/Goddess. 

Merton's meditation about God wandering in us as a pilgrim fascinates me. My mind is cracked open ever so slightly more because of it. Imagine it: God/Goddess/the Universe/Spirit wandering the world within us as well as amongst us. Breathtaking!

What do you think a pilgrimage is? Where would you choose to go if you had the opportunity to take one?