The Modern Pilgrim

Lesley's Post

A few months ago I watched the movie "The Way" in which a man takes the ashes of his son on the pilgrimage route, Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James), through northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, a walk of several hundred miles. At the final destination it is said that the remains of St.
James are buried. In former times this long journey would have been very arduous and dangerous, not just because of the distance but brigands roamed the countryside and pilgrims were easy prey.

Over time towns, villages, hospices, monasteries and means of protection for the pilgrims developed so that food, accommodation and safety were increasingly available. In the movie the characters were well fed and certainly safe but the accommodations were not of the en suite variety, which is my strong preference. Several years ago, before my ankle injury, I had read articles about this pilgrimage and had put the journey on my internal "bucket list". Now older and with a greater love of soft beds and private bathrooms, I muttered to my spouse while watching the movie, "Remind me not to sign up for this".

Early Christians, such as the Desert Fathers, sought places of solitude in which to more deeply connect with the God of their understanding. For those believers it was the desert, whereas Celtic Christians often sought natural wildness and solitude on islands. These pilgrims, known as Pelegrini, (linked by its Latin root to the concept of wandering over a great distance), set out on ocean voyages in what we would consider very inadequate vessels made of wood covered with animal skin, waterproofed with tallow. With very little knowledge of sea craft, they made leaps of faith to endure hard and unpredictable journeys over uncharted waters. On the islands they sailed to, life was equally hard and unpredictable.

Living in communities or as hermits, these devout and brave wanderers sought and found what they wanted, a strengthening of their love for their wonderous Creator. They also found in those wild places a powerful relationship with nature which was reflected in their writings and poetry. Like Thoreau, they knew abundance in simplicity and peace in the grinding rhythm of daily prayer and hard labor. And with their prayers and devotions the sacredness of the space gathered in energy to sustain them over the years. They were the embodiment of what it means to be a pilgrim.

In places like Tibet, even today, pilgrims can be seen moving on bound knees, blocks tied to their hands for addition protection while making prostrations, as they shuffles along with excrutiating slowness towards or around places they consider sacred. These truly commited souls, looking humility in the eye with every movement, seem to epitomize the arduous nature of pilgrimage.

So, in this day and age in America, what does it mean to be a pilgrim, to seek to know something of the Divine? With few wild places to wander to and with many of the sacred places being easily accessible, not to mention commercialized, how to we embrace a desire to make a meaningful pilgrimage? Does it have to be dangerous without mod cons, as in the days of old? Can we really find "Paradise Lost" in our modern world without much solitude in nature and the hard physicality of sustaining our daily life?

In the movie the characters discussed their stated reasons for choosing to make the journey but by the end it was clear that those were not their "soul" reasons. One woman wanted to give up smoking and a man wanted to lose weight. They were heading for a sacred place where thousands of individuals over hundreds of years have uttered prayers and made supplications, hoping for their own miracle. What they learned, of course, was that the process of journeys change us in unexpected ways and the miracle is when our hearts open, when we let go of our longed for outcome, and allow the changes to work within us. And for many, just feeling that sacred energy, a palpable expression of the Divine, has been reason enough to make the journey. Feeling the Divine Love is the miracle.

Maybe it is as simple as that all life is a pilgrimage in which we wander, being in tune with the process but releasing the outcome, expecting the unexpected and being commited to learning the lessons along the way. Can we visit the wild and natural places of solitude within and embrace the hardship and miracles of life just as they are. And maybe now our pilgrimage also calls us to ask where and in what activities in our daily life do we most experience the sacred energy, and to be deeply present to those moments in time. Does it call us to be devoted in each moment of our lives as were the early Celtic Christians with their wonderful prayers said for every mundane task? And can our pilgrimage mean that we embrace the joy of moments of solitude in nature, compassion in community  and love of life's everyday toils?

I don't know. Each person's life path is different and each pilgrimage is unique. Our task, I suppose, is to take the first step and keep going, opening ourselves to whatever comes along the way.