The Blessings of Pilgrimage

by Father William John Fitzgerald

From my own experience of pilgrimage and from that of others, there are a great number of blessings that can result from prayerful journeys:

• The pilgrim slows down, moves in God's time. A pilgrimage is a conversion from "road rage and rush" to walking unhurried and thoughtfully.

• The awareness that we are pilgrimages can sensitize us to walk with care and reverence upon the earth, both for the earth's sake and for the sake of all the other creatures that will come after us on the path. To walk with awareness and reverence is to walk a "blessing path."

• A pilgrimage reminds the pilgrim of a destiny beyond today's immediate worries and anxieties.

• A pilgrimage is a sense experience that influences the imagination and leaves lasting images.

• A pilgrimage is remembering, bringing to the present other pilgrims who have endured and reached their destiny.

• Hallowed places and sacred shrines possess spiritual energy. There is unique energy in places such as Lourdes and Chimayo.

• Sometimes pilgrims bring spiritual energy to a place that needs to be reclaimed a place that has been cursed can be blessed by pilgrim's feet.

• When I walked through Dachau in silence with a young Jewish woman, that place needed to be reclaimed by silence, repentance and reflection on the possible depths of human depravity. Today many pilgrims flock to Medjugorje in Croatia. Perhaps Medjugorje needs them more than they need it. For that is a land blood-soaked in ancient hatreds, feuding and atrocities. The very earth cries out for exorcism.

• A pilgrimage challenges trust and endurance. And often, pilgrimages bring healing. All pilgrims need healing. So does the earth beneath their feet.

• Perhaps the greatest blessing of pilgrimage is an increased sense of awe and respect, for the journey, for fellow pilgrims who all need healing and for our beautiful earth home in which we live on borrowed time.

And whether our spiritual journey might be only inches in a sick room, or miles on a footpath, a prayerful pilgrimage can restore our hope that we can arrive at the holy place beneath our feet and be at home.

Father Bill Fitzgerald is a retired pastor no author in resident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Scottsdale, Arizona. He gives creation-centered retreats and workshops and is author of Stories of Coming Home: Finding Spirituality in Our Messy Lives (Paulist) and 100 Cranes: Praying with the Chorus of Creation (Forest of Peace Books).

Praying Magazine No. 86
July 15, 1998

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