To be a pilgrim
Later this week a young Melbourne priest, who belongs to a congregation in Chartres in France, will be presenting a talk at the Ballarat Cathedral on pilgrimage. Each year at Pentecost, Fr Murphy is one of the chaplains to some ten thousand pilgrims as they make their way on foot from Notre Dame de Paris to Notre Dame de Chartres. The cathedral of Chartres is one of the greatest examples of Gothic architecture in the world and is particularly celebrated for its extensive collection of original stained-glass windows and wonderfully preserved exterior reliefs. It has been a place of pilgrimage for over a thousand years, predominantly because of the treasured relic of the Veil of the Virgin, said to have been worn by Mary during the birth of Jesus.
The pilgrim’s experience today is a far cry from pilgrimages in much earlier centuries which were very long, costly, and perilous. The spiritual journey, however, is the same. Pilgrimages allow us to step out of ourselves to encounter God where he has revealed himself. The fruit of this grace is conversion and holiness.
I have had the good fortune to visit a number of important pilgrimage sites around the world, it has, however, almost always been as a visitor and not as a pilgrim. The difference between the two comes down to intention and the spiritual journey, or lack thereof.
My two pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela were undertaken after months of preparation and consisted of weeks of walking and a lot of tears shed along the way. They have left me with a constant yearning to undertake more pilgrimages. Of course, every pilgrim has a unique experience, and no two pilgrimages are the same. Reading the stories of previous wayfarers who had also walked to Santiago de Compostela proved to be a negative distraction. I felt pressured to have the same experiences as they did, and I felt disappointment and a sense of failure when they did not eventuate. By my second pilgrimage I had dispelled those distractions and was able to focus on being completely open to whatever, and whomever, came across my path on each day’s walking. Eventually I had the empowering realisation that the pilgrimage I was undertaking mirrored every Christian’s earthly pilgrimage to heaven. In this condensed version of pilgrimage, the trials experienced were significant but short lived, and the encounters with others were profound even if fleeting. Importantly though, the moments of complete abandonment to the Will of God were life changing. I learnt that no matter how much I thought I knew about the road ahead, that the path (God) had other things in store for me, for better and for worse. And where I felt let down, I learnt that I needed only have had faith that such hardships exist so that I might experience an even greater joy.
St Augustine recognised this when he wrote that “our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No-one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown, except after victory, or strives, except against an enemy or temptations.” The outward journey of pilgrimage and the arrival at a sacred destination maybe what spurs us pilgrims on, but it is the journey mirrored within us spiritually where the true reward is found.