The Pilgrimage

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The ancient ritual of the pilgrimage is as old as human life.  We see it in all religions, cultures and spiritualities.  I learned lots about this sacred ritual when I taught early church history as a teaching assistant at Emory and when I taught World Religions later in life.  A pilgrimage is defined as a journey to a sacred place, especially a destination of special purpose or spiritual significance.  Each year I used to take a pilgrimage to Sacred Heart Monastery, where I am a Benedicitine Oblate.  The time spent on the journey traveling to and from the monastery was a particular part of the pilgrimage process and experience.  This time of year my husband and I travel to Charleston South Carolina to a think tank where we spend 5 days at the end of every year revisioning the world, our purpose and how to fulfill our call in this world. On a pilgrimage one travels with intention and expection.  This time of year we revisit the previous year and examine our losses, our blessings, the lessons and challenges we experienced.  After that we talk about the new year approaching.  What are our dreams, goals and challenges in 2010?  What do we want to learn, what guidance do we need and what message do we want to share at the think tank this year as we commune with other great minds?  (We all have great Divine minds).  We have now arrived at our destination learning, processing and communing.  I am very excited about the final leg of our pilgrimage on January 1, the return to our life with dreams, goals and hope for not only our future but for the future of our universe.