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The first time I arrived at the end of leading a group on pilgrimage along St Cuthbert’s Way from Melrose to Holy Island I found I could not stop walking. Somehow the process of walking, thinking, praying and discovering had become so much a part of me that it was difficult to not be on the move.
In his book called “Urban Iona”, Kurt Neilson describes what happens when he returns from his pilgrimage to Iona, Ireland and Scotland.
“Still walking…My backpack has come through water and fire and faith and doubt and desolation and war and devil’s twisted wish and God’s clear promise. It has come home. But I have not.”
As I reflected on the pilgrimage for a magazine article, I wrote:
“Since finishing the pilgrimage I too have had this same sense of a journey begun, but one which is not yet complete, even though I have come home (and am glad to be there!).
Like Tolkien’s Hobbits I also sing, “The road goes ever on…”. Perhaps it is a good thing to reawaken the knowledge that our time here is transitory, that we are people who are intended to be constantly moving and changing as we push on through life to the great shared mystery of ‘what’s next’.
Journeying is about new horizons, adventures and opportunities, chance encounters with people and places which change us for good or ill, discoveries about ourselves in all our glorious reflection of the image of God and in all our disappointing, fallen brokenness. I travel on with a new sense of expectancy.
For me, at least, the lasting memory among many memories will be an intense experience of what community is and means as we daily shared our lives on the road. This was sharing characterised by relational highs and unbelievable depths, encouraging, supporting, confronting and a sense of achieving something together.
One thing is certain…when we set foot on the shore of Holy Island we were all different from when we set off from Melrose.”
Originally published in CAIM, the magazine of the Northumbria Community (Issue 45 Summer 2008)
This stage of remembering, trying to pin down the significant events and encounters, the changes that have happened to us and the insights into God, ourselves and others that we have gained must be given as much time as it takes for us to truly understand our experience and to appreciate how much it has been absorbed and become a part of who we are becoming. With the benefit of hindsight I can see that the Cuthbert’s Way pilgrimage was the starting point of the change of direction in my spiritual journey that has brought me to were I am today.
Remembering also brings us closer to a n understanding that in fact every journey is a micro-pilgrimage; the journey to work, the shops, to a holiday destination all provide us with opportunities to find God as we travel the ordinary journeys of life.
“Pilgrimage can therefore be seen not simply as an esoteric practice to be undertaken by a few enthusiasts, but as something to be encouraged, to help people deepen their sense of God in the ordinary business of life.”
‘Pilgrimage’ by David Osborne, p24
If you want to share this:
“Getting back into the normal business of life can be difficult and might involve feelings of sadness or frustration, or a sense of depression – Monday morning feeling with attitude! It helps to be ready for this, and if it does not happen that is a pleasant bonus.”
David Osborne, ‘Pilgrimage’ page23
It may be tempting to imagine that somehow our pilgrimage has taken place in a different world to the one we normally inhabit – the world of pilgrimage and the world of our ‘normal’, everyday life are one and the same.
However, it cannot be denied that while for a short time we have been quite focussed on the journey, on our destination and have tried to be completely aware of the presence and the voice of God, for those ‘back home’ life has rolled on much as before, and we must anticipate carrying the discoveries from the journey back into our everyday existence; and God is just as much at home as on our journey.
Somehow we have to take the experience of pilgrimage back with us as we undergo ‘re-entry’. In a sense it is as vital that we take care over this transition just as we took care to leave well at the beginning. Ritual and prayer may help. A conscious contemplation on the ‘how’ of carrying our experiences into everyday life may be appropriate, and of what and how we will share our pilgrimage with those at home.
We may well have become accustomed to travelling slowly and thoughtfully; thus the kind of transport we use for our re-entry may also be important. Shirley Du Boulay writes of the journey home from her pilgrimage to Canterbury along the Pilgrims’ Way:
“Eventually we left and drove back to Oxford. For much of the early part of the journey the road runs parallel with the Pilgrims’ Way. It felt odd, speeding in the opposite direction, past the places that we had known so recently and explored at such a leisurely pace. The journey that had taken us nearly fourteen days to walk was over in less than three hours. Then home to a pile of post and messages and a broken washing machine. Life must now return to normal, but would it ever be quite the same again?”
Shirley Du Boulay, ‘The Road to Canterbury’ page 229
Most writing on the process of pilgrimage ends here, but from my own experience I felt it necessary to add a sixth and final stage, which I find vital if the experience of pilgrimage is to be internalised, to be truly assimilated into our everyday lives.
Pilgrim Traveller 