For centuries, faithful men and women have journeyed together on pilgrimage to sacred places. Today, journeys to sacred places or quests made sacred by their purpose allow people to connect with God in ways not attainable in ordinary, day-to-day life. As we walk in the footsteps of those who have prayed and worshipped for hundreds of years before us, we can learn about ourselves and about God in the process.
Sally Chambers, a Tennessee youth pastor who has taken high school students on pilgrimage for more than 10 years says, “Pilgrimage is not just about the destination, it is about the pilgrims themselves being changed and discovering more about who they are and who God is along the way.”
Today’s Pilgrims
Modern pilgrims include those who go to Jerusalem to traverse the walkways Jesus traveled and see the locations firsthand in which the events of the Bible took place. Young people from all over the world journey to the Taizé Community of France to sing, pray and live in fellowship with one another. Others walk the medieval pilgrim route of the Way of St. James in Spain.
These contemporary wayfarers seek to connect with God by traveling to “thin places,” locations where heaven and earth seem to touch and where individuals experience God and feel His presence in ways they cannot back home in the midst of their normal routines.
We are better able to hear God speak to us in these thin places of life—along the edges of experience when life is less hectic, more quieter and when the worries of life don’t preoccupy or overwhelm us.
During pilgrimage, students dwell in community, experiencing benefits obscured by the pervading prevalent practices of online social networking such as Facebook, of texting and e-mailing instead of talking face to face, of losing oneself to video games or earbuds to the exclusion of personal interaction. God speaks to His people in and through community; in the presence of others, we grow in our faith and in our understanding of God.
Creating Your Pilgrimage
This summer, I will travel with Sally Chambers and several students on a Celtic pilgrimage to Iona, the borderlands of Scotland, and to England’s Lindisfarne, known as the Holy Island. We will follow the pathways of the faithful who in past centuries planted churches and monasteries, bringing the good news of Jesus to Scotland and northern England.
Even if you can’t take your students on pilgrimage to distant, sacred lands, pilgrimage can be accomplished close to home. This summer, Joe Snavely, a youth pastor from Cincinnati, is taking students on a pilgrimage around Lake Erie to Niagra Falls, then on to Toronto, to Detroit, northern Ohio, then back home to Cincinnati. Anglican nuns in Toronto will host them, allowing them the opportunity to practice the discipline of silence. They will visit the Episcopal Cathedral in Detroit, a holy place in the midst of poverty and suffering. By staying close to home and traveling by car or bus, his students (of various financial backgrounds) will be able to experience meaningful pilgrimage.
“Mini” pilgrimages are possible when extensive, more expensive trips are impractical. Take a day trip around your city, praying for the people encountered along the way. Hike a secluded trail in silence, meditating on Scripture as you go; and take time to process thoughts together as a group at some point on the trail. Spend a day at a monastery. Practice silence, and participate in a prayer service with the monks.
For more information about leading your students on pilgrimage, read The Way of Pilgrimage, Leaders Guide: An Adventure in Spiritual Formation for the Next Generation by Sally Chambers, Gavin Richardson and Jonathan Norman.
