Dear pilgrims of hope,
is a pilgrimage going to change us?
When I walked the Camino in 2019 I met all kinds of people. Some were walking the 800 kilometre trail in Spain for religious reasons, for others it was a fitness exercise and because my pilgrimage was during Lent, I also met a few people that were on Camino to get rid of their addictions. I guess physical exhaustion on a daily basis can do the trick for a while, but what happens when we return home to our old stomping grounds? Will we have changed that much?
Some people have spiritual experiences that can change them in an instant forever. Those are very rare cases. Most people change via the educational variant over time. I know that for myself I have tried a “geographical cure” more than once but unfortunately I took myself always with me. When I came to South Africa, there should have been a sign at the airport that said “This country is not going to work either.” Because my luggage was not only clothes, but all the traumas I had collected along the way.
While a pilgrimage removes us from our environment and gives us time away to become a catalyst for change, it is us who needs to put in the hard work. Spiritual direction can be a good way of discerning how to go about this change. It can also show us our blindspots that we cannot see ourselves. The first step to starting a pilgrimage is always prayer. Let us enter the conversation with God today, dear pilgrims of hope, on how to start a pilgrimage, so we do not act on impulse alone, but we can be assured, that we are indeed following God’s will.
