I on Thy path O God

Thou God in my steps.

Bless to me, O God

The earth beneath my foot,

Bless to me,

O God, The path whereon I go.

Next week my daughter Kathleen and I will be going on a pilgrimage. We will be following St. Cuthbert’s Way, a route that wends from Melrose in the border country of Scotland to Lindisfarne Island off the eastern coast of England. In telling people about this trip I have been describing it as a walking tour or a walking vacation; but really it’s a pilgrimage.

The germ of this plan was planted a couple years ago when we heard of two different friends who were going on their own pilgrimages. It sounded attractive. At the time I was studying spiritual direction, and discovering practices which involve solitude and silence and finding that they are the most natural spiritual pathway for me. Pilgrimage is one of the practices that fit this pathway. Trying out a pilgrimage was an intriguing idea. I’m sure Kathleen has her own reasons for finding the idea of pilgrimage attractive. But mostly, I think, we both just felt a tug. To say we feel called toward pilgrimage is putting it too strongly; we felt a tug. And so here we are with rucksacks and hiking boots, ready to go. All that being said, I don’t understand what a pilgrimage is supposed to do or how it is supposed to benefit me. So a large part of this trip for me is just tasting and seeing what pilgrimage is all about.

Esther deWaal in her book Celtic Blessings quotes three Irish pilgrims, “We stole away because we wanted for the love of God to be on pilgrimage, we cared not where.” The Irish who went on pilgrimages were somewhat unique. They were not traveling to a destination, they were traveling in search of something intangible. de Waal, citing St. Columbanus, says they were “seeking the place of one’s resurrection, the pilgrimage to heaven, the true home.” Perhaps we could say that a pilgrimage is an expression of the restlessness some of us feel with the injustices we notice around us; the sense of not being fully at home in our society. De Waal sums up pilgrimage (as the Celtic pilgrims viewed it) as being “to find the place of one’s resurrection, and the equally profound insight, that unless we also carry within our hearts the God whom we are seeking we will not find him.” I am interested in seeing how these theoretical ideas play out in actual physical activity.

Of course, our pilgrimage is significantly different than that of the early Celtic pilgrims. We are not leaving everything behind to journey forever in poverty and exile. But perhaps we will still be permitted a taste of the enlightenment sought by those we emulate.

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Celtic blessing found in: deWaal, Esther. Every Earthly Blessing: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition .Church Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

All quotes from: deWaal, Esther. Every Earthly Blessing: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition .Church Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Thomas, Gary. Sacred Pathways, Discover Your Soul’s Path to God. Zondervan, 2009.