Pilgrimage

I just returned from a long weekend with friends on a houseboat in another state. We take off, packed in a couple of vehicles with our gear and enough food for the weekend, and we drive for about 3 hours to the marina. Thus, the trek begins even before we reach the waterfront.

Several of my friends have gone on this adventure for years. But this was only my second trip. It is a wonderful break from the routine. It provides new scenery for awhile and the comeraderie is fun.

It has become a sort of annual end-of-summer pilgrimage for the group. For me it is a real blessing.

I came across a reflection on the concept of pilgrimage in a book called, Blessings of the Daily, by a contemporary monk named Brother Victor-Antoine. (He also happens to write cookbooks with reflections for each recipe.) Here is what he says about pilgrimage:

As we embark on pilgrimage, we must come to terms with the mystery of repentance....Repentance is not an easy task and is not always easy to talk about....We live in a world of pretension where we don't really believe ourselves to be sinners.

Repentance is the door to prayer. We need not go far to enter into it. All true prayer begins where we are. Reality is the place of the encounter, the place where God meets us. To start praying, to find God, we don't need to roam around the world. All we need is to enter into ourselves, to cry out in humble repentance, and we shall discover God there, in the midst of it all.

I find this reflection to be soothing and calming. I believe that both prayer and repentance require a degree of humility. And a good dash of humility is probably a good thing for all of us occasionally!