Sunday Morning: The Pilgrimmage

Posted on by Live & Learn

Shikoku-88-Temple-Pilgrimage-Japan

Bruce Feiler in The New Allure of Sacred Pilgrimages:

[…] (A) growing number of Americans (are) joining the worldwide boom in spiritual travel. This growth comes at a time when organized religion around the world is feeling threatened…Pilgrimage, meanwhile, is more popular than ever…the United Nations released a study finding that of every three tourists worldwide, one is a pilgrim, a total of 330 million people a year.

Last year I went on six of these pilgrimages to explore what this new phenomenon says about the future of faith. In addition to the trip to Lourdes, I bathed in the Ganges River along with 100 million people during the 55-day Kumbh Mela, trekked on a 700-mile Buddhist path in Japan, walked in the footsteps of prophets in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem, and traveled with African-Americans to reclaim their roots in Nigeria. What I found is that pilgrimage is not merely ancillary to the modern spiritual existence. In an age of doubt and shifting beliefs, people are no longer willing to blindly accept the beliefs of their ancestors. They are insisting instead on choosing their own beliefs. A pilgrimage can be a central part of this effort.

…The most popular thing you hear in faith circles these days is, “I’m not religious — I’m spiritual.” Everyone is on a journey.

…It’s that feeling of taking control over one’s life that most affected the pilgrims I met. So much of religion as it’s been practiced for centuries has been largely passive. People receive a faith from their parents; they are herded into institutions they have no role in choosing; they spend much of their spiritual lives sitting inactively in buildings being lectured at from on high.

A pilgrimage reverses all of that. At its core, it’s a gesture of action. In a world in which more and more things are artificial and ephemeral, a sacred journey gives the pilgrim the chance to experience something both physical and real. And it provides seekers with an opportunity they may never have had: to confront their doubts and decide for themselves what they really believe.

As appealing as that destination may be, there’s only one way to achieve it. Get up off your sofa and go.

Read Bruce Feiler’s entire essay at The New Allure of Sacred Pilgrimages

Image Credit: Wayne Emde @ Pilgrimroads.com (shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage)

28 thoughts on “Sunday Morning: The Pilgrimmage”

  2. At it’s core, one feels the need to ‘walk the walk and talk the talk’ – it reinforces one’s faith and/or spirituality (I couldn’t help but smile when I read the new mantra about spirituality v. religious and have to cop to saying that myself). I envy those who have had these experiences – I have had a few – and they are powerful on so many levels.

        1. You, my Author:

          The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.

          — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

  6. I consider myself a recovering Catholic. Organized religion relies so much on blind faith, sort of like when my mother used to say in answer to my many”why” questions, “because I’m the mom and I say so”. Sorry, that hasn’t worked for me for a long time. Then there’s the”do as I say, not as I do” aspect. Yet, intectually, it is a struggle to reconcile beliefs that are so deeply ingrained.

  7. Reblogged this on Views from the Hill and commented:
    For almost longer than I can remember, I’ve had difficulty with organized religion. It’s an oxymoron at best, a moat guarded castle guaranteed to keep different ideas out at worst. This is a great essay.

      1. I read it and strongly agree as well. I don’t want or need a bucket list to be happy and feel fulfilled. My life is going along just fine and I’m happy with the goals I have set for myself (and they aren’t huge, but they’re satisfying).
        Have a wonderful Christmas, David, and all the best for next year.

      1. Wow..I had never heard of that saying either – fascinating! This post resonates very much for me. And it is an ongoing process, or perhaps could be. I think as we decide how to move about in our day to day is perhaps the first leg of the pilgrimage….

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