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Email a FriendThank you for the update… I wish you well on the rest of your pilgrimage!
On Becoming a Pilgrim
The prayer adventure of a lifetime...
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Monday, January 30, 2012 10:31 PM
Hi friends, just a few quick words from the Holy Land where I am having the time of my life. Our internet connection here in Jerusalem is sketchy at best—to use my iPad I must do some gymnastics that are inconvenient at best… so I will keep this short and share the bulk of my stories over the next few weeks when I return home to the land of abundant and free wifi.
Although I have been able share so much of this journey to Israel on my Facebook and Twitter pages, there is so much that has gone unshared since my reaction at entering any of the holy places we are visiting is simply to hit my knees and pray my heart out. Yesterday, as we were leaving St. Catherine’s at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, I spotted a very small sign which read:
“We are hoping that:
If you enter here as a tourist, you would exit as a pilgrim.i
If you enter here as a pilgrim, your would exit as a holier one.”
So much of this journey has been beyond description for me. Perhaps it is because this is my first visit… the feeling of wanting to capture the memories is great, but even greater is the fervant desire not to miss any opportunity to pray and to fully commune with Christ in this land where he served, taught, suffered, died and rose again. But the truth is, even within our own home parishes, we are a pilgrim people constantly in search of what is true and good, constantly endeavoring to share that pearl of great price with those we love most.
Yesterday, I received a first hand object lesson on what pilgrimage looks like. We have been blessed to be traveling in Jerusalem at the same time as soon-to-be Cardinal Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is traveling here with 50 priests from his diocese. We had a chance for a private meeting with him a few nights ago, and at that time he stressed the value of a time of pilgrimage immediately prior to the major changes that will come in his life as he is elevated to Cardinal. Everywhere he goes here, he is like a “rock star” as soon as folks recognize him. And yet his humility and good humor are without fail. Yesterday, as we were praying our way through the Church of the Holy Sepluchre (which is lovely, but also sadly filled with folks who are more tourists than pilgrims), I happened to look over and see a large group of priests amidst many of the tourists. Off to one side, I saw one priest, amidst the craziness, sitting on the perch of a step—head down and praying the Rosary quietly in the middle of all of the hubub. There was Archbishop Dolan, who without a word but with an eloquent lesson in what matters most, reminded me that this is all about becoming a (holier) pilgrim.
So as the days on my adventure of a lifetime begin to wind down and I ponder my “re-entry”, I am focusing on becoming a holier pilgrim, not simply here in Israel but all along the journey of life.
And you—when was the last time you made a spiritual pilgrimage?
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