Pilgrimage is at the heart of the human experience, and it is a spiritual intention worth discovering and practicing. Pilgrimage is practiced in all of the world’s religions. Among many many holy sites in the world, Jerusalem, as one example, has long been a holy place drawing pilgrims from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each and everyone of us are pilgrims, whether we acknowledge it or not. We are all pilgrims walking together along the road called Life. How awake are you to the journey? How awake are you to the path under your feet and before you? The universal invitation to the human pilgrim, across all cultures and creeds, is a journey into deepening consciousness, a journey into being more awake to life, awake to Love, in every moment of every day. Pilgrimage is a necessary spiritual practice for spiritual seekers. There is a spiritual need within our souls to step outside of our normal daily routines and responsibilities, in order to travel to special landscapes and holy sites to find and regain perspective on our lives and the lives of our communities.
Over the years I have been on a number of pilgrimages with spiritual intent. I have travelled to Canterbury, England, the mother church of Anglicanism. I have traveled to the Holy Lands to walk in the steps of Jesus. I have recently traveled to Iona, a tiny island in the north west of Scotland, that was settled by St.Columba and his Celtic Christian community in the 7th century, and has been attracting pilgrims every since. These pilgrimages, and others, have been significant events in my spiritual journey.
But you don’t have to travel around the world in order to go on spiritual pilgrimage. Every summer I travel to Port Rexton on pilgrimage. Port Rexton was my first parish as a priest, and it is the place where I learned to pray in and with nature. Every summer when I return on pilgrimage, I prayerfully reconnect with the landscape as I walk the trails and beaches.
Every Friday I travel to the Southern Shore. My family roots are in Bay Bulls, and my mother lives in a seniors home in Witless Bay. It is a pilgrimage in which my intention is to lovingly reconnect with my aging mother. And to make a day of it, when I travel to the Shore on Fridays, I always spend time on the various and beautiful trails, inviting and allowing the rugged and beautiful landscape to restore my soul.
Newfoundland and Labrador is a special place in our global village that attracts pilgrims from all over the world. Not just because of our people and uncommon hospitality, but because of our beautiful and unique landscape. We have a beautiful spiritual treasure in Newfoundland and Labrador - our nature, our landscape. Be a spiritual pilgrim, travel into the landscape with intent, and restore your soul.
