Pilgrimage or Vacation?
What is the difference between a pilgrimage and a vacation?
One is an outward journey. The other is an inward journey. A vacation is a journey of the mind. A pilgrimage is a journey of the heart. A vacation is a get-away-from. A pilgrimage is a get-closer-to.
On Good Friday, thousands of people gather in Chimayo, New Mexico for the annual Holy Pilgrimage. Many of these travelers come from all over the nation and choose to walk hundreds of miles to El Santuario de Chimayo. Some pilgrims even complete the journey barefoot while others carry a wooden crucifix with them!
Watching them line up to get into the chapel was different than watching people line up to get into Disneyland. I had the feeling I was experiencing something real and meaningful regardless of religious belief. I felt an expansion of my life and a connection with all of the people there. I didn’t feel that way at Disneyland.
Richard Rohr writes about pilgrimage in his daily meditations:
The sacred art of pilgrimage involves both an inward and outward journey. The pilgrim strives to hold both the inward and outward journey together, sometimes in tension, but always focused on the search for meaning, for the Divine. What most distinguishes the sacred art of pilgrimage from a tourist trip or hiking expedition, as beneficial as these are, is the characteristic inward journey, a turning of one’s heart to the Divine, with the expectation of transformation on every level of being along the way.
My annual trip to the Modern Elder Academy in Baja is a pilgrimage for me. It’s a longing in my heart to connect with something real in the midst of solitude and silence. I believe it’s one of the reasons I’m still living a full and active life at 80.
I hope you have many pilgrimages in your life that connect you with the Divine, whatever you perceive that to be.