By Father Casey
For the first time in five years, a group of high schoolers from Transfiguration are on pilgrimage. They are en route to Ireland, where they’ll spend the next week exploring beautiful places, practicing a daily rhythm of prayer, experiencing ancient forms of Christianity, and going deeper in their faith. Youth pilgrimage has a long history at the Fig, and I’m thrilled that, thanks to your generous support, we have once again been able to send our students on one of these holy journeys. I ask you to pray for them.
On Sunday, another group of pilgrims will embark from Transfiguration, this one to Germany to witness the famed Oberammergau Passion Play.[1] The people of that tiny town have been enacting the story of Jesus’ Passion every decade since 1634, in fulfillment of a vow they made to God during an outbreak of bubonic plague. We’ve been planning this pilgrimage for nearly four years, and it is thrilling to near our journey’s start. In these tumultuous and stressful times, including our own experience of dreadsome plague, the Passion Play bears witness to God’s abiding promise: the worst thing will not be the last thing, because of the sacrificial love of Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection.
I ask you to pray for us.
Pilgrimage is often associated with sacred sites like Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago. Since ancient times, Christians would travel hundreds of miles to venerate holy relics or pray in the places where Jesus lived. In that spirit, Transfiguration will embark on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the fall of 2023, and I can’t encourage you to consider joining us strongly enough. There is nothing like standing where Jesus stood and feeling the thinness of the veil between our earthly reality and the heavenly reality.
But pilgrimage can occur to any place of beauty or sacred significance, where you expect to encounter God in a new way, and where you know you will be stretched as a person and as a disciple of Jesus. In that vein, Transfiguration will conduct a pilgrimage to Mexico in February 2023 to witness the natural phenomenon of the monarch butterfly wintering colony. Nature is another form of divine revelation, and when we turn aside from our busy lives to witness its majesty, we surely come into the presence of God.
And in March we will finally go on our intergenerational Civil Rights Pilgrimage, which has been postponed three times. Walking in the footsteps of the saints is textbook pilgrimage, and that is precisely what we do in places like Selma, Birmingham, and Jackson.
I have heard it said that there are five attributes to pilgrimage, which set this form of travel apart from vacations or even mission trips.
Detachment – you must leave behind your home and habits, your work and obligations
Fatigue – you must somehow stretch yourself in body, mind, and spirit
Wonder – you should experience the feeling of holy awe
Tradition – you should somehow be connected to the faithful who have come before you
Prayer – you should steep in prayer every day to grow closer to God
With that in mind, I wonder if you’ve ever been on a pilgrimage? Perhaps it was to one of the traditional sites, or perhaps it was to somewhere unusual, but deeply holy nonetheless. Or perhaps you’ve never been on such a sacred journey – and if so, I hope you’ll consider it. Come with us on one of the pilgrimages next year (information will be forthcoming in coming weeks about all of the 2023 pilgrimages), or pray for guidance about where God may be inviting you to travel to deepen your faith. Life with God is certainly an adventure, and not always metaphorically. Where might you go to meet God in a new way?
