A pilgrimage doesn't mean travelling half way around the world

Reverend Steve Jones of the Mission Community of Exmouth, Littleham and Lympstone (Image: Steve Jones)

In 2019 I had the amazing experience of going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

This was a journey that I had felt drawn to all my adult life. Walking along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, following the route that Jesus would have taken to his execution, was a breath-taking experience.

Sailing serenely across the Sea of Galilee on a beautifully, sunny, calm day is an hour of my life that I will never forget. This year I hope to make a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the very roots of our national Church.

Pilgrimage can be all about leaving home to discover something more of God and more of yourself. There are, perhaps, four stages to a pilgrimage.

The first is sensing that you need it. The list of questions in your mind is building up, and they are not getting answered amid the chaos of daily life. You sense you need to find some clarity.

Pilgrimage is a bit like fasting. Fasting can help you clarify your thinking through the absence of the distraction of food. It can help heighten other senses to allow you to reflect more clearly.

Leaving home for new horizons can have that same effect. As you travel without the common distractions of life, as you endure the challenges that come with travel, the fog can lift and the way ahead can manifest itself.

Reverend Steve Jones on the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem in the background (Image: Steve Jones)

Once you have sensed that you need a pilgrimage, the next stage is the hardest – leaving. As human beings we can be full of good intentions, but all too often those good intentions come to nothing.

Packing up your travelling bag and walking out of your front door is a statement of intent and purpose. It signals that you want things to change and are committed to the process.

The third, and most important, element of the pilgrimage is the journey. It is on that journey, along the highways and byways of the world, that you will meet with God and with yourself.

Alone with yourself, or in the company of fellow pilgrims, you make yourself vulnerable to hearing God speak. He might speak in an awe-inspiring sunrise, in the words of a book that you are given along the way, or in the face of a child who crosses your path.

He might introduce you to another person whom he has purposed to become a lifelong friend and supporter for you.

He might reveal in you a special skill that has hitherto lain dormant, or might allow you, for the first time, to hear his still small voice speak in the depths of your soul.

It is the journey that changes you because the journeying makes you vulnerable and opens you up to a whole host of new possibilities.

Some pilgrims are no longer the same person when they turn and head for home. The final stage of the pilgrimage is your arrival at the destination.

Destinations are firstly about completing what you started. There can be a deep satisfaction in just doing that.

They also offer a moment of reflection about where you are standing now, and how far you have come, personally, to get there.

Your destination, however, may become a new beginning, as the vision and inner need for another journey comes into view.

While famous pilgrimage destinations can be life changing experiences, you really do not have to travel that far to go on pilgrimage.

You might want to start with a pilgrimage from wherever you live to Exeter cathedral, or even your local church.

You do not have to walk, you do not need a backpack, and you do not even need to be entirely sure of why you are going out your front door.

All that you need is a sense that you want something more, the courage to leave, and an openness to encountering whatever God may show you along the way.