The Power of Pilgrimage

A stroll down Memory Lane...

Our daughter feeds a block of peat into the fire in our Ireland cottage on her first trip to Europe.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I believe in the power of pilgrimage. Pilgrimages take us in a tangible and physical way to visit the Saints and other special sites sacred to our Faith.

Of course, we can visit mentally. We can place ourselves in the Holy Land, walking alongside Our Lord carrying His cross through Jerusalem as we pray. We can contemplate the courage of St. Catherine of Siena, fulfilling God’s work as an adviser to the pope, or St. Paul’s tireless efforts spreading the Gospel throughout the land.

But if we are able to go on an actual physical pilgrimage, we can gain many graces. Our older daughter is getting married this weekend, and I’m reflecting on the first time we took her and her sister on an international pilgrimage. They were about 10 and 11 years old respectively. Our first stop was Ireland, where we stayed in a 17th-century cottage.

We visited the grave where St. Patrick and St. Brigid are buried with St. Columcille. We prayed at the site of St. Brigid’s abbey in Kildare, and visited the valley of St. Kevin’s monastic site.

Trips like this open our minds, not only spiritually, but also in an earthly, historical way. Before we went, we read Nory Ryan's Song, a middle-grade novel about the potato famine. When our younger daughter strayed into a neighbor’s field and picked a potato, we explained that the field did not belong to us. But then we brought the fist-sized potato into our self-catering cottage, washed it and boiled it carefully. We sliced it into four quarters and talked about how during the famine, the Irish would have been grateful for one good potato since most of them were destroyed.

The kids climbed around in the ruins of Inch Abbey, explored Dunluce Castle, and made many other priceless memories. We visited with our third- and fourth-cousins in the Dublin area. Our children conquered their fear and crossed the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge:

All in all, they learned about the Catholic Faith in Ireland, the history, the language, the culture, the architecture and the scenery that was very different from Arizona and Colorado, where they had spent most of their lives up to that point. Next month, I will be leading a pilgrimage to Ireland which will mark my tenth visit to that beautiful and holy country. For a free handout on sites to see in Ireland, click here.

Then we crossed over to “the Continent” and they visited Lisbon, Lourdes, Loyola, Burgos, and so many other special places. They saw ancient Roman aqueducts in Segovia, climbed along the medieval walls of Avila, and prayed where Our Lady appeared in Fatima. I posted this special memory from Fatima on Instagram:

Our daughters, with lighted candles, are making their way on their knees down the path of gratitude for answered prayers. We didn’t make them do it; they saw it as “we get to do it!” This is another benefit of pilgrimages — we get to pray in new ways, in new places, with new people and new experiences — and this helps us to have a greater connection with God.

So not only do we Learn from pilgrimages, but we Connect in a new way with our Faith. Pilgrimages expand our minds, hearts and souls.

We also get to Visit with the Saints, and that is the point of the new book I’m currently writing. When we go on pilgrimage to these places, we are able to tangibly visit someone who died long ago, but who is our friend in Heaven. I may not be able to have an espresso with St. Catherine of Siena or enjoy a dish of paella with St. Teresa of Avila, but I can walk the streets of their hometown, visit their home, touch the baptismal font where they were received into the Church, see items that they owned, pray at their tombs, and get to know them better that way.

I heartily recommend reading about the Saints before you visit them; it will be so much more meaningful! Some of my most tender memories are when I had to time to read or pray at the special sites, with knowledge of what happened there and why the place was special.

After we attended Mass in the Chapel of the Conversion in Loyola, where St. Ignatius recovered from his cannonball wounds, we prayed and read aloud with our children:

As we prepare for our daughter’s wedding this weekend, and her move out-of-state, reflecting on the pilgrimages we’ve taken together brings both sweetness and sadness. I’m grateful we got to make these trips together, and mournful that an era is ending.

Only God knows the future. Perhaps in a few years, we will be taking pilgrimages with our children and our grandchildren!

Check out my website for information on the travel consultations I offer to help you with your next pilgrimage! I even have a downloadable resource for a perfect day in Rome.

Will you please pray as I work on my next book, that I can complete it in a timely manner for God’s glory and my own sanctification? Thank you!