{"id":10645,"date":"2015-01-09T20:59:53","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T02:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/?p=10645"},"modified":"2016-01-21T21:42:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T03:42:43","slug":"sacred-journeys-near-and-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2015\/01\/09\/sacred-journeys-near-and-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Journeys, Near and Far"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Reese Witherspoon stars in the movie Wild, which chronicles a pilgrimage on the Pacific Crest Trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Now that the holiday season is past, I\u2019m back to\u00a0Rovering again here at the Holy Rover.\u00a0But even during\u00a0my break away from writing, the theme of pilgrimage kept coming up. Today, near\u00a0the beginning of this new year, I want to share some of those gleanings.<\/p>\n

The first is\u00a0the Reese Witherspoon movie Wild<\/a>. I\u2019ve been a bad girl, I\u2019m afraid, and didn\u2019t read the book first, but I loved the movie. It\u2019s based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed, in which she recounts her 1,100-mile\u00a0walk on the Pacific Crest Trail. She is perhaps the most woefully underprepared hiker ever to complete\u00a0this\u00a0challenging route (the scenes with her ridiculously heavy\u00a0backpack are worth the price of the movie). But as the film\u00a0went on, it became increasingly obvious to me that she was on a pilgrimage. I don\u2019t think the word was ever used specifically, but her journey had all the hallmarks: the seeking after meaning, the desperate need to recover\u00a0from trauma and heartache, and the healing that slowly happened because of\u00a0the journey. It\u2019s a splendid film, one I highly recommend.<\/p>\n

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PBS\u2019s Sacred Journeys series explores six of the world\u2019s great pilgrimages, including Shikoku in Japan. (Sacred Journeys image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then there\u2019s the new PBS series by\u00a0Bruce Feiler, author of books that include Walking the Bible<\/a>\"\". His\u00a0Sacred Journeys<\/a> is a six-hour documentary that\u00a0takes viewers\u00a0along on some of the world\u2019s great pilgrimages: Lourdes in France, Shikoku in Japan, Jerusalem in Israel, The Hajj to Mecca, Kumbh Mela in India, and Osun-Osogbo in Nigeria. Like the Wild<\/em> movie, this\u00a0series is wonderful, full of personal stories of those making the pilgrimages as well as gorgeous photography and thoughtful meditations on the theme of spiritual journeying. Each of these hour-long episodes can be viewed for free through\u00a0the PBS website<\/a>. I recommend all of them.<\/p>\n

Bruce Feiler\u00a0wrote a lovely piece for the New York Times<\/em> on\u00a0The New Allure of Sacred Pilgrimages<\/a>. In it\u00a0he talks about the surprising growth of pilgrimage travel around the world despite declining levels of commitment to organized religions in many countries. The United Nations estimates that of every three tourists worldwide, one is a pilgrim, for a total of 330 million people a year. These figures include 30 million to Tirupati in India, 20 million to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, 15 million to Karbala in Iraq, and four million to Lourdes.<\/p>\n

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Kumbh Mela is the world\u2019s largest pilgrimage, held every 12 years on the flood plain of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India. (Sacred Journeys image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of the reason for this growing interest is that International travel is far easier today than ever before But Feiler says that\u00a0even more important is the increasing fluidity of religious identity. People are seeking out their own answers to questions of faith and tradition. He quotes a\u00a0pilgrim who had made the journey to Israel: \u201cThe moment that you stop questioning,\u201d he said, \u201cis the moment you stop growing. You\u2019re either walking in the direction of God or you\u2019re walking away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I especially like what Feiler has to say about the need to be active in one\u2019s spiritual life: \u201cSo much of religion as it\u2019s been practiced for centuries has been largely passive. People receive a faith from their parents; they are herded into institutions they have no role in choosing; they spend much of their spiritual lives sitting inactively in buildings being lectured at from on high\u2026.A pilgrimage reverses all of that. At its core, it\u2019s a gesture of action. In a world in which more and more things are artificial and ephemeral, a sacred journey gives the pilgrim the chance to experience something both physical and real. And it provides seekers with an opportunity they may never have had: to confront their doubts and decide for themselves what they really believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

So as 2015 begins, perhaps the idea of\u00a0pilgrimage is blossoming in your life\u00a0as well. It may be a journey across the world or to a retreat house close to home. It may be an interior pilgrimage, one of illness, grief, or loss. It may come near the beginning of your adult life or near the end. But today I hope you\u2019ll take a minute to\u00a0ask yourself, \u201cWhere am I called to go? And what do I need to learn?\u201d<\/p>\n

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A pilgrim at Lourdes in France takes part in a candlelit procession. (Sacred Journeys image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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