The Spiritual Practice of Pilgrimage

Justin Camp

This is a 1950s-era exchange between Leo Rosten and Bertrand Russell. An agnostic philosopher, mathematician and member of the British House of Lords, Russell wrote more than seventy books and won a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Let us suppose, sir, that after you have left this sorry vale, you actually found yourself in heaven, standing before the Throne. There, in all his glory, sat the Lord — not Lord Russell, sir: God.”

Russell winced.

“What would you think?”

“I would think I was dreaming.”

“But suppose you realized you were not? Suppose that there, before your very eyes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was God. What would you say?”

The pixie wrinkled his nose. “I probably would ask, ‘Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’”

Camino de Santiago, Spain — Les Argonautes; Unsplash

We should all want proof of God. We should all desire and strive to encounter and experience him — and accumulate and examine evidence of him.

But we’re wrong to demand he produce a certain kind of evidence. And that’s what Russell was doing. The question he really wanted to ask was “Why did you not give me better physical evidence?”

Russell wanted to subject God to the scientific method. He wanted to put God under a microscope; he wanted to figure him out with a ruler or a scale, a mass spectrometer or a DNA sequencer.

But while the scientific method is a superb method for making discoveries and acquiring knowledge, its usefulness is limited to the natural world. It works in the here and now. It works when phenomena are physically observable and predictable and repeatable.

Jesus taught us, however, that “God is spirit” (John 4:24). He’s what theologians call transcendent. He’s not limited to a physical body or by the natural world. He “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15). He exists outside the here and now; he exists beyond worldly weights and measures, apart from data, above human understanding. We will never, therefore, be able to gauge or get our hands around him with any finite tool or device — or with our finite minds.

Now, God does exist in the here and now too. He is also what theologians call immanent. He is “over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6) — and all means “all,” including the natural world. But he’s so fundamental and so powerful that he alone controls when and how he reveals himself to us here in the physical realm — “he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).

And when he does choose to reveal himself to us, he doesn’t do so in ways that we can examine in a laboratory or evaluate with some instrument. He doesn’t do so in any ways we can predict or cause him to repeat on demand.

So if we try to use machine-age methods to discover God — to encounter him, to experience him — and come away confused and frustrated and doubting, we haven’t proved that God doesn’t exist or that he isn’t near or interested in us or relevant to our lives or that the spiritual realm isn’t real or anything like that.

All we’ve proved is that we have, once again, tried to use improper instruments and employ wrong methods — like if we tried to use a ruler to measure love or a scale to weigh joy.

“God put some of heaven inside you — so you could experience some of heaven now. ”

If we want to encounter and experience God, if we want to accumulate and examine evidence of him, what we need is an instrument and a method that can take into account the whole of reality — not just part of it. What we need is an instrument that’s sensitive to both the natural and the supernatural.

And fortunately for us, God has forged just such an instrument. And he’s taught us just such a method.

The instrument is among his most stunning. And each of us has one: the human heart. We know of God with our minds. We know him with our hearts.

Our brains are designed for knowing facts, for understanding how things work, for grappling with questions of math or science or physics or philosophy or history. But our hearts are made for feeling — for experiencing beauty and joy and sorrow, for delighting in mystery and wonder. And our hearts are also made for that other kind of knowing — knowing people. And they are made for loving.

And our hearts work as well in the spiritual realm as they do in the physical world. They are the instruments God designed for us and gave to us so we could encounter him. It is through them that we sense his presence. It’s through our heart instruments that we communicate with him. And it is through them that we are able to know him relationally and love him.

God made relationship with him possible by putting “the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4:6, emphasis added). The Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of Jesus, is who makes possible the connection between each one of us and our Father God — the transcendent God of heaven. The Holy Spirit is our transmission link; he makes communication feasible.

God put some of heaven inside you — so you could experience some of heaven now.

Not only do we have the right instruments to encounter the God of heaven; we also know the right method. God has taught us. It’s time-honored. We, his followers, have been using this particular method to discover him — to encounter him, to experience him — since the time of Abraham because it’s the one that makes our heart instruments especially sensitive to his presence and his voice.

The right method? Well, it’s to hit the road. To go on an adventure. To head off into the wilderness alone. To embark on a quest. The right method to encounter the God of heaven is to engage in the ancient spiritual practice of journeying.

Four thousand years ago, God called Abraham into the unknown: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). And Abraham did. He walked into a vast desert.

When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents.... Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations — the City designed and built by God. (Hebrews 11:8–10)

Jacob met God in the wilderness, wrestling with him by the side of a river (Genesis 32:22–30). Moses met God in the wilderness, several times climbing a mountain alone to encounter him (Ex. 3:1–4; 19:2–3; Deut. 34:1). David met God in the wilderness (Psalm 63). Elijah met God in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:4–9).

Jesus and his followers did too. Jesus went into the wilderness often, when he needed uninterrupted person-to-person contact with his Father (Luke 5:16). Paul, after his conversion on the Damascus Road, went into the desert to meet God. “He went to Arabia,” wrote biographer John Pollock, “to learn — from the risen Jesus.”

“The Gospels smell of the road,” wrote adventurer and academic Charles Foster. And many other followers of Jesus have, for nearly two thousand years, followed in the footsteps of these biblical examples.

With vim and zeal in their hearts, they left what was familiar and comfortable to go on holy adventures, epic quests, sacred pilgrimages. They hiked into the Egyptian desert. They trekked to Rome and Jerusalem. They walked the Camino de Santiago to northern Spain.

Their journeys have lasted weeks, sometimes months, oftentimes years. For almost two millennia, there’s been a mighty march, a massive movement of human beings — hearts yearning to encounter the God of heaven.

Because we are made not to be sedentary or stuck or static but to go. To roam. We’re hardwired to move our muscles, to exercise our minds — and to allow our hearts to be moved by God.

We’re made to travel. To see and hear. To touch and taste and smell. We’re made to brave wild places. We’re made to explore new territories and take risks and face dangers and overcome challenges. We’re made to wander and get lost. We are made to climb high and fall and get up and try again.

But even deeper than our yearning to explore is our longing to know God. “Our restless and wandering pilgrim hearts,” wrote N. T. Wright, “are restless precisely because the loving God has made us for himself.” We’re made to be in loving relationship with him.

But to love God, we must know him first. We cannot love someone whom we do not know — not really, not intimately. And when Jesus talked about that kind of knowing, he meant something specific. In Scripture, Jesus prayed that we would come to know his Father (John 17:3). And the Greek word used in his prayer is ginōskō — a verb that connotes “familiarity acquired through experience.”

To move from knowing of God to knowing him, we must experience him personally — with our hearts.

That’s the whole point of the journey.

“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it.”

— A. W. Tozer

If we want to experience God, we need to be open and curious, ready to learn, ready to be surprised — ready for anything — because God might do anything. We must be ready for and open to new experiences and new ideas. We must be patient and observant and let God do his thing — whatever that is, whenever he wants. We must be ready for and open to the natural and the supernatural. The physical and the spiritual.

If we aren’t, we’ll likely miss what he does. And we might very well miss him.

And that’s why the spiritual practice of journeying is a prime method of encounter. When we hit the road or head off into the wilderness or embark on a pilgrimage, we put ourselves (and our heart instruments) into states of readiness and openness. Readiness and openness are the very essence of exploration and adventure.

Our hearts are much less likely, by contrast, to be ready and open at home. At home we build walls and biases to protect and isolate ourselves. We create schedules and systems that provide comfort and security and predictability. We develop thought habits that can close us off from new ways of thinking. We develop habits of action (and addictions) that distract us and allow us to avoid or deny pain and loss and regret, to numb the guilt and shame of our sin.

And relationships are hard to build in all that — especially with God. It’s hard to sense him in the midst of our crazy busyness and our well-established coping mechanisms. Our hearts are less sensitive to the Holy Spirit when we’re driving from task to task, meeting to meeting, call to call. It’s futile to try to sense his presence and hear his voice when we’re almost mindlessly moving from post to post, link to link, show to show.

Home has a kind of gravitational pull — pulling us away from God, pulling us down into well-worn ruts, down into comfort, but into confusion and distraction and dullness too.

But by crossing the thresholds of our homes, then of our hometowns and possibly our home countries, we leave behind what gets in the way. When we embark on a journey, when we walk unfamiliar paths in new territories, then we can break free, at least temporarily, from the infrastructure that defends us, that helps us survive and get through a day, but that stultifies and inhibits relationship too.

Going on a journey is an act of surrender. It’s also an act of exchange. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). When we surrender the valuable things of this world, even for a time, we get what’s most valuable in return. When we surrender our habits, our expectations, and the overstimulation that dulls our heart instruments, then we get to sense and experience the subtle and supernatural, the marvelous and miraculous. When we surrender home, we get to go after “a far better country ... heaven country” (Hebrews 11:16).

As pilgrims, our focus narrows to the present, our next steps. We’re able to be present to each moment. Able to pay attention and awaken to wonder. In the desert, in the wilderness, on the road, all of a sudden, we have time. We have time to look for God. Time to listen for his voice. Time to meet him. And our heart instruments become sensitive. We see things we normally wouldn’t. A star. A face. A need. And we hear things. A train whistle. An unexpected conversation. A whisper. And we feel things. A breeze. A handshake. A stirring in our hearts.

“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us,” wrote Tozer, “enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence.”

But it’s going to require some risk and some commitment.

Embarking on a sacred journey, taught Richard Rohr, is “a matter of leaving behind.” “It’s letting go of an old world so a new world can happen.”

What is Christian Pilgrimage?

Pilgrimages take many forms, but most involve traveling, often on foot, to destinations of spiritual significance. They are undertaken as acts of devotion or worship or as outward expressions of the internal spiritual journeys that pilgrims long to experience — for example, encountering God in new and profound ways or being transformed and renewed in faith.

At its core, the practice requires pilgrims to leave behind the comforts of home and embark on a journey of faith, often involving physical exertion and discomfort. Such journeys are a form of spiritual discipline, as pilgrims are challenged to confront their limitations and weaknesses while relying on God’s guidance and grace.

Pilgrimages are metaphors for the Christian life, with all its ups and downs, challenges and transcendent moments, and opportunities for growth and renewal. And, like life, the faithful encounter God on the pilgrimage road through other time-honored spiritual practices — prayer, fasting, meditation, service and charity. The pilgrim’s journey just makes space and time for those practices that home sometimes does not.

Though often considered individual pursuits, pilgrimages can also facilitate the spiritual practice of community. Sharing the experiences of the road with like-minded people can result in friendships that are life-changing and life-long. Furthermore, most pilgrimage destinations have long histories of Christian devotion, and visiting such sites can connect pilgrims with the faith and experiences of those who went before them.

Biblical and Ecclesiastical Foundations of Pilgrimage

Stories of pilgrims abound in Scripture, both literal and metaphorical, emphasizing that our relationships with God require faith and action.

Here are a few examples:

The journey of Abraham: In the book of Genesis, God calls Abraham to leave his home in Ur and journey to the land of Canaan. Along the way, Abraham encounters God in ways he hadn’t before and establishes with him a new kind of relationship.
The exodus journey of the Israelites: In the book of Exodus, Moses leads the Israelites from Egypt, through the desert, to the Promised Land. Their 40-year journey was filled with remarkable experiences of God alongside many failures, detours and hardships.
The pilgrimage festivals: In the Old Testament, God commands the Israelites to observe several pilgrimage festivals, including the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. These festivals required the Israelites to journey to Jerusalem to worship God and offer sacrifices at the Temple.
The journey of Jesus and his disciples: In the New Testament, the disciples spend most of their time on the road having astonishing interactions with Jesus as they travel from place to place, learning, maturing, witnessing miracles, healing people and preaching.
The concept of the heavenly city: In the book of Hebrews, the author describes the faith of the patriarchs and prophets, who lived as pilgrims on earth, seeking a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. This concept emphasizes that our lives are like pilgrimages toward a world remade, our eternal home.

The Catholic Church has a long tradition of pilgrimage, with many holy sites and pilgrimage destinations around the world. These sites are often associated with important events in the life of Christ or the saints and are believed to hold special spiritual significance. The Protestant approach to pilgrimage is more varied and complex, with different denominations, theologians and individuals holding a range of opinions and practices.

For some Protestants, pilgrimage is a way to deepen one’s relationship with God and draw closer to him. However, others express reservations, viewing pilgrimage as potentially leading to idolatry or superstitious beliefs. They argue that a true relationship with God is not dependent on physical travel or the veneration of particular places but rather on personal faith and obedience to God’s will.

“Christians of all kinds have renewed their interest in pilgrimage as a spiritual practice, and millions undertake such adventures each year.”

The History of Pilgrimage

Christian pilgrimage dates back to the early days of the faith when believers began visiting sites associated with Jesus and the apostles. Some of the earliest recorded pilgrimages include visits to the tomb of the apostle Peter in Rome and Jesus's empty tomb in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

In the centuries that followed, pilgrimage became popular and more widespread. During the Middle Ages, thousands of pilgrims journeyed to holy sites in Europe, including Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Canterbury in England, and Rome in Italy. Such pilgrimages were often undertaken as a form of penance, seeking forgiveness for sins or trying to earn merit with God.

In recent decades, Christians of all kinds have renewed their interest in pilgrimage as a spiritual practice, and millions undertake such adventures each year. But pilgrim journeys today tend to be more about God-discovery and self-discovery than atoning for sins or ingratiating oneself to God.

The Most Popular Christian Pilgrimages Today

Pilgrimages vary greatly in length, location, spiritual significance and cultural context. Here are some of the most popular.

The Camino de Santiago: This pilgrimage route in Spain leads to the shrine of the apostle James in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Thousands of pilgrims walk the route each year, and it is known for its beautiful scenery.
The Holy Land: This refers to the area in the Middle East associated with Jesus’ life and ministry, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth. Many Christian pilgrims visit these sites to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
Rome: Rome is home to many important Christian sites, including Saint Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum, which is associated with the early Christian martyrs.
Via Francigena: This is a medieval pilgrimage route that stretches from Canterbury to Rome. The route passes through France, Switzerland, and Italy, and is known for stunning scenery and many historical sites along the way.
Lourdes: This is a town in France where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Today, Lourdes is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the world, attracting millions of visitors each year.
Fatima: This is a town in Portugal where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. The site is now home to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima, which attracts thousands of pilgrims each year.
Canterbury: This city in England is associated with the martyred Archbishop Thomas Becket. The city’s cathedral is a popular pilgrimage site for Christians worldwide.

“Pilgrimages can be deeply rewarding and spiritually enriching experiences.”

Things to Consider Before Embarking on a Pilgrimage

The decision to go on a pilgrimage is a personal one that should be made with careful consideration and discernment. Here are some things to consider as you make your decision:

Spiritual preparation: It is always beneficial to spend the months leading up to a journey reflecting on spiritual goals and preparing your mind and heart for the trip.
Physical preparation: Depending on the pilgrimage, you may need to be physically healthy to complete the journey. Be sure to consult your doctor before you go and consider incorporating a fitness routine into your preparations.
Logistics: Research the logistics of your pilgrimage, including transportation, lodging, and any necessary permits or visas. Consider booking accommodations and transportation in advance to ensure availability.
Cultural context: Be aware of the cultural context of your pilgrimage destination, including local customs and religious practices. Be respectful of the local community and be open to learning about their traditions and beliefs.
Safety: Take precautions to ensure your safety during the journey. Be aware of potential health or safety risks, and consider traveling with a companion or group.
Spiritual guidance: Consider seeking spiritual guidance from a trusted pastor or spiritual advisor before and during the pilgrimage. They can offer insight and support as you prepare for the challenges of the trip.
Reflection and integration: Plan to take time for reflection and integration after your pilgrimage. Consider journaling or speaking with a spiritual advisor to help process your experiences and integrate them into your daily life.

Pilgrimages can be deeply rewarding and spiritually enriching experiences. If you decide to undertake one, there are many good books and websites focused on Christian pilgrimage, all of which can provide helpful insights, inspiration and guidance. In addition, several companies and organizations specialize in leading Christian pilgrimages to various holy sites globally. These companies offer guided tours, accommodations, transportation and other logistical support to make the pilgrimage experience as smooth and meaningful as possible.