What is a Pilgrim?

APilgrim is a searcher. Restless, seeking truth or meaning, he or she goes on a journey. The beginning is modest, but significant. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, say the Chinese. “I will go on-line and complete an application form for this year’s pilgrimage”. This first step leads to a tradition born in the Middle Ages when many people went on pilgrimage to holy places. It was tourism mediaeval-style. People in those days were wise. They said that there are two types of pilgrimage: the physical (like going from London to Canterbury to pray at the tomb of St Thomas a Becket) and the spiritual (engaging in an active inner search). The first was good; the second was better and nobler.

So who is a pilgrim? We all are, both individually and as a people. I am a pilgrim person. I am on a physical and spiritual journey. I need healing. During my week’s pilgrimage I will live this experience intensely through journeying in Lourdes. Meeting strangers, making friends, exchanging stories, caring for people, moving out from the prison which often holds me back. Engaging in prayer, meeting Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, finding some dark bits that I do not like, and then finding relief and release in God’s loving forgiveness. My journey to Lourdes will teach me many things, and not least the importance of prayer. One peaceful moment at the Grotto in the presence of Our Lady can be a lifechanging experience.

But there is more to life than me. “No man is an island entire of itself” is what the poet John Donne said. “Every man is a piece of the continent”. We are a pilgrim church, on the road but not there yet. We have each other, a guide and a destination: heaven and eternal life. We are always open to letting people follow at their pace and picking up stragglers at any time. We belong, as part of a Hotel group or the Accueil, and in belonging, we are important. In Lourdes we learn particularly how important the sick are to our community. Through them we discover our universal fragility and our need of healing.