Pilgrimage Into Soul

December 6, 2023

The English term "pilgrim" is from the Latin word peregrinus (which means coming through a country or land and would refer to a foreigner, a stranger, someone on a journey or a temporary resident).

Any new experience puts us in foreign territory. But before we get there, we pass through liminal space, that threshold between our original and new place. It is typical to be disoriented in that space because we have to accommodate to the new environment.

Think of the pilgrims who left England, then Holland and sailed to the New World. They entered each new world through a twilight zone, between two worlds. They had their English Puritan culture, but now they also had a new land of Native Americans with another culture and belief system. How did they reconcile the two?

Such was the experience of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus as they made their way from Palestine to Egypt. The Holy Family journeyed through the area called Gaza as they traveled south to the Egyptian border. In Cairo today, you can visit the site of the Holy Family’s house while sojourning in Egypt. Today, a church is built over the site, but in the basement you can see the house’s foundations, water well and rooms. What was it like for this young family who fled from terror into a foreign culture?

Inquiry: What is it like for you to be a pilgrim? What liminal space are you now standing in before a new phase of your life or a new chapter of your soul's story?

Dear God,

I pray to find our way home to you in all our pilgrimages through foreign spaces. Amen.

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