The AT: Sacred Journey of the Soul

Pilgrimage.

Most of the world’s great religious traditions share many spiritual practices, and one of the most important and shared is the practice and experience of pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey, usually quite long and not too easy, undertaken for the purpose of traveling to a sacred place, as a search for deeper union and communion with the Mystery that most of us call God.

As a lay Christian and later clergyman, I have had the happy privilege of taking many different trips and retreats to places that my own religious tradition considers holy places of pilgrimage… Rome, Assisi, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, to name just a few. These places have had a profound effect on my spiritual life by helping me know and understand more deeply how Divinity lives, moves and has the Being of God in each of us and in all of us, as experienced by countless people throughout the centuries in these incredible places of faith and spirituality. They are a connection to the past and a promise to future generations of people who seek union and communion with the One who is the very source and goal of our being.

Is the OT a pilgrimage?

Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. HYOH and all that. For some people maybe not so much, but for most of us I would guess a big, resounding “YES” to the possibility of seeing TA that way and for that purpose. The numbers seem to show that most of us undertake a LASH, section, or straight walk specifically during times in our lives that could be considered thresholds, turning points, or transition times.

These include the majority of younger people who have just finished their education and have not yet embarked on their professional careers and family life (they ask themselves: «Who am I?»), as well as older people who have just finished their professional careers and are in the process of transitioning to deeper, calmer times and challenges of later life (they ask themselves: «Who am I now that I am no longer a nurse, lawyer, firefighter, pilot, waitress, etc.»). And of course, there are many people in between, including those who are between jobs, marriages, homes, relationships, etc. Many of us are “in the middle” and wondering about the meaning of life and, frankly, the meaning of US, of ME, of my own existence during this admittedly brief time and space of a human life.

So where exactly are we going?

If pilgrimage is a spiritual journey to a sacred place, where exactly do we go when we walk the path? What is the destination of the pilgrimage? Katadin? Sure. Jumper? OK. Anywhere to walk with flip flops or sections in the middle? Maybe.

But, really, where are we going in the spiritual sense of things? Because destiny is just an excuse. Katahdin, Springer, somewhere in between… any PLACE of destination is just an excuse for the hike. For the trip. For the trip. On the endless, long and winding road/path we walk together.

The true destination of a spiritual pilgrimage is WITHIN. It is the “place,” which is actually not a place at all, where eternity dwells deeply within each and every one of us. The home of God. The abode of the Spirit. The Mystery that most of us call God that lives in each and every one of us. The radiant and sacred Presence that shines in everyone and everything in creation.

AT offers us a beautiful and unique opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in what normally hides beneath the layers of our overly busy, chaotic, and stress-filled lives. The path has a way of stripping everything away, of peeling back the layers of things that we think are important but don’t really count for much in the long run.

WE are the destiny. Our true self, the Holy Mystery that dwells at the very center of our being, is the source and goal of this blue and green, starlit, rain-soaked, blood, sweat and tears journey. And we are all guaranteed arrival…whether we reach the end of the road or not. Well, good way!

– good luck

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