To be a Pilgrim

Many people walk, in fact there are now so many trails, ways and paths to walk that it is hard to keep pace with them. My Dad is well into double figure with regards the long distance walks that he has done. So was going on The St Cuthbert’s way with me going to be just a “walk” or was it going to be something different? For me, personally, I wanted it to be different, I wanted it to be a Pilgrimage. I felt the need to do something that would impact on me spiritually and theologically as well as Physically, I wished for it to have an impact on my life that would be beyond just the physical, whilst acknowledging the physical was part and parcel of that.

In the middle ages many folk went on Pilgrimage for Spiritual reasons, as an act of penance for their deeds or the deeds of loved ones departed; to give thanks to God for things they believed he had done for them; or because their priest had told them it would be good for their soul and help them get closer to God. After the Reformation all that changed and it was only in post-enlightenment times that Pilgrimage started to be rekindled in Christian circles. Many now travel to places like Lourdes and Fatima to seek healing and wholeness, to experience God in a new and fresh way or to give thanks for the healing in their lives or the lives of loved ones. For me it was the need for renewal, the need to re-assess my own faith and to think afresh about my own ministry and life. I hoped the experience of the journey, surrounded by prayer and the opportunity for reflection would help in that process. I also wanted to share in that experience with others, most especially my Dad, and to find something tangible to contemplate.

At the end of the Pilgrimage Dad and I reflected on what we’d been through and I asked him where, for him, The St Cuthbert’s Way rated. He said “In terms of toughness: It was up there with the hardest. In terms of scenery and beauty: again up there with the best. What set it apart was the fact it was a Pilgrimage, that we surrounded it in prayer and that’s what made it special.” For me too it was that side of things that set it apart for me, it was the sense of walking where Cuthbert has trod, of feeling his presence with us on the way, with learning more about this great Saint as we walked and contemplated that really made a difference. Above all else though, it was the realisation that Pilgrimage isn’t about having to walk a long way, it isn’t about struggling up hills and yomping through marshes, it is about realising we are all Pilgrims, that our life is a Pilgrimage. The St Cuthbert’s Way became a metaphor for that life, with its struggles, its ups and downs, its euphoria and sense of achievement, with the times of doubt and questioning but mostly that it is with God presence that we are able to continue on our way, and it is in him that all things come together. All this is best summed up in the words of the final prayer we said in St Mary’s Church on Lindisfarne as Dad and I finished our Pilgrimage and prepared for out journey home:

“You have been with us at the world’s beginning,

Be with us till the world’s end.

You have been with us at the suns’ rising,

Be with us to our day’s end.

You have been with us on our journey here

Be with us to our journey’s end.

Go before us in our pilgrimage of life.

Anticipate our needs,

prevent our falling,

and lead us to our eternal destiny. Amen.”