REFLECTION: On Pilgrimage

by Father Nicodemus, St. John’s Monastery

Pilgrimage is an aspect of the God-revealed truth and faith given to us in both the Old and the New Testaments. As the book of Psalms says, we must “turn away from evil and do good” (Ps 33). The Apostle Peter talks about this as well in chapter two of his first epistle, where he says “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims…” The epistle to the Hebrews declares that all the saints “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

When we go on pilgrimage, though, we must have a very specific place where we are journeying or traveling. Holy Tradition tells us that Most Holy Theotokos herself was the first to make pilgrimages to locations associated with Jesus Christ. Such pilgrimages later became common among newly converted Christians: “Pilgrimages by Christians were first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Surviving descriptions, such as that by the pilgrim Egeria, of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the fourth century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like St Jerome. Pilgrimages also began to be made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles, various saints, and Christian martyrs.” — From http://orthodoxwiki.org/Pilgrimage. Over the centuries many other places have become famous sites of pilgrimage, including:

• Jerusalem. The site of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey), former capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the see of one of the five ancient Patriarchates and spiritual see of the Orthodox Church. Hagia Sophia, former cathedral and burial place of many Ecumenical Patriarchs.
• Bethlehem, in Palestine. The birthplace of both our Lord Jesus Christ and the King and Prophet David.
• Mount Athos, Greece. A monastic republic.
• Mount Sinai.

Pilgrimages to yet other holy sites or to monasteries — known sometimes as “miniature pilgrimages” — are occasions where the faithful can renew the primary focus of their lives and renew the connection to what gives true meaning and happiness to life on the deepest levels. Pilgrimage is not simply “running away” from the burdens of daily toil, a “vacation,” where we go to “relax” or the like. In a true spiritual pilgrimage we turn away from the evil of the world and turn toward God, reminding our heart and mind of the things which are most important, most dear and most meaningful to us.

Turning away from evil toward good involves struggle — since we have either knowingly or unknowingly neglected to cultivate parts of ourselves so that they act in harmony with God’s goodness and grace. This struggle was already well explained by the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans where it says: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” We are not just strangers on this earth, we are pilgrims. As pilgrims, we have a definite place where we are going, a definite way of life and being that is different from anything else this life offers. Not only are the doors of the monastery of St John always open to pilgrims, but we have even begun to arrange for speakers and lecturers to come and speak to the pilgrims.

See schedule here.