Last summer when COVID restrictions eased, I was fortunate enough to be able to walk around all of the churches dedicated to Saint Chad in this diocese. It was a wonderful experience of walking, prayer and hospitality despite the strange times we are going through. And now I would like to encourage all of you to join me in a new “pilgrimage”. In preparation for this, I have thought about the meaning of “pilgrimage” in a time of restriction. Three aspects of pilgrimage emerged for me in particular: pilgrimage as traveling together, as a metaphor and as devotion.
Pilgrimages are obviously journeys: to be on the way, to get from one place to another. In lockdown, it can feel like we’re isolated with nowhere to go, in an endless series of gray days that melt together. But we can continue to invest in learning, relationship building, and our own spiritual growth. We can still travel forward as pilgrims in the creative ways we found to be together and, despite these times, online and where safe, to build a community in person.
Pilgrimage has been used as a metaphor throughout Christian history. We make a physical pilgrimage to remind ourselves that our whole life is a spiritual pilgrimage back to the God who made us, to our heavenly home. We must take time for individual and community prayer and for returning to the God who loves us, especially during this great Lent.
And pilgrimage is deeply a form of devotion. This is true regardless of whether we can take the traditional long walks together or not. It turns out that the “pilgrimage of the spirit” is not an invention of modern technology, as many people currently enjoy exploring sacred sites online. Medieval people unable to make a physical pilgrimage, often because they were members of closed orders, rummaged through manuscripts that gave them vivid descriptions of the holy places of Jerusalem and other holy cities. Some of them gave precise instructions and measurements so that a reader could “go around” such places in their own mind and monastery. Popular devotions like the Stations of the Cross emerged from such mental pilgrimages. We make pilgrimages, whether physical or spiritual, to get closer to Christ and to allow him to come closer to us.
Many people are currently creatively imagining walking famous long distance hiking trails or climbing large mountains as they travel the miles from their local park or garden (I did the Cabot Trail around Nova Scotia on my own garden in Lichfield!). Building on this and the medieval examples of spiritual pilgrimage, we hope to soon provide some resources to help people make a “virtual pilgrimage” to explore places known to holy Chad and our way forward Accompany your journey with prayer and devotion. I hope many of you can join me. In the meantime, I would like to encourage all of us to get off as pilgrims and go prayerfully, be it virtual or, if it is safe, in reality. Especially in these times, I believe that we need to take time to make a pilgrimage in our own lives. Once again I invite you to join me: come, follow Christ in the footsteps of Saint Chad.
Bishop Michael
