Pilgrims
Read Time: 4.5 minutes
“Our ancestors stood under the same skies as we do, whispered to these same constellations, searched for meaning in the same moonlight. And somehow, their wonder lives on in me”
I was reminded of this quote from Isabelle Gloria on a recent visit to my homeland. I stood under the same skies as my ancestors and I felt their wonder living on in me.
We visited the house where my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother were born, marveled at the beauty of nature, enjoyed great conversation, great food and made great memories.
I thank God for the gift of meeting many relatives, people I grew up with, after so many years. We visited the church where my ancestors’ baptisms, weddings and funerals took place. We prayed and lit candles in their honour. Then we went to the graveyard and spent time at the immaculately maintained family plot, laid some flowers and visited with all those who were laying there. We read the dates applying to each family member, remembering how we loved them and how they loved us, remembering all the special occasions, the laughter and the tears. Then we sadly said goodbye.
This emotional graveyard visit brought our travels to an end. On reflection I felt that we were not just visiting travelers. We were pilgrims. The difference between travelers and pilgrims is this:
Travelers seek God in the destination, but pilgrims seek God not just in the destination, but in all they do along the way.
Our vacation was definitely a pilgrimage. But now life is back to the ordinary, in an ordinary routine and it is not so easy to seek God in everything we do and to listen to what He is telling us and to have hope and joy about everything.
It is similar in our Church community. Although we are still celebrating our Jubilee pilgrimage of Hope for the remainder of this year, we are back in Ordinary Time. We have passed all the excitement of the big feasts of Easter and Pentecost and will continue in Ordinary Time until the end of November. During this long season of ordinariness the Gospel readings are all about Jesus’ ministry. In order to continue to celebrate this Jubilee year of Hope, we need to listen to what we are being asked to do in the Gospel readings.
We read about people who listened to what Jesus asked them to do and did it unquestionably. The Feeding of the Five Thousand is a good example. Jesus told the apostles to take the five loaves and two fishes and share them out among five thousand people and the apostles obeyed and a miracle occurred.
The Wedding Feast at Cana is another example. The servants at the wedding must have wanted to question Jesus when He told them to fill the wine jugs with water, but they didn’t. They obeyed and the result was……. another miracle.
So, as we get back to ordinary life, both in our home community and in our church community, we need to focus on listening to what Jesus is asking and or telling us to do.
We are not so fortunate as the apostles or the wedding servants to physically hear the words of Jesus, but we need to continue to seek God’s direction in all aspects of our daily life and pray that:
“The grace of the Jubilee awaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven”