5 Lessons Learned from Pilgrimage

In my life I've been blessed with the incredible opportunity to go on two important pilgrimages: World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the summer after I graduated high school, and walking the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain after my freshman year of college. Both the hardest and best things I've ever done, these two journeys were extremely formative in my spiritual life and have ingrained in me a deep love of pilgrimage. In many ways, pilgrimages are giant metaphors for our Earthly existence - which is, after all, a pilgrimage to heaven. The lessons I learned at World Youth Day and on the Camino are ones I carry with me every day, not just when I'm packing my backpack for another spiritual adventure.

Pack light

Be harsh with yourself about what you truly do and do not need. Not only will packing light make your journey infinitely more comfortable, but it will make it more meaningful. Consider leaving every piece of technology possible behind, packing only enough changes of clothes for a few days (be ok with washing things in the sink), and relying on the company of those around you for entertainment. Pilgrimage is a chance to experience poverty and detach yourself from material possessions, and it is so much easier to pray and be present with others when you aren't distracted by stuff.

Roll with the punches

If there is one thing I can guarantee you about your pilgrimage, it is that things will go wrong. You'll arrive in town after a long day of walking to find that the hostel is full. The site where 500,000 pilgrims were supposed to meet the pope will be flooded and filled with crocodiles. You won't be able to get your lunch boxes and will survive off crackers and empanadas for two days. These things happen. On pilgrimage, you will learn to die to your own will, be content in discomfort, and trust the Lord to make everything work out.

Be patient

Pilgrimage, by definition, is a journey. Journeys take time, and it is the time that teaches you, not a sudden arrival. On the Camino, walking 500 miles is slowwwwww, but that's the whole point. It is in silence, stillness, and slowness that the Lord speaks to us. Waiting can be joyful, too. Once in Rio de Janeiro, my group waited for about an hour in the rain outside a Subway for dinner. But the whole time, we played games, sang songs, and laughed - that night is one of my best memories from my trip to Brazil because of the community we formed in the waiting. Like your material possessions, detach yourself from instant gratification.

Be patient with others, too. Sometimes the people we travel with are the most difficult parts of our pilgrimages, if we have different attitudes, expectations, or abilities. The Lord wants you to love these people and allow them to change you.

Lastly, be patient with yourself. Everything takes time: spiritual growth, adjustment to a new culture or language, making friends. Everything is in God's time.

Love those you journey with

I don't mean "pick your five best friends to pilgrimage with you" (although that could be awesome) - I mean actively choose to love those you find around you. This was probably the most difficult, and yet most important and rewarding, piece of my pilgrimages. My friends and I were full of joy through every trial in Brazil because we choose to love each other, by watching out for one another like brothers and sisters, by making one another laugh, and by listening to and comforting one another in hard times. On the Camino, I had to learn to adopt (or be adopted by) a new family, and love them despite their quirks, habits, styles of communication, etc. Looking back at all the times I wished I was walking alone, I see my Camino family as the way in which the Lord drew me out of myself and formed me into the person I am today.

Pray

Rivaling love of others in importance is prayer. The Camino de Santiago taught me how to pray, in all those early morning walks in stillness as the meseta awoke, in those hot afternoons when we were too tired to talk, in the moments I found myself walking for a hour with no one around. What was there to do but talk to the One who was always walking beside me?

Open yourself to our Holy Hours, masses, and quiet time. Prepare your heart to be surprised and dive in, abandoned to God' will. In lonely and difficult moments, turn to Him who is always at your side. In joyful moments, turn to Him in gratitude and praise. When you come back home, I guarantee you will miss the silence.

I don't think I'll ever be able to stop pilgrimaging. Not because I want to see special places, necessarily, but because I know the power of the journey my heart takes when I give myself up to providence, abandon material things, and refocus myself on what's really important. I pray that this summer may have a similarly meaningful impact on your and your relationship with the Lord.