Opening prayer: “Journeying God, pitch your tent with mine so that I may not be deterred
by hardship, strangeness, doubt. Show me the movement I must make toward a wealth not dependent on possessions, toward a wisdom not based on books, toward a strength not bolstered by might, toward a God not confined to heaven. Help me to find myself as I walk in others’ shoes.”
Prayer Song from Ghana, as found in “The Soul of a Pilgrim,” by Christine Valters Painter
Leader: Our formation sessions for 2025-26 will be inspired by Jane Cruthirds’ talk on Associates and Sisters Day, titled “Angela: A Pilgrim of Hope.” This session will focus on “Seeking.”
A pilgrimage can be a physical journey to someplace holy or spiritual, or an inner journey to discover something about your relationship with God. Before she founded the Company of Saint Ursula, Saint Angela took six pilgrimages, between 1520 and 1532. There was a reason she took each of them, just as there is a reason we are tempted to explore our own pilgrimages.
Reader 1: “The paradox: there can be no pilgrimage without a destination, but the destination is also not the real point of the endeavor. Not the destination, but the willingness to wander in pursuit characterizes pilgrimage. Willingness: to hear the tales along the way, to make the casual choices of travel, to acquiesce even to boredom. That’s pilgrimage – a mind full of journey.”
Patricia Hampl, American memoirist
Reader 2: “The geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey. The inner journey is the interpolation of the meanings and signs of the outer pilgrimage. One can have one without the other. It is best to have both.”
Thomas Merton
Leader: Consider these questions with your group.
- Have you ever taken a pilgrimage, either physical or purely spiritual?
- What was your motivation?
Reader 3: “People have a reason why they take a pilgrimage. But they find things they weren’t looking for.”
Sister Susan Mary Mudd, during Associates and Sisters Day
Reader 4: “We plan, God laughs.”
Yiddish proverb
Leader: In Mary-Cabrini Durkin’s book “Angela Merici’s Journey of the Heart,” Angela says she made pilgrimages to “relish the different sights and places, especially ones that help me to experience God’s presence and guidance more deeply.” When relaying the story of when she was struck mostly blind in Crete on her trip to the Holy Land, Angela said, “All the way, my companions’ care made God’s love more visible than the places we visited. I had to depend on my walking staff and on them. I was reminded of the Prophet Isaiah’s words, ‘I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them.’ (Isaiah 42:16) God surely fulfilled that promise!”
Consider these questions with your group:
- Can you think of a time when your initial desire for a journey changed as the experience unfolded – especially in a powerful way?
- Was there a time when the people around you on this journey “made God’s love more visible” to you?
Reader 5: “I am convinced that pilgrimage is still a bona fide spirit-renewing ritual. But I also believe in pilgrimage as a powerful metaphor for any journey with the purpose of finding something that matters deeply to the traveler. With a deepening of focus, keen preparation, attention to the path below our feet, and respect for the destination at hand, it is possible to transform, even the most ordinary journey into a sacred journey, a pilgrimage.”
Phil Cousineau, American writer
Reader 6: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Matthew, 7:7
Leader: Jane Cruthirds said, “Whenever we walk into church, we’re seeking something. Angela did the same.” We may wish at times that we shared the spirituality of someone who we consider to be “holier,” but what each of us seeks depends on where we’ve been and at what stage of the journey we’re on in our pilgrimage with Jesus.
Consider these questions with your group:
- Where might your next pilgrimage take you?
- What are you hoping to discover?
Closing prayer: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
Psalm 86:11
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