Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
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DESIRE LINES<br />
HEATHER KING<br />
Looking for a divine spark<br />
JMARUIZ/CATHOPIC<br />
“Like all archetypes the archetype of<br />
pilgrimage is experienced as compelling.<br />
Sometimes the reasons seem obvious<br />
to the pilgrim and, on the other hand,<br />
the reasons offered, especially to the<br />
outsider, do not always seem adequate<br />
to the compulsion that is felt.” — Jean<br />
Dalby Cliff and Wallace B. Clift, “The<br />
Archetype of Pilgrimage: Outer Action<br />
With Inner Meaning.”<br />
The compulsion to go off and<br />
wander — to connect, to<br />
complete oneself, to heal a<br />
wound — is as old as man himself. It’s<br />
certainly been a continuing theme in<br />
my life.<br />
In my younger days I hitchhiked all<br />
around the country. I once drove from<br />
LA to my New Hampshire hometown<br />
and back, alone, and made it a<br />
pilgrimage by going to Mass every day<br />
for seven weeks. I’ve been a pilgrim in<br />
California and within the archdiocese,<br />
visiting innumerable gardens, missions,<br />
churches, studios, and museums.<br />
But our real pilgrimage is interior. If<br />
a pilgrim is defined as “a person who<br />
journeys to a sacred place for religious<br />
reasons,” then for every seeker who<br />
walks the Camino, another never<br />
leaves home.<br />
You can be a pilgrim in your own<br />
neighborhood, walking the streets,<br />
praising the flowers and birds, praying.<br />
You can be a pilgrim among your<br />
family and friends: offering a greeting,<br />
sharing your bread, opening your heart<br />
to all those you meet on the way.<br />
A 19th-century classic on the subject<br />
is “The Way of a Pilgrim,” whose anonymous<br />
Russian author was a homeless<br />
wanderer with a knapsack, a hunk of<br />
dried bread, and a Bible.<br />
One question obsessed him: how to<br />
follow St. Paul’s instruction to pray<br />
without ceasing (1 Thessalonians<br />
5:17).<br />
A “starets” (“holy man”) he met on<br />
his travels finally taught him to call<br />
upon the name of Jesus, with spirit,<br />
lips, and heart, tens of thousands of<br />
times a day.<br />
“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the living<br />
God, have mercy on me, a sinner”<br />
— the “Jesus prayer” immortalized<br />
by J.D. Salinger in the novel “Franny<br />
30 • ANGELUS • <strong>July</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2022</strong>
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