How To Turn Sunday Into A Pilgrimage

You don’t need to wait to have thousands of dollars to spend two or three weeks to go on a pilgrimage. Let me tell you about a quick and easy way to get out there and go on a pilgrimage. Turn this Sunday into a pilgrimage!

I was tuned into Morning Glory on EWTN Radio yesterday (feast day of St. James), and they were talking about the Camino de Santiago, or “Way of St. James”, which is a popular pilgrimage people go on in Spain. I forget the name of the priest that was walking about the Camino, but he added the point that we don’t need to necessarily go over to Europe in order to have a pilgrimage experience. You can easily visit a different church or other nearby holy sites and turn those into pilgrimages. I wholeheartedly agree!

The Sunday Pilgrimage

Remember that pilgrimages are journeys to sacred places as an act of devotion. If you think about it, going to church or Mass on Sunday is, in fact, an act of religious devotion. Sure, your typical pew-warmer probably treats going to church on Sunday like an obligation, but however deep the depth of one’s intention of making it a devotion, going to church is still an act. One thing I love about visiting Catholic churches, even on Sunday at Mass, is that they are immediately convincing that it is a sacred place due to the presence of the tabernacle with a lit candle indicating that Christ, truly present in the Eucharist in body, blood, soul, and divinity, is there.

With that said, I really think that you can turn this Sunday into a pilgrimage.

Here are some steps and ideas:

1. Where are you going?

The easiest location would obviously be your own church. It’s easy because you know how to get there, it’s familiar, and you can switch up how you approach going to your own church (see below).

A variation would be going to a different church or parish nearby. Or you could take it next level by going to a different church across your diocese. And if you’re hipster and have a monastery, convent, or shrine nearby, you could go to these places for a Sunday pilgrimage. I recently spent a weekend at a Benedictine monastery.

2. How are you getting there?

I live in Texas so most places would take too long to get to via walking, or the weather is too extremely hot or too extremely cold to walk. Therefore, most people ’round these parts drive to get to places.

But walking and biking are legit too. I’m going off of vague memory here, but if you do the Camino Real (visiting the 21 mission churches along the California coast) and buy their “passport booklet” thingy, I’m fairly certain that riding horseback is a checkable box you can input on how you went about the pilgrimage. So there’s that.

Of course, you could skateboard too.

3. What spiritual extra are you going to do?

Pilgrimages require some sort of spiritual intention, in my opinion. Otherwise, it’s easy to treat a pilgrimage like any other trip or vacation. With a spiritual intention or doing something extra spiritually, it helps keeps you accountable in keeping the pilgrimage intentionally spiritual.

I’ve already talked about how I solicit prayer requests before every pilgrimage and how the Moleskine notebook is a great notebook to keep those in. Feel free to steal those ideas.

Here are some more ideas:

• Bring a journal and take note notes during the homily or do spiritual journaling. Dynamic Catholic has a great article on how having a Mass journal can benefit you.
• Stay after Mass for 15 minutes for extra prayer time (THEN go grab your donuts or Knights of Columbus pancakes).
• Show up early to the church in order to actually catch the start of the Rosary before Mass.
• Read the Mass readings BEFORE Mass. I love using the USCCB’s site to access the readings of the day quickly, and there are good apps out there that do the same. Or use the missal in your pew. That works too.
• While driving to your church:
  • Listen to silence (ie. no music)
  • Listen to a good Catholic or Christian podcast (there are great podcasting priests like Fr. Mike Schmitz)
  • Listen to your local Christian music station
• Do an act of service or work of mercy after Mass. I’m on rotation to visit nursing homes once a month as part of my parish’s ministry to the sick.

4. How can you learn more about the place you went to?

Or perhaps another way of putting it is, how can you be a local tourist? No, I don’t mean walking into your church with your fanny pack and a huge DSLR sticking out from the middle of your chest. But rather… do you know the history of your parish? I know parishes in my diocese have cool and interesting histories. If you don’t know the history of your church, ask someone who does know! Call the office, talk to the pastor, or talk to a long-time parishioner or member of the church.

Similarly, do you know the significance of the features of the church? Sometimes the stained glass, architecture, decorations, etc. have further significance than merely being there to make the church look nice. My own parish actually has cool little hidden things that can be found in a few stained glass windows and paintings. One of my other favorite churches in my diocese is a German painted church, whereby every design on the walls of the inside of the church are actually painted on and not actual brick or tile.

Lastly, the easiest way to learn more about the place you went to is to ask a parishioner! One time, when I visited Philadelphia and went to Saturday evening Mass, my travel buddy and I ended up talking to some parishioners at their insistence. But through those conversations, we received a free book, and recommendations to some of the good local restaurants in that Philly neighborhood. Pretty awesome.

How A Sunday Pilgrimage Can Benefit You

I like the idea of a Sunday pilgrimage that’s unheard of, and no one thinks to treat going to church on Sunday as a pilgrimage.

Here are some benefits to a Sunday pilgrimage:

• A warm up to bigger pilgrimages
• So easy because there isn’t a whole lot to plan
• Quick and cheap
• Gives you an opportunity to be even more intentional with your Sunday experience and less going-through-the-motions
• Learn more about your local community

A question for you–if you turned Sunday into a pilgrimage, how did it go?