Pilgrimages are full of hope. In a few weeks I will be leading a group of pilgrims to Italy during this Jubilee Year of Hope. This time together is not a ‘locations tour’ cloaked in religious language. Rather, this journey of faithful souls is directed toward greater love for and union with Almighty God. We will be praying in many churches, chapels, and oratories; visiting the catacombs of the earliest Christians; learning about the lives of the Saints and the virtues that helped them to persevere in the practice of the Faith; seeing and praying with the Successor of St. Peter – Christ’s vicar on Earth – our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV; and receiving the Sacraments of the Church offered daily. It is my fervent prayer that all these steps, and so many others, will be grace-filled and lead to a deeper love for and greater union with God.

 

With each passing day excitement and joyful anticipation grow, as the prospect of taking these steps to live a more integral life in fidelity to the Truth and in the unity of Faith with other pilgrims becomes incarnate.

 

Pilgrimages challenge pilgrims physically, mentally, and spiritually. Pilgrimages can be exhausting since they require deliberate planning, energy, and focus, but the moments that rejuvenate, prompt, convict, and encourage the pilgrim helps him ‘to forget what lies behind, and strain forward to what lies ahead’, all the while ‘pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13-14). Pilgrimages are not forced but presented and encouraged, and pilgrims are not coerced but called and made. We will have the opportunity to pass through the threshold of multiple Holy Doors during this Jubilee Year and gain plenary indulgences. In this work of ours, grafted on to the work of Christ and his holy Church, we can assist the souls of the faithful to be freed from the effects of suffering that cannot be endured and overcome apart from God and to help them find their restfulness in Him alone. Every pilgrim is encouraged to consider the Savior’s exhortation to ‘strive to enter through the narrow gate’ (Luke 13:24), for it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is ‘the Way, and the Truth, and the Life’ with no one coming to the Father except ‘through [him]’ (John 14:6). A true pilgrimage, then, is always full of hope when Christ is in it, with it, and through it.

 

What does a well-ordered, properly pilgrimaged pilgrimage look like? After proper discernment and prayer, it follows faithfully, zealously, and unhesitatingly the promptings of the Third Divine Person of the Most Blessed Trinity – the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; the Love between the Father and the Son – who inspires, sustains, and fosters every good thought, word, and action along the pilgrim’s way. The fruit of the pilgrim’s journey is to mirror that of the Christian’s entire life: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23). There is no blueprint, outline, or schedule that if followed perfectly will result in a perfect pilgrimage. If this were true there would be no room for the Savior, since each pilgrim would be a savior on his own tour of the world: where is hope in that scenario? Rather, the pilgrim’s hope is laid up for him in Heaven because of his Faith in Christ Jesus and the love that he has for all the Saints (Colossians 1:4-5). The upcoming pilgrimage is not just following in the footsteps of the Saints but, striving through all its circumstances, visible and invisible, to become a Saint. This pilgrimage is one of many steps in the soul’s journey of purification and sanctification, all the while attempting to reflect the glory of God as a faithful child of His, desiring to live in the greatest union possible with Him. It is only by the grace of Almighty God that it is achieved and in virtue that is perfected.

 

Where there is life, there is hope; and where there is Christ, there is abundant Life. What a blessing this pilgrimage can be, and what a blessing is the pilgrimage of Life; for pilgrimages are full of Hope.