PILGRIMAGE

I was watching a documentary hosted by Geraldine Doogue earlier this year about her experience of Easter in the Holy Land. She caught up with an Australian Catholic Nun who is living and teaching in Jerusalem and they got talking about pilgrimage. Unfortunately I cannot remember the Sister’s name but something she said really resonated with me. She explained that a tourist moves through the land, each experience passing them by, but a pilgrim is different, it is the land that moves through the pilgrim.

I love travel and I have been very fortunate so far to have traveled to many parts of God’s green earth. From an early age my love of the humanities, especially geography and history, have captured my curiosity and I’ve been able to satisfy this temporarily, until the planning for the next trip begins that is, which is constant. However, without even realising, I think I’ve always been a pilgrim. I love the experience of immersion and I love the effect places and people have on me. I like the idea of being called a pilgrim.

My first formal pilgrimage was to World Youth Day in Spain in 2011. That experience changed my life and sent me on a trajectory that I could have never imagined! It was on that trip that my calling to walk the Camino de Santiago was ignited. I did not fully understand back then what I had experienced, but I know now - I had been filled with the Holy Spirit. In the seven years since, the Holy Spirit has taken me on an epic journey to this moment, and inspired me and others to embark on audacious pilgrimage experiences such as the Camino Salvado here in Perth, the pilgrimage to Timor Leste, and the Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe pilgrimage to Poland and Italy. God gave me the gifts to be a teacher, and the Holy Spirit has used my life to help others, young people in particular, to use pilgrimage to help figure themselves out. And I certainly have figured a lot out along the way too.

But this time the pilgrimage is for me only. This September I embark on the experience that the Holy Spirit has been leading me to since 2011. In my 33rd year, I will spend 33 days walking the Camino de Santiago, a day for each year Christ was among us on Earth. All the planning, all the sacrifices, all the hopes, dreams, love and support that I have got me to this moment I am very grateful for. I have know idea how successful this journal will be, but I hope to capture some of this experience to explain me remember, to grow, to share and to listen to what God wants for my life.

Pray for me!