Camping and hiking are essential frameworks for Trail Life’s mission to guide generations of courageous young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure. It is in the outdoors, gathered around the campfire or gazing at the night’s sky, that boys find connection not only with each other but spiritually with God through his creation. In our Catholic troops, pilgrimage is a unique way to express the Catholic faith through outdoor adventure.
What is pilgrimage? In short, a pilgrimage is a journey made to a holy place. For hundreds of years before Christ, Jewish men traveled several times a year on certain feast days to the temple in Jerusalem. Since the early Christian church, the faithful have made pilgrimages to various sacred sites, including the Holy Land and Rome. Over the centuries, various pilgrim routes have become enshrined as traditional, such as the Camino de Santiago (“Way of Saint James”) with its path from southern France to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela near the Spanish coast. In a November 2010 address while visiting the cathedral, Pope Benedict XVI shared the following thoughts about pilgrimage:
To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. Above all, Christians go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to the places associated with the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection. They go to Rome, the city of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and also to Compostela, which, associated with the memory of Saint James, has welcomed pilgrims from throughout the world who desire to strengthen their spirit with the Apostle’s witness of faith and love.
Customarily undertaken on foot, a pilgrimage is more than a hiking trip. It is a spiritual journey for the purpose of honoring God. Pilgrimages typically call upon the faithful to follow in Christ’s footsteps, especially the way of the cross. Pilgrimages are often difficult expeditions. For many pilgrims, the journey’s great challenges evoke a penitential character, which help them deepen the experience through prayer and mortification. To the extent possible, along the route, pilgrims seek out the sacraments, including penance and reconciliation and Holy Mass.
Another way that our Trail Life troops may contribute to an authentic Catholic identity is for the troop or a patrol to periodically embark on a pilgrimage. Although many of the most holy places are found in Europe or the Middle East, there are many sacred sites in the United States, including shrines, basilicas, and monasteries, to which our Trailmen may hit the trail. Walk Worthy!
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