Friday, July 31, 2009

Pilgrimages Big and Small.


A pilgrimage is a Journey to a specific place for a specific spiritual or religious reason. The most famous pilgrimage in literature is the pilgrimage narrated in the Canterbury Tales. in the Canterbury Tales we have a vivid picture of what a medieval pilgrimage was like on way to Canterbury. In Medieval times there was(and still is) a great sense of penance involved. there was particular danger in going on a pilgrimage first of all many people traveled miles and days on foot or by horse with little or nothing but the clothes on there backs. with being exposed to the elements and long travel, there was always the dangers of being attacked by thieves on the way. A lot of these dangers of this is usually not the case in modern day pilgrimages ( where driving and airplane travel are common). so why do we go on pilgrimages? we usually go on pilgrimages to ask God for special graces in our life especially through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother or the Saints. We also can go on pilgrimages to do penance, and ask God for forgiveness. Pilgrimages are a good way to be spiritually refreshed and renewed. some of the main modern day pilgrimage destinations in the world are places such as Rome, Jerusalem (the Holy Land in general) Fatima and Lourdes just to name a few. But for those of us who can not afford to go out of the country we can make many "day pilgrimages" in most major cities theres a few shrines to Our Blessed Mother and the Saints here are links to shrines in the US http://www.catholiclinks.org/santuariosestadosunidos.htm this list isn't a full list I would ask around see if there are any special shrines in your area.

I ask every ones prayer as i embark on my pilgrimage to Medjugorje tomorrow

+JMJ+

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