The 'way' becomes a 'lifestyle'?
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Like monasticism, the spirituality of pilgrimage has been watered down in modern times. Personal comfort, convenience, nice accommodations, and pleasant company seem to be high on the priority list, not to mention ease of travel as well as the availability of sightseeing side trips and good eating. One or two exceptions to this rule may be the more obscure pilgrimage destinations which have not been developed for tourism. Even in St. Therese's time, the bourgeoisie secured for themselves all the comforts their Grand Tour counterparts enjoyed in their travels.
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The pilgrimage as tour.
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I came across this story about a festival in Rome celebrating pilgrimage:
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Rome, Italy, Jun 2, 2011 / 09:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Rome is hosting a gathering that would be unusual in almost any other city-- a festival showcasing possible pilgrimage destinations from 31 different countries.
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The Journeys of the Spirit Festival, or JOSPFest, is bringing over 120 exhibitors from 31 countries to the Italian capital to promote their particular locations as destinations for pilgrimage.
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The organizers predict that over a million people will descend on Rome to take part in the festival. For those in the tourist business there are numerous seminars, debates and trade shows.
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This year’s theme connecting all the events is “The Pilgrim Lifestyle.”
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“The pilgrim lifestyle is really an interesting way of life,” said Mancini. "The idea with a pilgrim lifestyle is that the values that come along with that journey of the spirit – building bridges, interacting, dialogue, being respectful, being kind - those values don’t have to end after you finish your pilgrimage. You can use them and implement them in your everyday life afterwards.” - CNA
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The pilgrim lifestyle.
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I wouldn't be surprised if the festival presents more of a Disney-esque version of pilgrimage rather than anything close to the earliest concept of the meaning of religious pilgrimage. It is obvious the festival version is about tourism as much as it is about religious pilgrimage - and both spell profit - which accounts for the festival/market in the first place. Modern pilgrimage today makes Canterbury Tales look positively austere.
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Authentic pilgrimage is about penance and prayer, be it done in reparation, in petition, in thanksgiving, or simply for the sake of worship - it isn't a tour, or at least it shouldn't be. A rock-wall climber ascending the most state-of-the-art climbing wall in the best of gyms is more ascetic than most pilgrims today. A tour through the Tibetan mountains to visit Lhasa is probably more spiritually challenging and fulfilling than most first class pilgrimages to Rome or Rue de bac in Paris.
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Traditionally pilgrimage meant leaving the comforts and securities of home, seeking God, emptying the self as Christ did - arriving as a pilgrim and stranger, demonstrating to the world that we are not at home on the earth, rather we seek a fatherland which is above. Ideally, it is a time of ascesis and contemplation, as well as spiritual renewal. of course it is different for people of different ages and conditions, such as the sick who go to Lourdes, but pilgrimage of itself is an act of prayer and worship, and no matter the condition of the pilgrim, it should always have some character of self-renunciation.
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Like so many other spiritual endeavors of today, including monasticism and even priesthood, many seem to be seeking to accommodate themselves, and even profit from their endeavors - that profit not always being spiritual.
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The Christian life should have the character of a pilgrimage.
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The pilgrim "withdraws from his acquaintance and those dear to him, and keeps his mind disengaged from all temporal comfort, so the blessed apostle Peter beseeches the faithful of Christ to keep themselves as strangers and pilgrims in the world." - Imitation of Christ
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"For there is no lasting city here on earth, we are looking for the city which is to come." - Hebrews 13
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Hence, in reality a pilgrim, and even the monk, does not need to ask for donations or secure accommodations to set off in pursuit of God, knowing he will receive everything he needs, "provided he is content with a sufficiency."
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"Today we love the world and it's luxuries and profits more than God. We place our trust in insurance rather than God. The whole idea of the pilgrim is to follow Jesus in a life of humility, poverty, hiddeness and ceaseless prayer in obedience to the will of the Father. He walks in the way of abandonment to Divine Providence, and since he has been raised with Christ he seeks the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father; his whole mind is set on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for he has died and his life is hidden with Christ in God." - Rule for a Pilgrim
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