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Why spiritual practice?
We sense that the time has come again for the Christian faith to be practised, lived and loved, more than just learned as knowledge (as important as that is). The disciples learned a way of life from being with Jesus as well as from hearing him teach. So the Christian path is something that we do, even something that we become, as much as something that we believe. We hope that you personally will find this reorientation towards a life rooted in spiritual practice liberating and life-enhancing, and that this will be an experience that you will share with the children you work with. When working with this material, ask yourself:
• What could this practice look like for me?
• What could this practice look like in the lives of these children?
• How can I help them to explore these possibilities in the time we have together and in other settings (home / family meal / school / church / all-age service etc)?
Pilgrimage: a special journey
Background
Place in the Christian tradition
Journeying was a key element in the story of the emergence of the Jewish faith. Abram is called by God to journey to ‘the land that I will show you’. God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. They in turn wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. It’s in these tough experiences of journey and calling that the Jewish faith began to take more shape.
Jesus himself travelled extensively, and it was on these journeys that he shared ordinary and extraordinary life with the disciples. Since the early centuries of the Church, many followers of Jesus have made pilgrimages to the holy sites of the faith, looking for some kind of reconnection with him and with his people from earlier times.
Our contemporary context
The idea of making a physical journey for a spiritual purpose has always been around. If the popularity of pilgrimage was at its height in the Middle Ages, interest in pilgrimage is quietly rising again. We are beginning to recognise that some of our faith’s concepts, ideas and beliefs can take on tangible form in the effort, tears and laughter of a pilgrimage.
In a complex world, the idea of making a conscious choice to let go of many of the things that surround and sustain us - even for a short while - is both counter- cultural and full of possibility. In letting go we can perhaps more easily let go of our own preoccupations and connect more deeply with God.
The practice
This month’s practice
This practice is an attempt to explore and share with children the possibility of pilgrimage. Depending on your own context you may like to use words like pilgrims and pilgrimage. You may prefer to speak of disciples and journeys. Do whatever works best in your context.
The practice in four steps
Combine as many of these as will work in your setting:
What or who are you looking for?
A pilgrimage is a physical journey with a spiritual purpose. It’s about seeking and finding. Set up something like an Easter egg hunt. Think carefully about what you would like the children to find. Are they things they will be able to keep or share? Is it the number or the quality of the objects that matters, i.e. the most stones, or the most interesting stone? Make the things relatively difficult to find and then talk about the process of seeking and finding.
Create a pilgrim pack
Have a conversation with the children about what they think might be important to take on a journey. Pilgrims have to carry their own packs, so only choose what is really important. For children who don’t like to talk, you could give them a picture of an empty bag and ask them to draw the things they think should be taken.
Make a small journey
Plan the whole of a session around a small journey - perhaps around the church or school. You could link this into a particular festival or season of the Church year, with pre-prepared ‘stations’ giving children the opportunity to engage with the gospel story in various ways.
Make a pilgrimage With older children you may be able to plan or join a longer pilgrimage. Some dioceses have annual pilgrimages open to all, with various options for distances to be walked.
The practice in your main settings
Solitary ideas
Encourage the children to read a story or watch a movie that has journey with a purpose as a central theme. Finding Nemo is a classic film of this type, and the Madagascar films also have journeys and encounters along the way. Older children may want to watch something like the Lord of the Rings. When you gather again as a group have a conversation about the stories they have read. What was the aim of the journey? How did they manage to complete the journey? What was learned on the journey?
Ideas for the family
When you have to make a journey as a family, see if it might be possible to introduce elements of pilgrimage. Is there somewhere on the way that has pilgrimage possibilities? Plan an afternoon stroll pilgrimage, perhaps ending at a sacred or special place, collecting mementos of the journey on the way.
Ideas for a Sunday School group
One of many traditional pilgrimage badges carried by pilgrims is a scallop shell. Get the children to design and / or make a simple badge that reflects what they might hope to discover by making a pilgrimage.
Ideas for a family service
Make the church service itself into a physical journey. If you are in a traditional building there are great opportunities to let the building - and your journey around it - tell core elements of the gospel story. You could begin all together by the font (usually near the door) and reflect together on baptism, and splash water on yourselves with the sign of the cross as a reminder of baptism.
You could then move into the body of the church and gather around the lectern - the place where the word is read and shared. Here the word could be read and a conversation take place. A third stopping place on the journey could be the holy table where bread is broken and / or blessing given.
Other ideas for this month’s practice
The 2010 movie The Way (directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen) is a great introduction to the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Northern Spain.
