Five Rules to a Successful Pilgrimage

Five Rules to a Successful Pilgrimage

1. Don’t complain;
2. Don’t complain;
3. When you see a bathroom use it, whether you have to or not;
4. When somebody offers you something, take it;
5. When somebody asks for something you have, give it to them.

These rules come via Franciscan Father Stan Fortuna, who offers these to all World Youth Day pilgrims and all other pilgrims. World Youth Day (WYD) is an international event for young adult Catholics to gather with the Pope to celebrate faith and culture. St. Mary’s will send twelve CMU students with Fr. Will to join seventy pilgrims from the Diocese of Saginaw to Sydney, Australia next July.

The first two rules are essential. They remind us of the Israelites who complained against God when they were on pilgrimage to the promised land. They complained about the food and about wandering in the desert for so long. Complaining did not bring them closer to God. Rather it made their suffering worse. The WYD pilgrimage can get brutal. There can be long lines, bad weather, long hours of waiting for buses, mistaken directions, missed programs, hard floors to sleep on, bad food, bathroom shortages, etc… There is so much chaos that it is easy to get overwhelmed by it all. Normally 400,000 pilgrims join the five days in a single city for this event, and it all ends with over 1 million persons sleeping out overnight and then celebrating Mass with the Pope the following morning. There are lots of opportunities for inconvenience, irritation, and frustration. In all of this we are called to surrender to God. God is working through all the frustrations to prepare us to taste more intensely the joy of resurrection. When we suffer these things together through faith, we are inspired to endure it and even make fun of it, and to experience the joy of solidarity. Suffering with God and each other can bring joy and fulfillment. Real pain is suffering alone and without faith. Pilgrims learn these truths.

Suffering makes the last two rules easy because our hearts are softened to the needs of others. There is a true bond of communion created through shared suffering and the needs of others become opportunities for joy and freedom. There is a free giving and receiving of gifts. Is not this what the Christian life is all about? Let us remember these things once again this Thanksgiving weekend.