The Going

Celtic spirituality introduces us to a kind of pilgrimage, but not the kind normally associated with the word.  When we think of a pilgrimage, we normally think of something like a trip to Jerusalem, or some other holy site.  Pilgrimages were more prevalent centuries ago. Nowadays, people go not as pilgrims, but as members of tour groups.  In the Celtic tradition people would leave their homeland and wander simply for the love of God.  Sometimes it was a walking journey and sometimes it was a journey in which the pilgrim would cast himself off from the shore in a coracle (a bowl shaped boat) without the use of an oar. 

Obviously, the Celtic pilgrim had no destination in mind.  He traveled wherever, trusting only that God would bring him to a place where he was supposed to be.  In the Celtic tradition such a journey was called peregrination.  With no specific destination in mind, it was indeed an inner journey.  It is also a metaphor for our own spiritual journey. When we cast ourselves off in Jesus' name, we may have thought we knew where the wind of the Spirit would take us, but after a life time of traveling, I have to realize I had no idea where He was taking me, nor do I have any idea where He plans to take me in the days that remain for me to live. 

Our journey with God is so much like the Celtic pilgrim who cast himself off in a round boat that had no oars.  Faith puts us in the boat without any assurance of where we will finally land.  What we begin to understand as we live by faith is the reality that arriving at some planned destination is not the point of the journey.  The point of the faith journey is found not in the arriving, but in the going.  It has always been this way.  To think otherwise is to miss the mark.