The Primary Purpose of this Pilgrimage

Many of you who are reading this have probably already been told by me about this pilgrimage in conversation at some point, but oftentimes I neglect to share the general purpose of the pilgrimage due to lack of time (since there is much to explain).  In my first post, I briefly described the origin and purpose of our re-creation of the Path to Rome, but I wish to describe its purpose in greater detail.

I should preface this by saying that this is merely my view and that I cannot claim to also speak for Ed.  His take on our journey may be quite different from mine.

Sancta Gemma, ora pro nobis!

While the origin of this pilgrimage is literary (as the impetus for it came from a book), its primary end is spiritual.  In essence, it should be a means of growing closer to God and opening ourselves up to grace.  Right now I am in the process of coming up with a theme of sorts for our pilgrimage and selecting patron saints for the trip.  I'd like to pick a saint or saints to be our overall patron(s) along with saints who are also on the 'team' for various reasons (e.g. a French saint for the French part of the journey, a saint for me, a saint for Ed, etc.).  I have some preliminary thoughts, but we'll have to see.  I do know for certain that one of my special patron saints for the trip will be St. Gemma Galgani, who is one of my special patron saints in general and whose shrine we will actually be going to in Lucca, Italy.  One of the remarkable things about Belloc's journey is that he actually passed through Lucca while Gemma happened to be living there.  He even says in his book, "Everything in Lucca is good."  How very right he was in this case.  I intend to visit the shrine and spend some time there (one of the few places we will be stopping for an extended period).  When I've decided on a theme and on the rest of our saints, I will make a post about it.

I think it goes without saying that Ed and I will be praying.  In addition to attending Mass as often as we can, we will also be praying along the way.  Ed has expressed that he is not a huge fan of the Liturgy of the Hours (with the exception of Compline, which he loves), and I am not sure that it will be practical to bring a large breviary with us.  I am therefore considering sort of creating my own mini-office with a one week psalter and readings, drawing elements from various parts of the LOTH to complement our journey.  After all, there is the 'Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary,' right?  I think I might call ours the 'Little Office of the Pilgrim.'  It will have all the psalms with mountains in them ("I lift my eyes to the mountains, from where shall come my help?  My help shall come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." "Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?  The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things, who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbor," etc.).  Perhaps we will publish this as an appendix to our book when we're finished.

One of the big things I'd like to incorporate into the pilgrimage is a sort of intention book.  Before we leave, I'd like to compile a list of prayers people would like us to pray for on our journey.  Anyone will be able to send us an intention and we'll write it down in a notebook and carry it with us and pray for the intentions daily and in the end make our pilgrimage as an offering for those prayers.  And on the flip side, we also hope to enlist the help of a sort of 'prayer team' who will be praying for us back home and offering Masses for us.  If I can find a cheap place to do it, I'd also like to print a whole bunch of prayer cards that we can give to people to pray for us.  I'm going to compose a particular

Very tempting to use this image for the holy card

prayer for people to pray on our behalf (and of course translate it into French, German, and Italian to give to people we encounter in Europe).  On the card would have a picture of our patron saint(s) or Rome, and on the back would be the prayer and a small picture of us.  That's the idea anyway, I don't know of a place to get prayer cards made on the cheap.  If anyone has any ideas in that sector, let us know.  Where do priests get their ordination cards made?  Or funeral cards?

In effect, this pilgrimage should wind up not just involving the two of us, but lots of people.  This will be the first of probably many Lord of the Rings references, but just as Frodo and Sam carry the Ring on behalf of all the people of Middle Earth, Ed and I will be carrying the prayers of others on their behalf (and prayers are much more wonderful to carry than the One Ring).  Meanwhile, everyone else will be praying for us.  Our fates will thus be tied together.

One thing that ought to be clear is that we are not doing this simply for leisure or as a vacation.  The purpose of this pilgrimage is not leisure, though certainly leisure will be one of its results, just as the primary purpose of performing in a play is not for fun but for the purpose of creating something beautiful and communicating a message, and if executed well, one has fun (hopefully) in the process.

As I prepare for the trip on my own, I've been trying to do a lot of prayer and spiritual reading to prepare myself for the journey.  While I realize that the pilgrimage itself will provide ample opportunity for spiritual growth, I am trying to do as much as possible right now in order to, so to say, open myself up to grace as much as I can while we are on our trek.  The idea is to be able to offer to God our utmost effort so he can take the best we give Him and transform it.

We are going to come back new men.

Reasons for the Creation of this Blog

My namesake

Since none have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that will be fulfilled among us, just as those who were pilgrims from the beginning and authors of the books have handed them down to us, I, too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to blog it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which, up to this point, you have not been instructed.  (cf. Luke 1:1-4)

In the Lukan tradition, I have begun with an address to you, Theophilus ("Friend of God"), to commence this blog about a pilgrimage that my friend, Edward, and I will be making this summer from June 17 - July 31.  The basic idea is that we are going to recreate the pilgrimage Hilaire Belloc made and wrote about in his 1901 book "The Path to Rome," considered by Belloc and many others to be his greatest literary work.  Belloc began his journey in the northeastern French town of Toul and proceeded to journey in as straight a line as he could all the way to Rome.  It took him a little less than a month.

Hilaire Belloc

Our planning for this pilgrimage is progressing as Ed and I train for the grueling ~25-30 mile a day hikes we will endure and as I try as best as I can to acquire a minimal vocabulary in German and Italian and refresh my knowledge of French.  That is coming along rather slowly.  I have gathered maps and made note of most of the towns that Belloc mentions in his book.  No doubt much of the landscape has changed since Belloc's time.  And of course Ed and I are both beginning to research and purchase the gear we will need for our arduous journey.  Unfortunately, Belloc makes little note of what he takes with him in his book, which leaves us very little to go on.  I do recall that Belloc brings with him two pipes because he mentions that he gives the lesser of his two pipes away to someone who guides him across a river.

Here is a link to a google map in which I compiled the various cities and towns Belloc mentions in his book: Google Map of the Path to Rome

The purpose of our pilgrimage is twofold; it is both a spiritual and a literary journey.  When we return from Rome, Ed and I plan on 'writing the sequel' to Belloc's work, which will catalog our steps, our musings, and our prayers along the way.  No doubt this blog will eventually serve as a frame for our book later on (though the book will certainly contain more).  How very like Bilbo we shall be as we travel there and back again.

Ed and I

In the course of doing research for this journey, I came across another instance of someone recreating Belloc's quest.  British author Peter Francis Browne completed the journey in the 90s and wrote his subsequent book, "Rambling on the Road to Rome."  His book is much different than Belloc's both in style and in general disposition.  Nevertheless, it has served as an invaluable guide for me, not only as simple evidence that such a trek will still be possible today, but also because Browne provides many more details about his stops and encounters than Belloc does.  His attitude toward Catholicism and religion in general is very cold, but his writing is so enjoyable that I was compelled to overlook it.  At any rate, it seems Browne may have beaten us to the punch, but our book will not only be a travelogue as Browne's is, but a spiritual account as well, which will set our book apart.  Actually, Ed will be more the literary executor, so I can't really claim to know how exactly the book will turn out.

Some will call us crazy (and some have already done so), and it is true that we could probably find many reasons not to go on this journey.  But as we are young and have few external obligations and as we finally have free summers that coincide, now is the time.  As Jan from The Office says in response to Pam's excuses not to pursue art school, "There's always a million reasons not to do something."

What reasons are preventing you from doing that wonderful thing or going on that wonderful adventure or pursuing that unique hobby?  Those reasons will always be there, but the opportunity may not be.