Pilgrims

Since returning home to Scotland, Monic and I have done a lot of walking.

We love to take a walk every day.

Yesterday, I took a long walk around our home city of Dunfermline.

I noticed something I hadn’t seen before on lots of lamp posts, that read “Fife Pilgrim Way”.

I never knew there was such a route in Dunfermline, so I started to follow the signs.

They directed me through the Glen, to the Abbey and then to the library, the historic quarter.

In the Library window, I found a book “The Fife Pilgrim Way”.

It set me off on a little quest in the afternoon and I found this interesting website about the Fife Pilgrim Way.

I learned a whole lot of things.

From the 11th to 16th centuries, pilgrims in their thousands walked between the northern and southern edges of the kingdom of Fife, enroute to the great cathedral in Saint Andrews.

𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐦: “a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.”

In Latin it comes from the word peregrinus, meaning “one who has come from afar.”

Pilgrimages have long been a common feature of many world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shinto.

Today, millions of people make pilgrimages to a wide array of holy sites every year.

It got me thinking about my own pilgrimage in life.

A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place, which for some, can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim normally returns to their daily life routines.

Having just returned from our mission in Belgium and the Netherlands, we discovered many people seeking for purpose, meaning, truth and personal growth.

I know too, of dear friends who made remarkable discoveries of their own as they embarked upon a pilgrimage that transformed them as they came to a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Daily, throughout the world there are many modern-day pilgrims, on personal quests who come from “afar.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf said “We are pilgrims walking the road of mortality in a grand search for meaning and ultimate truth.”

In essence, we are all pilgrims seeking God’s direction as we journey on our path through mortal life, far from our heavenly home.

To my fellow Christian pilgrims everywhere, the three most powerful behavioural words the Saviour spoke were “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22) and that invitation continues today, as we journey on our miraculous pilgrimage through life.

I hope you choose to follow too, He is “the way…” – John 14:6.