Traveling to New Places

One

The “Dream” of Travel

I imagine it’s true of everyone, but I know for certain, Americans love to travel. In fact, when you talk to people about what they look forward to about their retirement, the very first thing they will often say is that they look forward to being able to travel.

That’s an incredibly revealing thing. When people plan for the final stage of their lives, the thing it’s all been leading up to, when they have the leisure time to do whatever they want, they say they want to travel!

Is that really the goal of life, to make enough money, quit work, and travel? What is this enormous appeal of travel? And is it the sort of appeal that is worldly, or Christian, or neither?

Two

The Superficial Lure of Tourism

Unfortunately, probably one of the most powerful appeals of travel is the idea that if you travel a lot you will become more sophisticated, more enriched, more cultivated as a person, without doing really any extra work.

Tourism gives the illusion of being cosmopolitan. It gives you the feeling that you’re well-educated, just because you’ve stood in front of certain things, or watched certain events. But the truth is that seeing things and going places simply doesn’t make you educated. You can’t learn Spanish by going to an all-exclusive resort in Mexico. You can’t become an art historian by going to the Louvre and taking a selfie in front of the Mona Lisa.

And you can’t become an expert in zoology or cultural anthropology by taking a two-week trip to Kenya and going on a safari with a short break to visit a Massai tribe (with a scheduled chance to watch a real tribal dance!).

That doesn’t mean travel can’t be transformative. It doesn’t mean travel can’t be a good use of your free time.

But if we’re not careful, we can create the illusion that we’re becoming a more fully developed, more well-rounded human being, when in fact we’re just the same selfish, ignorant oaf we’ve always been, but now riding around on plains, trains, and automobiles 

Three

The Difference of Pilgrimage 

The only way to become more virtuous, better educated, more knowledgeable, wiser, and happier is discipline.

It takes discipline to learn a foreign language. It takes discipline to learn about art, architecture, and history. It takes discipline to learn about new people and what they’re like. You can’t just take a quick all-expenses-paid group trip with four-start hotels and matching hats and think that when you get back you’ll be somehow transformed.

But, if you are willing to work, if you are willing to spend the time, the energy, the effort, then travel actually can be a way of building up your soul. And the kind of travel that most builds up your soul, that has been most practiced in the Church’s tradition, and takes the most work… is pilgrimage.

Four

Prayer: the Work of Pilgrimage

At the end of the day, the only personal enrichment that really matters is holiness. Holiness is the goal of life, not just for the saints, but for everyone.

Have you ever realized that you can’t get into heaven until you are holy? Now pilgrimage is travel that is designed to make you more holy, more fully human and more like God. So that’s the best travel you can do. But nothing can make you holy apart from prayer. So at the end of the day, unless you’re willing to tie your travel to prayer, a rigorous, relevant, and generous discipline of prayer, then your travel cannot really be classed as pilgrimage and is not likely to make you any happier or holier.

But if you’re willing to pray more, to make special sacrifices for a special intention, to bring the prayers of friends and family, to begin a new and consistent devotion tied to the place you’re visiting and if you’re willing to make your journey itself prayerful and not just a pleasure trip with some interesting religious sights – if you’re willing to make prayer the center of your travel, then visiting holy places can truly bring you closer to God.

Five

Holiness and Place

So what places are holy? What places are worth visiting?

There are, for instance, the places God Himself walked: the Holy Land, where Jesus and Mary lived. There are, for instance, the places where the Church was founded: Rome, Ephesus, Greece. There are places where Our Lady has come: Lourdes, Guadalupe, Fatima. There are places where the saints have lived: Poland – the land of Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Faustyna and John Paul II. There are places which the faithful have made holy by constant pilgrimage: the Camino of St. James in Spain, Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland, or the Grotto of Mary Magdalene near Marseilles France.

There are also places that are holy and close to you. There are shrines near our own homes. You can gain an indulgence by going to a church near you on the feast day of its Patron Saint, like going to St. Patrick on St. Patrick’s day and then going to confession 20 days before or after, receiving Communion and praying for the intentions of the Pope. 

Visiting the cemetery and praying for the dead can gain a partial indulgence for you or for any deceased person.

As a practical resolution to this meditation, make the resolution to go on pilgrimage in 2024. We will be leading some great pilgrimages. And you can transform all of your travel so that it leads you closer to Jesus and makes you a more fully developed human if you dedicate yourself to the habit of daily mental prayer right where you live every day.

Then take that habit with you in your travel and the Lord will transform it and you.