It always seems like I am never ready to take the steps that the Lord asks me to take, from difficulty with being patient to the deadlines that loom. A pilgrimage is an object lesson in growing in the certainty of the closeness of God and of His fidelity to the good plan that He has prepared for my life. Your ways are not my ways, as we read in the Book of Isaiah.
Every year, during our Fall vacation, we organize a pilgrimage for the high school youth of our parish of Bad Godesberg, in Bonn. Before leaving, Davide and I prepare the stops, contact the places where we will stay, look for places to celebrate Mass along the way. At the moment of departure, despite all our preparation, doubts arise: will the kids be able to walk for 30 kilometers with 800 meters of elevation change? Will we arrive to our destination with enough time to prepare dinner? Who will go and do the shopping? And if it rains all week? The prayer of the days before the trip is that something can happen that might touch the hearts of the young people and convert ours anew.
This year, we chose a route that would travel 160 kilometers in seven days. Twenty-six pilgrims in total, among whom were Rebecca, an Evangelical Christian, and Fatima, a Muslim.
We landed in Bologna, where the kids from Gioventù Studentesca were waiting to bring us around the city for some sights and to spend an evening together with pizza and singing. The Italian kids were surprised to see others their age ready to spend their vacations doing a pilgrimage on foot. On the other hand, the Germans were also surprised by the gratuitous welcome by persons they had never seen before.
Our journey began before the Duomo of Orvieto. With backpacks on, the goal was the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. Stop after stop, we would rediscover the story of a man battling between doubt and faith, but courageous and, above all, enamored of Christ.
The first days of a journey like this are always the most demanding: it is necessary to overcome all of the resistances of the heart and the body. Just the first ascent was enough for Fatima to begin to complain and to not want to move anymore. One step at a time, we arrived at the peak. Does not God do the same with us when the difficulties of everyday life seem like too much for us?
Does not God do the same with us when the difficulties of everyday life seem like too much for us?
But the most serious obstacles are those of the heart. Like everyone, Johanna desires to be welcomed and preferred but she is very instinctive in her relationships and the others often avoid her. The situation became intolerable. Johanna asks to return home. Davide then spoke and challenged everyone to take responsibility for their part in the matter. Without forgiveness, he says, we cannot move forward. Johanna decides to stay and the others, setting aside their prejudice, reapproach her. Are we not also called to begin again always, with the persons we wound or those who wound us?
One of the stops is the Trappist monastery of Vitorchiano. Sr. Michaela, who I know from high school, and another sister tell us the story of their vocations. Despite the tiredness, the kids are shocked: how is it possible in today’s world to meet young women who are happy while they are closed within the walls of a monastery? They are free simply because they are giving their lives to Christ.
After dinner, we participate in Compline that concludes with the hymn of Salve Regina in the dark, with only the image of the Virgin Mary illuminated. Some of the girls begin to cry. Leaving the church, I absent-mindedly begin to whistle the melody that we just heard. Rebecca stops me and decisively tells me to stop because she is unable to stop her tears.
I realize that I’ve already written a great deal and I’m only on the third day. I would still have so many things to recount. I cannot, however, not share the aspect that personally struck me the most from the pilgrimage. Staying with the others, learning to pray, sharing everything, in particular the small things, the relationship with God and with each other became more and more simple, was rendered more essential.
The story of Peter became, step by step, our own. And so, once we arrived to the tomb, each one of us was able to repeat with joy and emotion, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!”.
