Making Pilgrimage

The labyrinth is a substitute for the pilgrimage. Both represent a journey inward. Always at the heart of pilgrimage is the question that forces us to leave home, seek a retreat, or go on a vision quest. In a pilgrimage, we are calling on God, crying out for a vision. A vision may reveal a new vocation, a new name, or even our life purpose. The answer may come in the form of a dream, a chance meeting, a surge of inspiration, a voice in our head, or an overpowering emotion. The point is to break with our everyday patterns, to move out of our comfortable and familiar habits. We must be intent in searching for soul. When we return from a pilgrimage, we can take this advice: "Know that your vision will follow you back and must be incorporated into your life and the lives of those you know. And the best way to communicate your experience to others is not to talk about it but to live it."