Traveling on pilgrimage to far-off lands can have us all feeling a bit, well, foreign.

Though such a feeling is uncomfortable for many, to the pilgrim, it comes as no surprise. Encountering new territory and being immersed in new experiences is at the heart of pilgrimage. The word “pilgrim,” after all, originates from the Latin word “peregrinus,” meaning “foreigner” or “stranger.” What is different about the pilgrim, however, is their openness to what is foreign. Instead, it is engaging the unfamiliar and welcoming the stranger that invigorates the pilgrim, pushing them toward the growth that they might not otherwise experience in everyday life. 

“On pilgrimage the traveler is a foreigner in several ways,” Edward C. Sellner says in his book, Pilgrimage; “[The pilgrim is] a stranger to the companions she meets along the way, a stranger to the places visited, and a stranger to the inward journey of meaning and transformation.” This inward stranger is just as important as the outward stranger in a foreign land when it comes to pilgrimage. When traveling in foreign territory, the pilgrim’s senses are heightened and their vulnerabilities are laid bare, providing ample opportunity for unknown parts within to rise to the surface. Because the pilgrim’s surroundings are unfamiliar and disorienting, they are more aware of all that they encounter and are invited to practice presence to both themselves others in new ways, allowing the pilgrim to encounter the Divine and discover their True Self in new ways, too.