From their beginnings monasteries have practiced the charism of hospitality. In the first centuries C. Pilgrims journey to sacred places as an act of religious devotion.
While we may tend to think of Muslims making their once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hindus making the annual pilgrimage to the Ganges, Christians, too, have a long history of pilgrimage. And everywhere monasteries provided hospitality and refuge. By the year , there were already some two hundred monasteries that took in pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was not the only destination for Christian pilgrims.
Sometime around the end of the first millennium C. Over the centuries millions have journeyed, seeking somehow more of God. And the number of pilgrims has not diminished—today over , pilgrims each year travel to Santiago de Compostela alone, from points all over Europe and other parts of the world. All the while, the monasteries have been in the background, providing hospitality and a safe place to stay the night, making the journey safe, providing sustenance, holding the space, and welcoming the traveler.
The task of the monastery has been to be and to welcome, to encourage the journey by making a place of safety. Pilgrimages have come to be associated with transformation for the pilgrim, whether through penance, adversity, or some kind of revelation. And so through the centuries Christians have walked, sailed, and now, of course, jetted into Rome, Assisi, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and countless other places—busloads of them every day.
The very hardship of the Santiago walk—weeks of hard walking—seems to draw people. It is as though we know that transformation must come if we would only make the journey. But while the physical journey to Jerusalem might be undertaken, is it not the road to the New Jerusalem that we are called to walk? The real journey is life. It involves the penance and hardship, and the transformation comes through the intentional walking of that journey with our God. Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter, tells of our biblical heroes who walked with God.
