It's a pilgrimage her father had undertaken that had profoundly changed his life.

Sanborn, a rebel and adventurer by nature (she dropped out of college to meditate in India for a year), quit her job, gave up health insurance and pooled her savings to take two months to walk the Camino.

By the third day of her walk, she promised herself she'd return every year.

Nine months later, she was back, guiding her first group of eight pilgrims.

A pilgrimage for everyone

A decade after her first pilgrimage, now 45 and residing in the Bay Area, Sanborn leads grief walks and walking meditations on the Camino with the travel company she founded, Red Monkey Walking Travel.

The red monkey is a nod to Hanuman, the Hindu god of joyful service.

Raised Tibetan Buddhist, Christian and Jewish, Sanborn considers herself all three. She believes everyone can find a way for the Camino to work for their religion.

"We have had everyone from devout Catholics to atheist Chinese nationals," said Sanborn.

"The Camino for the last 1,000 years was always open to everyone from all religions.

"Some of my first Camino friends walked from Iran. Iran! And stopped in or outside every locked church and read Rumi poems."

Sanborn represents a growing trend of non-Catholic — even non-Christian — pilgrims venturing on the Camino.

In 2023, nearly half a million people walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

About 40 percent of those walked for purely religious reasons, according to statistics released by the pilgrims' office.

While it's traditionally a Catholic pilgrimage, ending at the shrine of the apostle James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, secular pilgrims today embark on the Camino.

They have all kinds of motivations beyond religion: health, grief, transition, cultural exploration, history and adventure.

Purposeful vacationing

Sharon Hewitt of St. John's in Newfoundland, Canada, walked part of the Camino in the fall of 2016 with two friends.

Her motivation was to spend time with friends and take a "purposeful" vacation.

Hewitt doesn't consider herself religious but recognised a type of devotion in the rituals and challenges of the eight days of walking.

"I didn't do it for religious reasons, but there is overlap," says Hewitt.

"A lot about religion is discipline, just like the Camino. After a hard night, you still get up and go on."

This synthesis of religious and secular motivations is profound for people like Nancy Mead, president of The Friends of the Anglican Centre in Santiago de Compostela, an ecumenical religious organisation.

Mead, an Episcopalian who lives in Rhode Island, says there are as many reasons why people walk the Camino as there are people who walk it.

While the Camino is a religious experience for her, she has also learned life lessons along the way that apply to everybody, religious or not.

She's walked seven different routes on the Camino and has to remind herself each time to lighten her load; makeup and extra clothes are just added weight on the journey.

Secular spirituality

The number of "spiritual but not religious" pilgrims on the Camino has increased over the past two decades as the demographic has grown and with the emergence of "secular spirituality."

Jacqui Frost, whose research at Purdue includes health and wellbeing among the nonreligious, says researchers are increasingly using the language of spirituality to talk about secular experiences of feeling connected to something greater than yourself .

This is something that, she says, often happens in nature.

"We have started to secularise a lot of what used to be religious rituals," said Frost.

"Think about meditation, yoga or even atheist churches. A lot of people are interested in rituals and finding meaning in these collective events."

As this growing spiritual but not religious group borrows religious rituals and beliefs, there is a question of how to do so without appropriating them.

Many of the reasons nonreligious people go on the Camino are similar to why religious people go.

In a 2019 study in the "Sociology of Religion" journal, researchers examined atheists' versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way.

They found overwhelming overlap across motivations; most were looking to connect to nature and one's deeper self.

The only two measures that differed were community and religious motivations, which were both higher for religious pilgrims.

Religious ethics expert and author of the forthcoming book "The Religion Factor: How Restoring Religion to Our Spirituality Makes It More Meaningful, Responsible, and Effective," Liz Bucar has this to say:

The growing number of spiritual but not religious pilgrims represents a need for meaning-making, even when you've rejected religion.

But she doesn't think it's as easy as just dropping the religion part and isn't so sure you can still get the same benefits without it.

"If you want to get the real meat out of pilgrimage, you have to engage with the religion of it," says Bucar.

"Spirituality is what they are calling the pieces of religion that they like. Religion is part of the secret sauce."

After all, Bucar says, pilgrimage is spiritual tourism.

She describes the Camino today as a "curated, socially constructed experience with institutions involved."

Bucar used to lead college students on the Camino but came to believe the trip fed into an idea that you can access this spiritual connectedness or transcendence through participating in a temporary experience.

She says the Camino falls into this category, which her new book is about, of these spiritual hacks and shortcuts people take when they "don't want to do religion."

Bucar required the students to write an application essay for the class, and most cited the desire to have a transformative experience as their reasoning for wanting to walk the Camino.

"They're looking for a quick fix, an experience that will change their life," she said.

Broader context

Bucar's not opposed to taking students again. But she'd do it differently.

Instead of focusing on the inward journey, she'd encourage her students to study the historical context of the routes and the contentious parts of history that the official Spanish tour guides might be leaving out.

After all, St. James is also known as Santiago Matamoros, the "Moor-slayer."

You won't hear about the story of Matamoros helping Charlemagne murder Muslims from a tour guide. Bucar would put the construction of historical narratives front and center.

"I'd make it less fun for them and less of an ‘experience.'

"It's much more valuable to have these experiences be uncomfortable and disorienting," said Bucar. "You have to engage with the religion of it."

Camino part of life's mystery

For Sanborn, Christianity will always be at the heart of the Camino — even for those bringing a different religion or no religion to their pilgrimage — though she agrees with Bucar that Christianity on the Camino has not always been beautiful.

"I think it's important to honor the Christianity of the Camino, and appreciate the traditions and amazing art and architecture of the Camino.

"But the Camino also walks over both where over 80 people were taken from their mountain homes and the city where they were burnt at the stake.

"So I think it's important to see the best and worst of religion," said Sanborn.

"Each time I step into a church or cathedral on a hot day, it feels impossible to not be awed."

However, Sanborn resists the idea that non-Catholic pilgrims — "sometimes people call them tourist-pilgrims" — are unable to experience what the Camino has to offer.

"Everyone I have ever met along the Camino is getting more than they expected, so it's probably best not to judge," she said.

"The Camino is just so special in ways I don't pretend to understand, which is part of the great mystery of life. It's magic."

• First published by Religion News Service
• Ellie Davis is an author at Religion News Service.

The once-every-quarter-century event is likely to bring about 32 million pilgrims to Rome

Last Thursday at St Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis presided over a ceremony where the papal bull, or official edict, for the Jubilee was read.

It lays out his vision for a year of hope and asks for gestures of solidarity for the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature.

Behind scenes chaos

Despite the pomp-filled event's majesty and prayerful hope for the upcoming year, there is still much to be done in the seven months until 24 December.

That's when Francis will open the basilica's Holy Door and formally inaugurate the Jubilee.

Just now though, completing preparations and public works projects in time are knife-edge priorities.

As occurred in the months before Jubilee 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects are overwhelming Rome.

Reports speak of flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swathes of central boulevards rerouted and traffic jamming Rome's already clogged streets.

Vortexes of work aside, those in charge have faith it will all come together in time. And anyway - Rome's a fabulous place.

"In a beautiful city, you live better" said the Vatican's Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella. Jubilee funding is helping make it more so for visitors.

"Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come."

Jubilee years

A Jubilee Year - also known as a Holy Year - has been a tradition since about 1300, originating during Pope Boniface's papacy.

They happen usually once every quarter century, though they can be called more often.

Sometimes a pope calls an extraordinary one - to call attention to a particular issue or celebrate a momentous event for instance.

Francis called the last extraordinary Holy Year in 2016.

He wanted to emphasise his desire to present the Church as merciful and welcoming rather than moralising and remote.

Next year's Jubilee will be the first ordinary one since 2000 under Pope John Paul II's papacy.

The Vatican website says it should also be a time of reconciliation with adversaries and an occasion to promote solidarity, hope and justice in the world.

The Holy Doors, symbolising the doorway of salvation for Catholics, are opened only during Jubilee years.

There are four in Rome - in St Peter's Basilica, St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls.

Their openings will be staggered, with St Peter's door opening on December 24 this year and closing on January 6, 2026.

We need hope

The Jubilee is necessary, says Francis.

"Hope is needed by God's creation, gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness" Francis said in a vigil service after launching the Holy Year.

"Hope is needed by those peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear."

Source

• AP News
• Reuters

The diocese has announced the centre, opened in 1996, will close at the end of September and all staff will be made redundant. The grotto itself, founded by Canon Thomas Taylor in 1922, will remain open and will be served by the parish church of St Francis Xavier.

The visit of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux will go ahead as planned at the end of August. Read more

The 45 members stayed at the St Mary's church in Arorangi; many of the young team are not familiar with the cultural habits and surroundings, having being born and brought up in New Zealand. Continue reading

A low pilgrim population in the 80s turned an ancient path into more of a medieval legend.

Rather than a well-known travel destination, the ancient ‘Way of St James' was then little more than a dusty relic of Christian, and pagan, history.

However, 21 years later, statistics show that 301,036 pilgrims received their Compostela certificates in 2017.

The powerful resurgence in the popularity of pilgrimage, particularly of the Way of St James, is undeniable.

Is pilgrimage providing the perfect nourishment for the ritualistic needs of a spiritually hungry generation?

The concept of ‘going on pilgrimage' has traditionally evoked many ideas: undertaking a journey to serve a personal purpose; giving expression to a difficult situation through bodily action, in the hope of securing an outcome; following in the footsteps of many who have walked the same path before; fulfilling a religious obligation.

Camino

The idea of pilgrimage has over time evolved to meet the expectations of a 21st century world and yet still, whether the hope is for healing, miracles, peace, or even weight loss, people choose to walk the gruelling 500 miles of the Camino, with the bare minimum of possessions, more than a thousand years after the first pilgrims.

There is little doubt that the Camino owes much of its newfound fame to the media.

Through Martin Sheen's 2010 film, The Way and the well-read German book, Ich bin daan mal weg (‘I'm off then'), to the BBC's recent celebrity challenge, Camino: The Road To Santiago, audiences around the world have discovered the charms of the pilgrimage and have flocked to immerse themselves in the wonders of the Camino.

The common threads of these pieces weave one theme: a focus on the inner life with the hope of some dramatic, irrevocable change by the end of the journey.

Biblical and anthropological insights could shed some light on why this might be.

The God of the Old Testament provided the people of Israel with ritual instruction, intending to show them how properly to praise their creator and provider.

Rituals were the intended outlet for the heart, reinforced with a physical action.

Fasting

One such example is fasting.

As Karen Eliasen describes: ‘Fasting as a ritual act is not merely a symbol or a metaphor for some other-worldly activity. It is an experience of concrete, this-worldly changes.'

Eliasen continues to say that these physical changes are part of a communication and dialogue between God and the people.

In a similar way, pilgrimage is a way of physically enacting and embodying a conversation with God.

It encompasses all manner of the human being: it is spatial, physical and it speaks to the inner emotional and spiritual dynamics of a person.

To provide an example of this in another cultural context, anthropologist Catherine Allerton studied the padong journeys undertaken by the brides of Manggarai of Eastern Indonesia, whereby brides would walk long distances from their kin towards their spouse's family, wailing on the way as a fully embodied image of the journey the heart is also taking.

Such pilgrimage rituals witness to an important inner journey and to the importance of documenting emotions through physical manifestations.

However, it is the anthropological theory of ‘liminality' developed by Victor Turner that might be the most important lens through which to study the contemporary allure of pilgrimage. Continue reading

• Emma Holland is Producer of Pray as you go. She walked the Camino in 2014.
• Image: Thinking Faith

Aside from the number of pilgrims that attended, the miracle was the beautiful cloudy day sandwiched in between two days of wet weather that saw the pilgrims journey from one church to another visiting sacred sites associated with our Blessed Mother.

The Family pilgrimage began with 8:30 am mass celebrated by parish priest Fr. James Lyons at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. This was followed by a trip to the Our Lady of Fatima Church at Tawa where the pilgrims received a blessing from Fr. Marlon Tebelin, the new Filipino chaplain. From there, the pilgrims journeyed to the statue of Our Lady of Kapiti at Paraparaumu, then to the Our Lady of Fatima Church in Waikanae. The pilgrimage culminated with lunch and a visit to the historical St. Mary's Church in Otaki where children led in Pope John Paul II's Prayer for the Family.

At each sacred site, a decade of the Joyful Mystery of the Rosary was prayed corresponding to a particular intention: (1) For Men and women and young people to discover their true identity and dignity in Christ; (2) For human life to be respected from conception up to natural death; (3) For an increase in marriage, priestly and religious vocations; (4) For love and unity in the family, and for an increase in the number of Christian families living and passing on the Christian faith; and (5) For support for the weak, the elderly and those marginalised in society

The scripture that served as inspiration for the Family Pilgrimage was the Wedding at Cana from the Gospel of John, where Jesus turned water into wine for the newly married couple at the request of His mother—though his "hour" had not yet come (John 2:1-12). It shows the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother and her maternal care for families.

The Family Pilgrimage was organised by the Legion of Mary and the Centre for Marriage and Family (CMF). It is an offshoot of the Pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Auckland that was held at the end of September and early October last year, to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.

Source

Supplied

The Family Pilgrimage was organised by the Centre for Marriage and Family (CMF) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to three shepherd children Lucia do Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto at Fatima, Portugal during the height of World War I. Continue reading

About 1,000 people from 20 groups representing different communities within Asia and the Pacific Islands participated in the Mass in honour of Mary.

The various communities marched into the Basilica with a different statue of Mary in her various manifestations as Our Lady of Antipolo, Our Lady of La Vang, Our Lady of Samoa and the golden Our Lady of Good Health, Vailankanni, as she is known among Catholic communities in India.

Alex Chow, a boy whose family attends Our Lady of China Pastoral Mission in Washington, crowned a statue of Mary.

Then Catholics with roots in India, Samoa, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea led the congregation in praying the Luminous Mysteries of the rosary in their own languages, joined by the congregation who prayed the Hail Marys in English.

Clara Cole, a Samoan who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, said their Catholic faith "was instilled in us at a very young age. We carry it with us still, and I pass it down to my daughter. She's 17."

Cole said that faith "keeps us going. Without it, we'd have no hope, and without Mother Mary, we wouldn't have our Savior Jesus."

Johnny Toma who works at the Georgetown University Medical Centre, reflecting on the journey he took across the world from American Samoa the United States for college said, "He (Jesus) has always been with me."

In his homily, Cardinal Wuerl praised the Asian and Pacific Island Catholics for representing the richness of their diverse cultures and the harmony of their shared faith in Christ.

Prayers of the faithful were offered in different languages, including Cambodian, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Samoan, Indonesian, Konkani (from India), and English.

Source

• cathstan.org
• Image: cathstan.org

They will begin in the ruined abbey at Bury St. Edmunds and finishing at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Dominican Sisters of St Joseph wear a full Dominican habits as a way of giving public witness to the faith wherever they go.

They have a special focus on youth work and the New Evangelisation.

The community was founded in England in 1994 as Roman Catholic Religious Congregation of diocesan rite.

They were formed by group of sisters originally belonging to the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena, Oakford.

They say "Our congregation started out of a desire for renewal and deepening of Dominican life. We currently number 10 sisters." Continue reading

A sung traditional Latin Mass will be celebrated each day, while pilgrims walk 55 miles to one of the greatest shrines in England. Participants on the walking pilgrimage will be praying for the conversion of England.

Inspired by the pilgrimages of Chartres in France, Christus Rex in Australia and the medieval pilgrims who walked from all over England, the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage began in 2010 with just a handful of pilgrims and some vehicle support. Read more

The App will provide for GPS coordinates, accommodation options, prayers, historical information and recorded talks by people of Te Tai Tokerau.

This development has been inspired by a pilgrimage led by Wiga Autet from the Auckland Diocese Religious Education Team.

The party of 8 visited the significant Catholic sites in Te Tai Tokerau to learn more about their faith and to pause ponder and prayer at them.

The sites visited included:

• Tane Mahuta: Maori gatekeeper to spirituality and Te Tai Tokerau
• Omapere Heads: Kupe's and Bishop Pompallier's entry to Hokianga
• Our Lady of the Highway - Our Lady of Passchendaele - Omanaia
• Totara Point: Site of the First Mass Bishop Pompallier
• St Gabriel's Church at Pawarenga
• Hata Maria - St Mary's Church, Motuti: where Bishop Pompallier's remains are kept.
• Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Motukaraka.
• The National Shrine of St Peter Chanel: Russell

Look out for news of the App on the Auckland Catholic Diocese's website.

Source

• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• Image: hokiangapompallier.org.nz

She takes tiny, shuffling steps as she completes seven anti-clockwise laps that form one of many rituals she completes as part of her Haj.

"For Muslims, Mecca is sacred, it's the centre of the earth. Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and becomes an obligation once a person is able to afford it.

"It gives you the opportunity to reflect on the blessings God Almighty has given humanity," the nurse from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital explains of the trip she made last year.

Youssef first visited Mecca in 2010 with her cousin and recalls being overwhelmed when she first laid eyes on the Kaaba.

"It was my invitation to visit the house of God and seek forgiveness before Him. My heart was jumping out of my chest," she recalls of the Haj, the biggest pilgrimage in the world that draws millions of Muslims from around the world and is taking place this week.

While the Haj is probably the best-known pilgrimage in the world, there are many other spiritual locations attracting a growing number of Australians who put aside the rigours and stress of daily modern life to take time out for spiritual and physical renewal and enlightenment.

Sheikh Jehad Ismail is an Sydney sheikh who has led international pilgrimage groups to Mecca for many years.

"God wants human beings to experience through the Haj a spiritual and dynamic journey, and then apply the lessons learnt there to their daily life," he says.

An Australian travel agency United World Travel owner Mahmoud Hammoud takes pilgrims every year for a 20-day trip to Mecca and Medina, the city where the Prophet Muhammad was born.

He is in Mecca with a group of 200 pilgrims; he says about 5000 visas are issued annually to Australians travelling for the Haj. Continue reading

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald, from an article written by Zohra Aly, lecturer in Arabic and Islamics at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
• Image: asianews.it

The pilgrimage will begin at Cape Reinga, which is the northern most point on the mainland of New Zealand.

It will take about 33 days, including some rest days.

Each night the pilgrims will stay in presbyteries and parishioners' homes.

They will be accompanied by a van that will carry their food, clothing, spares and safety equipment.

The van may also be used to transport any rider who is overcome with fatigue.

The seminarians will be speaking about vocations in each of the dioceses as they pass through.

They are planning their journey so that they arrive in Christchurch on 4 December in time to attend the ordination of three Christchurch deacons who are students at Holy Cross.

While they will be providing their own bikes, the seminary students are appealing for help to meet other costs such as the flights home, Ferry tickets to cross Cook Strait - they apparently lack sufficient faith to walk on water.

"We are asking for your prayers and support that this experience may be fruitful in the lives of young people today, encouraging them to 'cast out into the deep' by following Jesus in today's world.

Their blog will be updated regularly, including while they are actually on the journey.

Source

• Supplied
• Inage: Facebook

Some 200 people were taking part in a procession on the main street of Mazapil in Zacatecas state when the truck ran into them.

The dump truck "was apparently left without brakes and struck the crowd", which was heading to a Catholic church, an official from the state's civil protection agency said.

The truck driver fled the scene after the incident.

The pilgrims had been travelling to the San Gregorio Magno church in Mazapil since last Sunday as part of a celebration for a patron saint.

Continue reading

It is a distance of about 1.8km each way and a height gain of 250 metres.

Okarito is a small settlement the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

It is famous for its scenic beauty.

Some years ago, someone divided the walk into twelve sections.

They marked each section with a large numbered stone inconspicuously set among palm fronds beside the path.

The idea was for the pilgrims to stop at each stone and have different people read a section of the Passion narrative from St. John's gospel.

"Quite a challenge, but not so much that most people of all ages could not take part," said Father Michael Mahoney, the parish priest of South Westland.

The walk was widely advertised in South Westland community newspapers and on bulletin boards in each town.

About 25 people, from various age groups, nationalities and towns took part, including a father behind a pushchair containing his infant daughter.

It took a couple of hours to reach the top and return.

Afterwards there were hot cross buns and soup at the 150 year old Donovan's Hall.

"In spite of being Good Friday it was a most joyous occasion, " said Fr Michael.

"All enjoyed the time between each "station".

"They spent the time getting to know their fellow walkers.

"One of the challenges in modern Catholic life is to find activities that connect youth with the Church," he said.

"On the West Coast of the South Island this is even more of a challenge."

"Most Coast youth go away to study or look for employment either during or after secondary school."

"And there are not many to start with!"

Michael says another challenge is presented by modern farming methods; there are less people working on farms.

"So less who take part in Church activities."

"With this in mind, in the South Westland parish we tried to think of an activity during Holy Week that might appeal to people, including youth, who would not normally be involved with Church activities and who probably don't belong to any Church and may not have any idea of why Christians celebrate Holy Week and Easter."

"All voted it a good way of marking Good Friday morning, and without doubt we will repeat it," he said.

Source

• Supplied

Now, over 200,000 people a year spend several gruelling weeks along the route.

Traditionalists turn up their noses at the crowds, but the rewards are still vast.

In the Middle Ages, pilgrimages were neither a quest for meaning, nor an opportunity for contemplation, nor an event.

People had real worries and pilgrimages were part of a deal.

On the one hand was the willingness of the faithful to suffer, on the other was God's capacity for deliverance.

The one walks, the other heals — a transaction based on reciprocity.

Similar to mendicants, pilgrims had no possessions beyond what they carried with them: a walking stick, a small sack of belongings, a gourd full of drinking water and the clothes on their back.

They were filled with reverence and, not uncommonly, a thirst for adventure.

The grave of St. James in Santiago de Compostela has been a pilgrimage site for over 1,000 years.

When times were quiet, only a dozen people would make the effort.

At other times, it would be a couple of thousand.

But the quiet years are over.

More than 200,000 people followed the Way of St. James last year. And this year, those who make money from the steady stream of wayfarers are in a particularly celebratory mood.

Four million copies of the book "I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago" by German TV celebrity Hape Kerkeling have been sold in Germany, and its impact has been huge: Since its publication in German nine years ago, Germans have made up the largest share of foreigners making the pilgrimage.

Last year, according to church statistics, 16,000 of them turned up in Santiago, a new record. And now, German public television station ARD is making the movie. Continue reading

Source

• Article and image: Spiegel Online

In one short trip, I prayed at the spot where Jesus was born, stood at the foot of the mountain where he fed the 5,000 and touched the rock into which his cross was planted.

To all those atheists who say "Jesus wasn't even real", I've been to his house - an unassuming little place in Nazareth where the Biblical stories and archaeological evidence cohabit.

Seeing all those wonders requires elbows of steel.

The queues of Orthodox pilgrims were not unlike those that sprang up when the first McDonald's opened in Moscow: thousands of old Russian women pushing and shoving their way to the front in a frenzied dash for a taste of the divine.

Yes, I may have swung the odd punch, but only ever in self-defence.

What's equally striking is the physical reality of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

A trip to the Western Wall in Jerusalem is instructive.

Jews believe that this is one of the walls of their sacred Temple and they come here from all over the world to pray, pushing their handwritten petitions into the cracks of the warm, smooth stone.

Jews were barred from the site until 1967, when they captured the Old City during the Six-Day War (you can still see the bullet holes).

They formalised their ownership of the Wall by bulldozing the 770-year old Moroccan Quarter that stood in front of it.

It was a horrendous piece of vandalism, but all in keeping with the history of the Holy Land. Continue reading.

Source: The Catholic Herald

Image: The Atlantic/AP

When is Hajj 2013?
This year's hajj will be celebrated on Oct. 13th to 18th, though that date depends on the sighting of the moon, as Islam follows a lunar calendar. Hajj takes place annually on the eighth day of the month of Dhul Al-Hijjah in the Muslim calendar. It's considered an obligation for devout Muslims to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if they are physically and financially able.

What's the history of Hajj?
The pilgrimage to Mecca has been going on since pre-Islamic times, as Mecca's economic prosperity during the time of the Prophet Muhammad was largely due to the income from visitors.

Muslims believe that the steps of the Hajj correlate to the story of Hagar, the second wife of Abraham whom he married after Sarah was childless. After Abraham left her and her infant son, Ishmael, in the desert, she frantically ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa to look for food and water for her baby after their provisions ran out. As she prayed to God for mercy, Ishmael's heel hit the ground and the well of Zam Zam sprang forth to nourish them. When Abraham returned, he built the Kaaba with Ishmael's help.

What are the steps of Hajj?

First, pilgrims go to Miqat, the entry station to the Hajj, where they bathe, put on special clothing, and make a formal statement of intent. Next they enter the Masjid al Haram complex to do Tawaf, a rite which involves circling the Kaaba seven times while reciting prayers. After this takes place, it's encouraged to sip water from the Zam Zam well, then walk between the hills of Safa and Marwa seven times.

Next, the formal Hajj ritual begins with another declaration of intent. Pilgrims then travel to Mina on the 8th of Dhul al Hijjah and stay there until dawn prayer the next morning. Following the prayer, the faithful travel to the valley of Arafat to stand in the heat and praise God. The day concludes with travel to Muzdalifa and the gathering of small pebbles. A symbolic stoning of the devil occurs at Mina the next day, along with the animal sacrifice which is part of Eid al Adha. Male pilgrims will shave their heads after this occurs. Next, pilgrims return to Mecca to do the Tawaf again, along with the crossing between Safa and Marwa 7 times. Another trip to Mina then takes place, along with more symbolic stoning, before the faithful can return to Mecca to do a farewell Tawaf. Continue reading

Sources

• Huff Post Religion
• Image: All Empires History Forum

There are close to 50 kiwi pilgrims, representing all the dioceses in New Zealand, making the 19 day World Youth Day pilgrimage.

It began with 5 days in Santiago, Chile, where the pilgrims were billeted in local parishes, giving them an introduction to Chilean cuisine and culture.

During their stay in Santiago they were hosted by the St Columban's Mission Society and were given a taste of the work the Columbans do with the poor and under-privileged throughout the city. They had an opportunity to visit the shanty towns.

The pilgrims arrived in Rio for orientation, and the opening Mass which took place on Tuesday in the cold wind on Copacabana beach and was attended by an estimated 400,000 pilgrims. Rio Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta was the presiding celebrant.

On Wednesday and Thursday the focus was on Catechesis with the Bishops

On Thursday evening (New Zealand time) there was be a Papal Welcoming Ceremony at Copacabana.

On Saturday they will take part in a Vigil Sleep Out at the Santa Cruz Air base before attending the final Mass on Sunday at Campus Fidei.

The Christchurch World Youth Day web page says that the pilgrims will begin the journey home on Monday 29, stopping off in Buenos Aires in Argentina where they will have a time of "retreat and recreation" allowing them to "unwind and reflect on the amazing past days in Santiago and the Rio WYD week."

"We will have times of prayer and reflection while soaking up all that this city has to offer."

On Thursday 1st August they will board the plane for New Zealand arriving on Saturday 3rd August.

Source

• NZCBC
• The Diocese of Christchurch
• The Catholic Herald