Pocket Prayers for Pilgrims. John Pritchard
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there the thrones for judgement were set up,
the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
‘May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
and security within your towers.’
For the sake of my relatives and friends
I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.
Psalm 122
Then [Jesus] took the twelve aside and said to them,
‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem.’
Luke 18.31
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them.
Luke 24.13–15
May the God who called our father Abraham
to journey into the unknown,
and guarded him and blessed him,
protect me too and bless my journey.
May his confidence support me as I set out,
may his Spirit be with me on the way,
and may he lead me back to my home in peace.
Those I love I commend to his care.
He is with them, I shall not fear.
As for myself,
may his presence be my companion,
so that blessing may come to me
and to everyone I meet.
Blessed are you, Lord,
whose presence travels with his people.
Jewish Prayer Book
Who would true valour see,
let him come hither;
one here will constant be,
come wind, come weather;
there’s no discouragement
shall make him once relent
his first avowed intent
to be a pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round
with dismal stories,
do but themselves confound;
his strength the more is.
No lion can him fright;
he’ll with a lion fight,
but he will have the right
to be a pilgrim.
No goblin nor foul fiend
can daunt his spirit;
he knows he at the end
shall life inherit.
Then, fancies fly away;
he’ll not fear what men say;
he’ll labour night and day
to be a pilgrim.
John Bunyan, 1628–8
Pilgrim God,
you are our origin and destination.
Travel with us, we pray, in every pilgrimage of faith,
and every journey of the heart.
Give us the courage to set off,
the nourishment we need to travel well,
and the welcome we long for at journey’s end.
So may we grow in grace and love of you
and in the service of others,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
May God,
who has received you by baptism into his Church,
Pour upon you the riches of his grace,
That within the company of Christ’s pilgrim people
You may daily be renewed by his anointing Spirit,
And come to the inheritance of the saints in glory.
Common Worship
LIFE AS A PILGRIM
One of the most easily recognized metaphors for life is that it is a journey or pilgrimage full of incident, joys and crises, periods when we are toiling uphill and times when the sun is always shining on our back. Life is a journey with God, with ourselves and with others – a community of pilgrims, learning as we go. Viewed as a pilgrimage, life clearly requires of us the same qualities of courage, determination, flexibility, resilience and hope that we see in the focused, time-limited pilgrimages we undertake in our holidays. In both cases the most important gift to hold on to is the promise of God to be our guardian and our guide.
Some people travel in straight lines,
sitting in metal boxes, eyes ahead,
always mindful of the target,
moving in obedience to coloured lines and white lines.
Some people travel round in circles,
trudging in drudgery, eyes looking down,
knowing only too well their daily, unchanging round,
moving in response to clock and habit,
journey never finished yet never begun.
I want to travel in patterns of God’s making:
walking in wonder, gazing all around,
knowing my destiny, though not my destination,
moving to the rhythm of the surging of the Spirit,
a journey which, when life ends,
in Christ has just begun.
Adapted from Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4
Let us make our way together, Lord; wherever you go I must go: and through whatever you pass, there too I will pass.
Teresa of Avila, 1515–82
Give me my scallop-shell* of quiet,
my staff of faith to walk upon,
my scrip of joy, immortal diet,
my bottle of salvation,
my gown of glory, hope’s true gage;
and thus I’ll take my pilgrimage
Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552–1618
*A scallop shell was the token and sign that someone had made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe the desire to please you does in fact please you, and I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust