‘The Soul of a Pilgrim’ teaches us how to view life as an intentional pilgrimage

Through a confluence of grace and timing, Christine Valters Paintner’s The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within arrived to me amid a series of reflections on the meaning of pilgrimage in a Christian’s life. The daily Mass readings of Ordinary Time that week invited the church into the story of Yahweh’s call to Abraham (Gen. 12): “Leave your country, your father’s house, for the land that I will show you.” I was also preparing to moderate a showing of Emilio Estevez’s film The Way. The Soul of a Pilgrim became a compass, guiding me through what might otherwise have been a shallow reading of Genesis and a superficial viewing of the film. 

 

Each chapter focuses on one of eight aspects that transform a pedestrian view of life into an intentional, life-altering pilgrimage: 1) hearing the call and responding; 2) deciding what to take with us—and what to leave behind; 3) arriving at and passing through multiple thresholds along the way; 4) walking—persistently putting one foot in front of the other; 5) living with the inevitable discomforts that come from being a stranger and wayfarer; 6) having the courage to keep starting over when tempted to quit the journey; 7) accepting the mystery of it all—the deeper, elusive meaning of pilgrimage; and 8) arriving back “home,” transformed by an enhanced understanding of a faith-filled life. 

 

Adding to the wisdom and insight of each chapter are John Valters Paintner’s reflections, in lectio divina format, on each of the eight themes. It is hard to imagine finishing this book without experiencing a sense of exhilarated exhaustion, as if coming home at the end of a physical camino. 

 

In a cover blurb, Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, author of Pilgrimage—The Sacred Art (SkyLight Paths), refers to The Soul of a Pilgrim as “a guidebook and an inspiration.” It is all of that and more.

This review appeared in the September 2015 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 80, No. 9, page 43).