Chose an intention for the walk. Your intention can be a request for a special grace from God for yourself or on behalf of another, including those who have died. You can request a blessing such as spiritual, emotional, or physical healing. You can also walk a pilgrimage in thanksgiving for blessings already received. You can walk a pilgrimage to renew your relationship with God, with the people in your life, and our world. It can be a commitment to beginning again. Ask yourself:  

• Why am I choosing to set out on this journey?
• What intention will I carry in my heart each step along the way?
• What are my hopes for the pilgrimage? 

It may be helpful to listen to a walking reflection from the Jesuit Pray as You Go website.

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 that 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 will 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 will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

Thomas Merton OCSO

The Stations of the Cross are a series of images of Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. They grew out of routes created as versions of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the traditional processional route which recalls the actual path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary. The stations help Christians to make a spiritual pilgrimage by contemplating the Passion of Christ. A version of the stations is found in all Catholic churches.

If you are starting your pilgrimage in the Cathedral, take a few moments to follow and reflect on the Stations of the Cross. What crosses are you carrying? We all stumble along our ways through life; what trips you up? We may find ourselves the object of ridicule and pity; how well do you cope? How will your pilgrimage change you?

If you have time you may listen to a meditation on the Stations from the Pray as You Go website.