Was listening recently to my favorite news source about a group of Christians visiting the Holy Land. The segment was timed to coincide with Maundy Thursday on the Western Calendar, so it featured how a person’s faith can be strengthened by visiting the places where holy people dwelled and prayed to God. In other words, revival can be found by practicing the ancient art of pilgrimage, because as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins proclaims, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”.

It was music to my ears! Modern Christians going to holy and sacred spaces and being deepened in their faith. That is until I heard one tour guide from the piece proclaim a philosophical dialectic you will never on a Boston Pilgrim Tour: “…We need to remind ourselves that we worship the Person, not the place.” Why this false dichotomy between person and place as if getting the latter right did not ultimately matter? He also adds with a slight sneer that the places they visit are “so-called traditional” while giving real credence to the authority of archeology.

Seems like these sneers ultimately destroy the whole reason to go on pilgrimage. Why go to the actual, historical place when you can have a pilgrimage experience in some place like Disneyland (Didn’t Orlando have a place called “The Holy Land Experience“)? Why do we Christians even NEED theme parks when we have the real thing?

Book a tour with Boston Pilgrim today where we visit the actual places along with honoring actual people.