Being Benedictine

Throughout history, pilgrims have sought an experience of the holy by visiting temples, shrines, cathedrals, monasteries, and other sacred sites. Some take lengthy journeys on foot, such as the famous Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) or the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, walking 10-20 miles a day.

By definition, a pilgrimage is a purposeful journey to a religious or sacred site, yet it is not necessary to travel a great distance, or walk many miles, to undertake one. Walking the path of a labyrinth is a symbolic representation of a spiritual pilgrimage, and one of many creative ways to pray.

The use of labyrinths for meditation and prayer dates back thousands of years. During the Middle Ages, labyrinths were abundant, as opportunities to travel to the Holy Land or other sacred sites were limited by war, poverty, and other constraints. They remain a contemporary spiritual practice for quieting the mind, letting go of our personal agendas or expectations, learning to trust, and seeking guidance from the Divine. Bringing one’s prayer to the labyrinth engages the mind, body, and spirit.

“The labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint, found in all religious traditions in various forms around the world…Walking the labyrinth is a spiritual discipline that invites us to trust the path, to surrender to the many turns our lives take, and to walk through the confusion, the fear, the anger, and grief that we cannot avoid experiencing as we live our earthly lives.”  Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress

A labyrinth is not a maze; there are no dead ends and no choices that need to be made. There is a clear design for a labyrinth with only one winding path to reach the center and the same path to walk from the center outwards, arriving where you had begun. There is no way to lose the path once one is on it.  

Often before starting a labyrinth walk, I offer an intention, ask a question, or prayerfully surrender a situation to the Divine. Sometimes I carry a SoulCollage® card that resonates. Because there is only one path inward, the mind can let go of when one will arrive at the center. It is a certainty that one will get there eventually. I practice trusting that wherever God takes me, in my mind and body, I must simply put one foot in front of the other. I can settle into knowing that Spirit is with me, accompanying me.

This walk, or journey inward, is a metaphor for life. So often we don’t know where we are headed, even with the best of plans or intentions. “Pilgrimage calls us to yield our own agendas and follow where we are being led,” writes Christine Valters Paintner in The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within. With a labyrinth walk, one experiences letting go of a plan or agenda—surrendering and trusting that the center will be reached. 

Even with only one path, the route may still not be apparent. The appearance of a dead end becomes a switchback; the path continues inward. A labyrinth I walk often is at St. Benedict Center in Schuyler, Nebraska. It is modeled after the famous Cathedral of Chartres in France, which has eleven concentric circles divided into four quadrants. The path is clear from looking from higher ground, but as many times as I have walked it alone and with others, I find myself wondering if I somehow lost my way. Am I just walking in circles? Is this taking longer than it should?