One word answers typically leave much to be desired, but this one pretty much sums up the reason for registering.
Registering is … decisive.
Without registering, we have found that all the words spoken about pilgrimage don’t even make for a short, jumbled dictionary.
Nothing, positively nada, happens until one registers.
You know the old saying:
“A man convinced against his will, is a man who remains unconvinced still.”
Registering, we have found, convinces a man to be a pilgrim.
Many a first-time caller dips slowly into the deep, watery ideas of pilgrimage to test some material preparation for that … inevitably elusive day.
But registering, we have found again and again affirmed, is actually a first step of pilgrimage. It is not a step toward material readiness, however much that plays a rôle, especially later, in the conversion one experiences on the road.
It’s a question of the spirit, and readiness of, as it were, ‘mind over matter’.
(After all, what a ‘waste of time, effort and money’ pilgrimage can be … indeed, like, all good things intended less for the body as it is more for the soul.)
It’s a matter of a man or woman giving his or her word. As if to say, “in the beginning was the Word”, and, “in this beginning also is the word” …
Registering is not so much a question of ‘solvency’ (finances, time, vacation from work) as it is of ‘resolve’. It’s a matter of answering, resolutely, questions like:
“How serious am I about saving my soul?
Shall I prove to myself and to my God that I am ‘dead serious’ … by showing myself to be ‘dead to the world’?
How seriously do I follow the lead of holy Mother Church to retreat from the world at least once per year, for the sake of my soul’s health? …
Shall I really follow Christ into the Christian desert … of my heart?”
“But let your speech be yes, yes: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil.” Mt.v:37
Register today. Yes?
Or, if your still not ready, or convinced, but are resolved to make a final decision later, then PRE-register today. No?
Can’t make it all three days? ‘Test the waters’. Join fellow pilgrims the last day, for Sunday’s events.
Pilgrimage for Restoration
Come to restore. The rest will come.
19th Annual Pilgrimage for Restoration
Friday – Sunday
September 19-21, 2014
“Now is the acceptable time.“
Jump-start your plans, even if you are not sure you can make it to Auriesville. PRE-register. It’s simple, easy & there are no strings attached: you are left free to decide later whether you can make it or not.
You can also make pilgrimage from afar, from home or parish: obtain a plenary indulgence, sponsor a pilgrim (or two), request prayers or offer them — all from this page.
Listen to and learn the Songs of Pilgrimage!
