Pilgrims on the Road to Bethlehem
Written by Alisa Davis
Before she was called to the Young Women’s presidency President Freeman was already someone I followed on social media. I resonated with her love for the scriptures and the way she communicated what she was learning with others. So, when she traveled to Israel in 2023 she took me and many others with her as she shared the experiences she had while visiting significant sites in Jerusalem, across the countryside, and walking the Jesus Trail from Nazareth to Capernaum. She shared what she was learning spiritually by walking, touching, smelling, tasting the gospel as it was embodied in the land. Even when she found herself injured and uncertain if she could go on the journey there were others on the trip with her who supported her and helped her do what should have been unreasonable. It was a pilgrimage, and I was a pilgrim with her as I sat thousands of miles away watching it all unfold on my phone but living it in my mind as I imagined myself in those places with her. The lessons she learned and the words she shared have (clearly) stuck with me.
Latter-Day Pilgrimage
Christians have been making pilgrimages for most of our history and Latter-day Saints are no exception, although they may not call it by that name. A pilgrimage is a journey we undertake towards a specific destination, is limited in its time frame, and is entered into with the intention of growing spiritually and physically or mentally. It is a journey of discovery and transformation where we choose to step away from the demands and distractions of our lives and the modern world and focus our will and our effort on seeking the divine more intently than we typically have opportunity to do in everyday life. It is a practice that is fundamentally rooted in our physical nature as human beings and how we interact with space and time. Father Piotr Roszak said in an interview with Evangelization & Culture magazine, “pilgrimage reminds us that we live immersed in time. . .we are pilgrims on the earth. . .the anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas point(s) out that man discovers what is spiritual through what is material. The universe is the path to God [1].” For Latter-day Saints it is very common to make trips touring church historical sites, trips to General Conference, new temple openings, and temple visits in the cities or regions that they are visiting or passing through. While enjoyable, the motivation for these trips is often focused on the spiritual value of these sites. Latter-day pilgrims find inspiration and meaning in seeing the places where the Prophet ministered and built the church. They come from all over the world to Salt Lake City to see the Prophet speak in person and see the Temple and other sites. They go to temples that are not their own home temple because there is something expansive about seeking God and finding him everywhere you go, and they go to be immersed in the unique beauty of that temple. Beauty has always lifted the human spirit and mind towards something higher.
History of Pilgrimage and Christmas
Pilgrimage and Christmas were birthed together in the Christian tradition and were later joined by Advent. In the year 324 Constantine legalized Christianity – ending centuries of persecution. The resulting freedom to assemble and proselytize openly likely contributed to the explosion of Christianity’s numbers, from approximately 6 million believers in 300 AD to over 30 million in 350 AD, bringing the faith out of the corners and marginalized places of the Empire and into the center of the culture [2]. At the same time, as the communities of believers grew, there came a need for for-purpose built structures that could house the entire congregation and facilitate the sacraments, rituals, and liturgies of the faith. These large buildings called basilicas were often built on top of locations where important moments in the life of Christ occurred. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, funded the construction of several basilicas in Bethlehem, Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, Golgotha, and others. By the year 320 there were multiple basilicas in Jerusalem itself, and Christians were increasingly choosing to celebrate the events of Christ’s life in the places where they occurred [3]. The earliest surviving account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land “was written by the anonymous “Pilgrim of Bordeaux” recounting the stages of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the years 333 and 334” [4].
In the first few centuries of the church, meeting on the “Lord’s Day” (Sunday) and celebrating Easter were the primary focus of worship [5]. Other events in the life of Christ, such as his birth, were not seen as something to be memorialized with ritual and worship. There were often churches established on the sites of significant events, and there was some speculation as to when his birth was with Church Fathers making arguments for either March 25, December 25, or January 6. However, before the year 354 or 361 AD there is no definitive evidence of Christmas being observed by the church [3,6]. What was most important to the persecuted church of the first several centuries was the work of Christ on Easter, but as the church exploded in size there grew with it an increasing view that Christ’s ministry began at either his birth or conception. This view was driven by a need of the early church to assert the eternal nature and divinity of Christ against some who were promoting teachings that downplayed or denied Christ’s identity as the eternal son of God. The result of this, and other factors, was that Christmas became an important counterpoint to Easter with many of the traditions relating to Christmas mirroring those of Easter.
As the church expanded their worship from memorializing just the atoning work of Christ to include other significant events in his life there also coincided a growing interest in pilgrimage. Hans Forster theorizes that “in the fourth century, Christians began making pilgrimages to Jerusalem and other nearby locations associated with the life of Jesus in the Gospels, motivated by a ‘historisierende Tendenz,’ a historizing trend, to commemorate events ‘zur rechten Zeit am richtigen Ort’, at the right time, at the right place. Forster attributes the rapid spread of feasts celebrating Christ’s birth to ‘the enthusiasm of the pilgrims [3].’” As the Christian faith spread further and further from the Holy Land and the center of Christianity, there also grew a greater value for sacred space and the process of committing yourself entirely for a time to a mentally, emotionally, and physically demanding journey in pursuit of entering into those sacred spaces. It became another type of “sacrament” that transformed people as they engaged with the world and the other people who were also on the road with them. It became the training ground for “humility, brotherhood, courage, confidence, and faith [1].”
In the medieval period conflict in the Holy Land made it impossible at times for pilgrimage so alternative forms of pilgrimage arose such as physical pilgrimage to sites containing the relics of saints and the Apostles – the most famous being the Camino de Santiago, labyrinths embedded into cathedral floors – such as the one in Chartres Cathedral, and guided devotionals – such as “Die Sionpilger, a pilgrimage-by-proxy in the form of a day-to-day guidebook to Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem, and Rome. Fabri’s guidebook sent the pilgrim on an imaginative journey of a thousand miles, without having to take a single step [7].” Advent is a type of guided pilgrimage that takes us on a journey of preparation to receive Christ in the celebration of his birth and in the anticipation of the second advent when he returns. “Christmas allows us to make a spiritual journey to Bethlehem, to gain a witness for ourselves of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and then to carry that witness forward. And with tongues loosened and feet and hands ready to make it known abroad, and bear record of all that we’ve come to know concerning Him. We can make that pilgrimage to the Savior by remembering [8].” The traditions of Advent, through their symbols, scripture, prayer, and charity, are the guidebook to creating memories that can aid us in our “spiritual journey to Bethlehem.”
Our Advent Guide to a Christmas Pilgrimage
In the four Sundays leading up to Christmas our Advent “guide” will take us first to the Prophets whose voices declared the hope of the coming Messiah and still declare our hope that he will come again. Life can often seem like a “dark and dreary waste” (1 Nephi 8:7), the modern world is full of sin and noise and calls to leave the path (1 Nephi 8:27). The first step on the path to the Tree of Life always begins with listening to and following God’s messengers and holding on the iron rod that is our hope leading us to Christ. We are then taken to Bethlehem where we must wait because Christmas is coming yet has not arrived, and we also wait now for Christ’s return, which is coming yet has not arrived. As we wait we are guided to remember that in the midst of the wait and the storm, in our doubts and anxieties about the unknown, in times of conflict and upheaval, our peace is found in our faith in Christ (2 Nephi 16:6, Alma 58:11, 4 Nephi 1:4). The next step on our journey takes us to the hillsides with the Shepherds. We experience with them their joy at the discovery of the long-awaited messiah and their eagerness to tell others what they had experienced (Luke 2:17). Joy is contagious and must be shared with others (Nehemiah 8:10) for no pilgrimage or journey is ever truly accomplished alone and the redeeming work of Christ is one that unites all people and creation in him (John 17:13-22). Finally, our journey is nearly complete, we have been preparing our homes and our hearts to receive the witness of Angels; we remember Gabriel and Moroni, once men they are now exalted, and they point the way by their witness to the goal of our pilgrimage. The one who is the author and finisher of our faith, the one we have set our hearts and minds on to discover anew in this season.
Pilgrimage at its essence, whether physical or mental, is a period of time of increased effort and focus on a goal that is discovery or transformation. By participating in pilgrimage we walk a well-worn spiritual path to discovery and spiritual progression, along with countless other courses of our ancestors and fellow Christians as companions, with Christ as our focus and ultimate goal. “As we make our Christmas pilgrimage, maybe we can see ourselves as modern-day wise men and women, looking perhaps at stars atop evergreen trees and lights glistening all around us, “rejoic[ing] with exceeding great joy” at the signs set before us to guide and direct our journey toward Jesus Christ [8].” Advent takes us on a pilgrimage through time when the demands of the world on our money, attention, effort, and time are perhaps at their greatest. Keeping our focus on Christ in this season can be difficult, “thankfully, we walk this path together, calling out encouragement along the way. As we share our personal experience with Christ, we will strengthen personal devotion [9]” and hopefully “by the fourth Sunday [of Advent] our expectations for the coming joyous events [will have] reached their peak [10].”
- Mixa, Robert. “The Sacrament of Pilgrimage.” Evangelization & Culture, vol. Winter, no. 6, 2020, pp. 132-137, https://www.academia.edu/44774009/_Sacrament_of_Pilgrimage_.
- “How Many Christians Were There in the Roman Empire?” Kyle Orton’s Blog, 11 Jun. 2021, kyleorton.co.uk/2021/06/11/how-many-christians-were-there-in-the-roman-empire/.
- Kochenhash, Michael. “The Advent of Christmas and Early Christian Sacred Space.” Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy, vol. 98, no. 1-2, 2017, pp. 60-80, https://doi.org/10.2143/QL.98.1.3275142.
- “Christian Pilgrimage.” Christian Pilgrimage Journeys, www.christian-pilgrimage-journeys.com/biblical-sources/christian-history/christian-pilgrimage/.
- Ekenburg, Anders. “The Early History of the Liturgical Year.” Edu.
- Fawcett, Brett. “Christology and Church Unity As Determinative Factors in the Establishment of the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany Cycle.” Edu.
- Barush, Kathryn. “Introduction: Pilgrimage as Art, Art as Pilgrimage.” Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience (2021): n. pag. Print.
- Browning, Tracy Y. “Remember, Remember.” 2023 First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional.
- Freeman, Emily Belle. “Walking in Covenant Relationship with Christ.” 2023 October General Conference.
- Uchtdorf, Dieter F. 2008 First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVh618GkMP8
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