This GCSE RE Christianity quiz takes a look at pilgrimage. ’Pilgrimage’ may refer to a specific journey by a religious person to a particularly spiritually-important place (such as by Muslims to Mecca), or more broadly to such people making their way through life in general according to the rules and principles of their belief.
For Christian believers, pilgrimage could be an elective journey to the Holy Land to walk in the virtual footsteps of Jesus and those in the New Testament whose lives He touched. Even in these days of relatively easy air travel, the far diagonal of the Mediterranean is a daunting haul for some people, not to mention the sad geo-political tragedies that continue to grind on over those very important tracts of land (contested partly, of course, because they are of such deep and evocative significance to a range of faiths and nations).
There are other holy places to which Christians might yearn to travel, and to experience for themselves. What we might call this next ‘tier’ would be sites associated with Saints of Bible times or more recently, such as shrines where great people of faith lived, visited, had visions or even died. There is believed to be an inherent blessedness about such sites as Walsingham (UK) or Lourdes (France) ~ to which latter, Catholics, in particular, have flocked since the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, in faith now that the waters of the grotto there might heal any illnesses or injuries that they have.
Meanwhile, the daily ‘earthly pilgrimage’ continues for Christian believers as they put one foot in front of the other on the walk God has set them in life. Not everyone feels drawn to make a special geographical pilgrimage, but we hope this quiz will offer some understanding of the ‘how and why’ (and where!) for those who do or might.