What role does a pilgrimage play in the development of a persons spirituality?

Answer 1

The pilgrimage helps the development of spirituality by focusing the mind and body of the Pilgrim on the religious and spiritual beliefs that one is following and/or researching. The active lifestyle that most of us deal with in the current age, really prevents most of us from taking the time to focus on our spiritual beliefs. The pilgrimage takes us out of our normal life style and puts us into a unique environment where we are more focused on the traditions, beliefs, and rituals of our spiritual journey. As a Muslim, I know that I feel a refreshing re-energization of all my senses and direction each time that I make the Umrah. I can always tell when I am being pulled too much by the hectic life style that I am forced to life to meet the demands of the physical present. This is true even though I attend mosque five times a day. For those of previous generations, while they did not have the hectic life style that we currently live with, the value of the pilgrimage was similar. The need to change the focus and demands of the life style. Allowing us to move to an environment in which we can focus on the spirituality that we follow. If we consider the travel commitment that some of our ancestors made just to come to Mekkah for Umrah or Hajj, we find that they spent not days but months in travel to perform these duties. This was a major change in environment and a great commitment to focus on the spirituality.