I knew that life is a journey, and I want mine to be a journey from Sinai to Sion with you as the Leader. Sinai was your voice, your command, your promise to lead your people into the Promised Land; and Sion is the stable city, the mighty fortress, the holy Temple. My life too goes, with your people, from mountain to Temple, from promise to reality, from hope to glory through the long desert of my earthly existence. And with me all the days of the life, your presence, your help, your unfailing guidance through the sands of time. With you I feel safe in my journey.

“O God, when you went forth before your people,
marching across the wilderness,
earth trembled,
the very heavens quaked before God the Lord of Sinai,
before God the God of Israel”.

The pilgrimage is hard at times. There are dangers and enemies, there is the weariness of the journey and the doubt whether it will ever come to an end, a happy end. There are strange names in the long geography, threatening kings at every turn of the map. The peaks of Bashan are jealous of the hill of Sion, and the enmity of neighbours plots harm against the transit of the Ark that carries your Presence. But it is that very Presence that gives protection and victory in the daily encounters of the faith pilgrimage.

“God arises and  his enemies are scattered!
Sing the praises of God,
raise a psalm to his name,
extol him who rides over the desert plains.

Be joyful and exult before him,
father of the fatherless,
the widow’s champion.

God in his holy dwelling place gives the friendless a home
and brings out the prisoner safe and sound;
but revels must live in the scorching desert.”

The strength of my pilgrimage is to realise that it is also yours. You are the Lord of the desert, you are the Lord of life. And, with you, you carry your people, and me with them. I rejoice as the least member in the holy procession, the Benjamin in the tribes of Israel.

“Your procession, O God, comes into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary:
at its head the singers, next come minstrels,
girls among them playing on tambourines.

In the great concourse they bless God,
all Israel assembled bless the Lord.
There is the little tribe of Benjamin leading them,
there the company of Juda’s princes,
the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.”

To walk in the company of your people: that is my joy, Lord, and that is my protection. To feel one with your people, to fight in its battles, to grieve at defeat and to exult in victory. You are my God because I belong to your people. I am no lonely traveller, no solitary pilgrim. I form part of a people that marches together with one faith, one Leader and one destiny. I know its history and I sing its songs. I live its traditions and I cling to its hopes. And as a closer and daily sign of my belonging to your people I renew and strengthen my union in friendship with the close group with which I live in your name. Cell of your Body and image of your Church. They are my companions given by you, and with them I walk and I strive, I relax and I play in the intimacy of a family which mirrors in humble miniature the universality of the whole human family under you as a Father.

“O God, in virtue of you power,
that godlike power which has acted for us,
command kings to bring gifts to you
for the honour of your temple in Jerusalem.”

In a way we have already arrived at the end of the journey. We are in Jerusalem, we are in your Temple we are in your Church. “The righteous are joyful, they exult before God, they are jubilant and shout for joy.”The joy of knowing that we are already in faith where we shall be for ever in perfect fruition. The joy of a journey which is already crowned with the anticipation of the arrival. The joy of the traveller joined to the satisfaction of the inhabitant. We are pilgrims and citizens, we are on the way and we have arrived, we claim both Sinai and Sion for our heritage. With you by our side we journey with joy and arrive in glory.

“Blessed is the Lord:
He carries us day by day.