Travel Mercies - Egeria

FOURTH CENTURY

She took the vacation of a lifetime, traveling to the Holy Land from her home in what is now Spain. Of course it was more than a vacation—it was a pilgrimage. Traveling in the years 381 to 384, Egeria kept a record of her journey and sent it to her girlfriends back home.

Exploring the sites of biblical events, she wended her way through Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and finally to Palestine, visiting monasteries along the way. (The monastic movement itself was quite new, but this was where it had started, in the biblical lands.) Remember that Christianity had become legal in the Roman Empire just seventy years earlier. Since then, there had been sort of an explosion of interest in this “new” religion. Emperor Constantine’s mother had taken an entourage to the Holy Land earlier in the century, but for a woman like Egeria, apparently with no great wealth or position, to make the trip without an armed escort—that was remarkable.

As you might expect, her travelogue is full of descriptions of the places she saw, along with references to the biblical events that occurred there. But what stands out is her devotion. Each new site provided the occasion for a worship service. She wrote, “It was our practice, whenever we managed to reach our destinations, that there would first be a prayer offered, then a reading from the Bible, then one appropriate psalm, and then another prayer.” Historians love this report because it provides a glimpse of worship in the fourth century. Even more than that, it helps us understand the spiritual discipline that drove a woman like Egeria on this quest.

Will you or your loved ones be traveling for the holidays? After waiting in security lines, cramming into airline seats, or driving hours on the highway, it can be hard to get in the mood for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Surely Egeria’s travel was just as stressful. But she managed to reorient herself at each new stop by means of a mini-worship service. Prayer, reading, psalm, prayer. Nothing fancy, but this customary practice kept reminding her of the reason for her journey.

Wherever you go this season, that’s not a bad habit to get into.

The LORD says, “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Jeremiah 6:16