THE JOURNEY: A Guide for the Modern Pilgrim

This collaborative effort by Catholic journalist Maria Scaperlanda and her law-professor husband, Michael, draws on the couple's extensive travels, including a European pilgrimage they bravely undertook with their four children in the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year 2000. In chapters written alternately by each, the Scaperlandas offer practical advice, personal reflection and stories from journeys taken individually and together. Whether traveling through life or on a tour bus, they ask readers to consider the difference between being a tourist and a pilgrim. One, they observe, is immersed in sights and activities while the other is always on the look-out for God. In their own meanderings, the Scaperlandas obviously favor the God-seeking approach. They propose that all travel, because it disturbs daily routines, presents an opportunity for heightened awareness of God. Michael illustrates this in particular in his chapter on "Making All Travel Sacred," in which he tells how to incorporate visits to monasteries or churches into business trips and how to make family vacations "blessed events." Despite the heavily Catholic flavor of this guide, anyone who loves to travel and wants to make it a spiritual experience will find this a helpful companion. Catholic families and others interested in planning pilgrimages to holy sites also will benefit from the Scaperlandas' vast experience, which is further expanded upon in their appendices of resources. (Nov.)