‘Get up and go’ says the Lord to Abraham. Leave your country; leave behind your people, everything that is familiar. Under God’s guidance, Abraham becomes a nomad.

The journey of faith is a prominent motif in scripture. Consider the forty years wandering in the desert before entering the Promised Land. It is a formative experience, as the Israelites are obliged to trust in their God. Compare Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, and recall the candid manner in which he tells would-be disciples that to follow him is to embrace an itinerant life, with an unpredictable destination: "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have… but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

The endurance of John Bunyan’s epic tale, the Pilgrim’s Progress, is surely due to his knowing emphasis on the experience of journeying , the great metaphor for the Christian life. And if, as seems consequent, the action and experience of travelling hold primacy over the destination, how does that affect our model of pilgrimage?

The earliest Christian pilgrims travelled to sites associated with the life of Jesus. The historian Eusebius tells how Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I, travelled extensively around Palestine. She was later credited with the finding of the true cross. Modern visitors may entertain less hope of recovering relics but nonetheless numerous pilgrims continue to seek out something of Jesus’ earthly existence by taking tours of the Holy Land.

Others favour destinations closer to home. The small town of Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, gained its healing reputation following the visions of a local villager.

Over the course of several months in the spring of 1858, Bernadette Soubirous saw and spoke with the Blessed Virgin Mary. News of her revelations quickly spread, advanced by accounts of accompanying healings. The once isolated frontier town became a place of prayer and penance, and thousands of pilgrims continue to visit Lourdes each year in search of healing.

Sally Martin and her family have made between them over seventy pilgrimages since her first trip in 1965. Her frequent visits testify to the riches she has found there among the faithful. The comprehensive guidebook offers practical information about how to get there, the essential sites, and most importantly the full history of the visionary Bernadette. It includes maps, accounts of miracles and devotional prayers.

But such a guide barely touches on the human, experiential dimension of this pilgrimage. Introducing the book, Sally touches briefly on the contact she has with those seeking healing. She describes meeting Robert, a man stretcher-bound and needing assistance with even the most basic tasks. In Lourdes he learned his fortune – that there were others in worse circumstances. Journeying with sick pilgrims, learning from their wisdom and in their service, is a rich part of the Lourdes experience.

Apparitions of the Immaculate Conception are not to everybody’s taste. The Protestant insistence on the immediate accessibility of God – for every believer and without intermediary – is also reflected by a theological resistance to ‘holy things’, that is objects, places or materials that are in some way more holy than others. By consequence, Protestant pilgrimage – such as it is – is more concentrated on ‘the way’ than any destination. It is not the less remarkable that the Taizé Community found its place as a space where all Christians can come together.

Seek and You Will Find is a collection of studies from the brothers of the Taizé Community. Based on teaching sessions and previously published in the bi-monthly Letters from Taizé the studies provide insight into different questions that arise when we begin to take faith and scripture seriously: How can we know God? What does it mean to believe in a Creator? Why did Christ have to suffer?

For more than fifty years, young adults have travelled to Taizé in their thousands. Some find there the opportunity to discuss openly their doubts and beliefs, to seek direction, and even to test a vocation. For others it is a place of fun and fellowship. Their reward is not simply the opportunity to share in a cultural exchange with other young Christians, but to experience the gentle meditative rhythm of a life dedicated to God’s service -- the profundity of this particular ministry of prayer and reconciliation so recently witnessed to by those attending the funeral of the founder, Frere Roger.

But Taizé is not itself the goal. Through their ‘Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth’, the Community encourage and invite their visitors to take home what they have learnt. Any ‘spiritual discovery’made in Taizé must be owned, earthed in daily life, and lived out in practice. This may mean coming together for regular prayer much in the style of Taizé, but also getting involved with church and the local community.

The Iona Community, committed to ethical living, are practiced in living out prayer in daily life. Iona, the Hebridean Isle associated with St Columba and the bringing of Christianity to Scotland in the 6th Century, is a picturesque pilgrimage destination. The journey there, involving two ferry trips, from the mainland to Mull, and then by a second crossing over the Sound of Iona, takes visitors off the beaten track. But it is not an escape.

For the community, prayer is inseparable from action. Theirs is an engaged spirituality, with no "Amen" to finish morning worship. The work of the day takes its own place within the divine liturgy, each act dedicated to God.

Drawing on Celtic roots, their litanies speak of creation and its disarray, of the tension of life in an imperfect world. Iona spirituality cannot be separated from the duty to act justly; in the words of the late Kate McIlhagga (quoted at the front of the latest resource book, Holy Ground):

"Spirituality is the place where prayer and politics meet."

The book is filled with ideas for engaged worship – liturgies, prayers, poems and dialogues that speak strongly to issues of injustice, violence and violation. The entries are hard-hitting, as they are gentle. In his book on peace-making (The Truce of God, 2nd edition 2005), Rowan Williams warns of the false expectation that peace should be restful, withdrawn from the world. A pilgrimage to Iona will never fall into that trap. Here is rich inspiration and the motivation to work for real peace.

The Iona Community is not alone in returning to Celtic roots. The combination of tradition, a certain indigenous charisma, and a strong awareness of wholeness in creation makes Celtic spirituality a rich and attractive source. A Pilgrim Way promises a Celtic monasticism compatible with everyday life. A product of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, it explores the ‘how tos’ of ethics and spirituality for busy people.

Ray Simpson, author, and the founder of this ecumenical community, runs a retreat centre on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just off the Northumbrian coast. The community itself is (like the Iona Community) non-residential, a network of members supporting each other as they live out life in their locale. Their commitments are to simplicity, purity and obedience.

A Pilgrim Way explores, chapter by chapter, different aspects of a life that integrates a concern for the healing of the land with the renewal of the church. The call is to be open to God’s spirit, responding to the rhythm of prayer, work and creation. While the body of each chapter explores theology, all conclude with practical applications: buying clothes from charity shops, giving your car a rest day, reviewing stewardship with a ‘soul-friend’.

Seeing, as with Bunyan, the Christian life as a pilgrimage of stages, we may call to mind another scriptural source: the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As these two people journey along the Emmaus road, the risen Jesus opens up to them the meaning of the events they have witnessed.

In the new edition of Evangelism: Which Way Now? Mike Booker and Mark Ireland explore the different ‘discipling’ courses now available. The original book began with a simple Alpha versus Emmaus debate. The two best-known study resources have different strengths and Ireland and Booker provide an honest and helpful evaluation that considers your context as well as the theological content.

The revised edition adds to an already reliable guide, giving information about Mission-Shaped Church, the unexpected bestseller of 2004, and its offshoot Fresh Expressions, a commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury to ensure that new ways of being church receive the support they deserve. Whether you are the beginning of your own faith journey, or wanting to nurture your companions on the road, you could do worse than consult a copy.

The Empress Helena was not a mere visitor of sites. Recounting her travels, Eusebius relates how she dressed simply, mingled with the poor and gave assistance wherever she could. To what extent this paradigm of social action reflects reality – her son being Emperor surely gave Eusebius a little poetic license, the pilgrim’s summons is surely "Go and do likewise".