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Every first Saturday of the month, just after sunrise, we organise the good bye ceremony the pilgrims’ lauds. In the twilight of the st. Stevens Church in Nijmegen, we walk in silence to a special edition of our first pilgrim book Seasons of Life. There one of us reads out a text from this book. At the beginning of this month it was a text from writer Richard Engelfriet. Ton Reijnders read aloud.
Next pilgrims’ lauds: Januar, December 4 at 8.45 am. Participation is free: more.
Return the other way around!
The most beautiful walk I ever took was the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand. In ‘God’s own country‘, as the New Zealanders like to call their country, you can take this beautiful day hike. You walk right through the film set of The Lord of the Rings. Wild volcanic landscapes, beautiful lava lakes, deep craters and incredible views alternate. You climb almost 2 kilometers, see flowers you didn’t know existed and smell scents you’ve never smelled before.
A beautiful walk, with unfortunately one major drawback: about 5,000 fellow walkers. Buses full of people start the tour from 5 a.m. Where I was only packed with a simple backpack with 6 sandwiches, 4 liters of water and a jar of Nutella, I saw people walking with packs to travel for weeks through the Himalayas. And that wasn’t the only thing: on the way they liked to take a hundred or so photos, immediately tweet them and call home from the most beautiful viewpoint: ‘Yes, it’s me. I can’t hear you really well, it’s quite noisy over here with all the other people’.
It is what it is, but then try enjoying your walk ‘zen- style’. Let alone feel like a pilgrim embarking on a meaningful journey. Fortunately, the solution was very simple: at the end of the walk, all those tourists were picked up by vans. I turned around and walked the same walk again. But now alone.
I can heartily recommend it. Should the Walk of Wisdom crash under its own success, I have some simple advice: just turn around and enjoy the silence.
I wish you a good journey!
Richard Engelfriet
Freelance chairman, author and speaker
With gladness and contentment we present our short practical guide for the modern pilgrim.
We hope the guide will be of help for pilgrims setting out for a Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage, but you can make a pilgrimage everywhere. The guide is accessible online as a flipbook or download the pdf. Feel free to share the complete document with a link to our website.
Click the blue button to read as online flipbook
Or download the pdf: link.
The guide was financed with money from winning an award in 2018 of the Gelderland Province.
Copyright: Walk of Wisdom Foundation
When you have passed Grave at our walking route, you will pass this: the old Roman Catholic Parish Church in Velp, nowadays better known as the church of art / ‘Kunstkerkje’. This national monument on the Pastoor Loefsweg, dates from the 12th century and since 1977 it offers space for exhibitions and concerts.
Do you want to adjust your walk to this? You can do that. From February onwards the (just renovated) church is often open on weekends. Exhibitions are free of charge. Look for current programming on the website of Stichting Kunst in het Kerkje.