Denver Catholic

8 APRIL 23-MAY 13, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Bible, papers identifying her as a pilgrim and some weather-specifi c gear. She said she does not carry a phone, camera or money. She simply walks toward a holy site until she encounters people, at which point she will ask for a place to stay for the night. She said she has never had to spend the night outside. "It's a very simple, basic life," she said. "No cell phone, no stress." Sieben was fi rst exposed to the con- cept of pilgrimage through her grand- mother, who would often take bus trips to the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, for whom Sieben is named. However, Sieben said she didn't understand the deeper meaning of pilgrimage until she was an adult. The concept of pilgrimage, or a jour- ney to a holy site, has existed nearly as long as religion. Christ himself jour- neyed to Jerusalem with his parents and later, his disciples. Members of the early Church would travel to visit the graves of apostles and martyrs. They would eventually build shrines in their honor across the known lands of Chris- tendom. As Christianity spread, pil- grims established routes across Europe, India, Africa, and the Holy Land. Sieben was connected to one of these ancient pilgrimage routes while living in Europe. "Ten years ago, I was living and work- ing in Europe. In Europe, they have a cultural tradition that after you've been working for 20 years, you take a year's sabbatical. Pilgrimage, especially through the Camino [de Santiago] in Spain is well known," Sieben said. She decided to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain for 11 days until she reached the shrine of the Apostle St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. She found the pilgrim- age to her liking, and decided to go on another. And another. Having no family to rush back to, she began embrace life as a pilgrim. "At the end of [the second pilgrim- age], I decided I was in no hurry to go back and work," Sieben said. "I decided I liked it, and I have no family or commit- ments of any kind, so instead of going back and renewing my career, I went on another pilgrimage." Sieben's attraction to the pilgrim life is not an anomaly in the history of the Church. In fact, this idea of pilgrimage is written into the very DNA of Cathol- icism. Apologists have understood for ages that the Church is a people jour- neying to their fi nal home, Heaven. The Catechism also teaches that every visi- ble church and holy place is a reminder of our shared pilgrimage. "Our visible churches, holy places, are images of that holy city, the heav- enly Jerusalem, toward which we are making our way on pilgrimage," para- graph 1198 of the Catechism states. This idea is threaded throughout the documents of Vatican II. Pope St. John Paul II even refl ected extensively on Mary's role as the fi rst Christian pilgrim in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater. "As the People of God, the Church makes her pilgrim way towards eter- nity through faith, in the midst of all the peoples and nations, beginning from the day of Pentecost," he wrote. "[Mary's] exceptional pilgrimage of faith rep- resents a constant point of reference for the Church, for individuals and for communities, for peoples and nations and, in a sense, for all humanity." Sieben admits that her fi rst two pil- grimages were done more for the sake of curiosity than piety. She enjoyed the thrill of meeting individuals from all over the world, and relying on people's generosity to meet her basic needs for food, shelter and water. However, she said that her understanding of pilgrim- age has developed along with her skill set. She said that at the heart of her understanding of pilgrimage is Jesus' commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself." "Jesus made two things clear: Love God above all else, and love your neigh- bor as yourself," Sieben said. "Some- one's got to make the ež ort to go and meet the neighbors of the world." Her experience meeting those neigh- bors has led her everywhere from the tombs of the Apostles in Europe to Northern Africa during the Arab Spring. She's even come across armed men in South American jungles while walking from Buenos Aires to Mexico City. "They were always so shocked they would just greet me with a great response," she says, with the same amount of concern one might assign to being stopped by a Jehovah's Witness at Wal-Mart. She said that she never knows who she will meet—or where she will sleep— during these journeys. She also does not know where the conversation will go, but says she enjoys discovering. "I'm not out to evangelize. I'm not even out to bring peace, because that will quickly become political. But trust is trust, and trust between people is trust. Trust is something I go out to actively build and people really are very helpful to me. Every reaction I get is diž erent and unpredictable. Sometimes it's really a life-changing moment for the people I encounter. I just go with it. I don't have an agenda," she said. "I just smile and ask for help and it always starts a conversation." Sieben spent several years walking established pilgrimage routes along the world, including a trek from Europe to Jerusalem that took her through Libya and Syria during the Arab Spring. "It was a chance I took and succeeded," she said in her matter-of-fact style. However, she began to think she should explore the idea of doing her pilgrim- ages in the United States. "People kept saying that of course I could do a pilgrimage like that in Europe, but I could never do that in the Americas. So I went from Denver to Mexico City," Sieben said. That pilgrimage took her across Mexican deserts, with a fi nal destina- tion at the Shrine of Our Lady of Gua- dalupe in Mexico City. She found that strangers were just as willing to pro- vide water as shelter. However, Sieben wasn't done proving the possibility of pilgrimage in the Americas. North America does not have famous, established pilgrimage routes like countries with millennia of Cath- olic history. However, there are least three established routes here, with more being developed right now. Sieben decided to explore one of Around the Archdiocese « APRIL 23-MAY 13, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC PILGRIM VOCABULARY Pilgrimage: A journey to holy a place. This journey is symbolic of every Chris- tian's journey to Heaven. Companion pilgrim: Some- one who receives help, guidance and accommo- dation on their route. Sabbatical pilgrim: A pil- grim who spends several months on their journey, then returns to "normal life." Mendicant pilgrims: People who spend their lives ded- icated to the mission of pilgrimage. They may be consecrated as a pilgrim at a special ceremony. Ann Sieben's blog: http:// winterpilgrim.blogspot.com/ Society of Servant Pil- grims: http://www.society- ofservantpilgrims.com/« Creatio: http://creatioweb.org/ LEARN MORE Sieben at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, where she spent Easter Sunday. Sieben gives talks on her life as a pilgrim and encourages everyone to try a pilgrimage. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ÉRIC LALIBERTÉ/BOTTES ET VÉLO

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