As the beautiful verse in Ecclesiastes tells us:
“There is a time for everything, And a season for every activity under the heavens: A time to be born and a time to die… (1).”
So there is (or should be) a time for journeying, a time for pilgrimage, a time for setting aside the mundane cares of our lives and heed the deep inward calling of the Spirit in us to find It; to find our way back Home. It is hard to heed that quiet calling, that tends to gain urgency as one’s life proceeds, in the humdrum of daily life, with all its plethora of demands upon one’s time, its bucket lists, its coping strategies, its time off for good behaviour and so on. Therefore heeding the calling to take a life break when possible, in whatever way possible I firmly advocate as a good thing. But it does depend upon how it is done and the spirit it is done in.
Taking regular vacations to distant locations where you simply engage with aspects of your worldly self, the self on holiday having a good time, is not what I am referring to here. I do not discount the value of vacations at all, but pilgrimages or retreats of a spiritual order should be able to challenge your different humdrum selves and put you in touch with a deeper more authentic ‘you’.
Also, as indicated earlier here, this is like a commitment to undertake climbing a mountain, but one that may very likely have to be carried out at different stages throughout one’s life.
The Bible. Old Testament. Ecclesiastes 3.