In Our Pilgrimages, Home or Abroad, We Are ‘Tabernacles Of Light’

Roxane Salonen shares inspiration from a reflection by Father Ambrose Cristie that helped her prepare for an upcoming pilgrimage to Italy.

I’d never heard of the Saint Michael Novena until this year, which proves that, in the Catholic faith, our learning is never exhausted. My husband, Troy, and I decided to follow it through a six-week digital journey leading up to September 29, the Feast of the Holy Angels, through the Hallow app. 

I was drawn to the reflections of Father Ambrose Criste, a Norbertine priest from Saint Michael’s Abbey in California. Toward the end of the virtual pilgrimage, he offered an especially illuminating reflection. 

At the time of hearing it, we were beginning preparations for a long-awaited pilgrimage to Italy, with the goal of praying for our children in Rome during the Jubilee Year of Hope. 

Father Ambrose described what Jesus told His disciples about what to expect at the conclusion our Christian journey on earth:

“Then, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13:43) 

At the end of any earthly pilgrimage, “all those journeys that are a practice for that final one,” Father continued, we  arrive, but not to stay. “We reach a pilgrim goal here below, and then we are sent.” 

I became alert at the words, “and then we are sent.” Given the proximity to our upcoming pilgrimage — we'll be just stepping into it the day this essay publishes — those words stood out. After all the planning, the last thing I want is to miss the whole point of the gift. 

We Are Sent 

As Catholics, I think we all can guess at what the words “we are sent” mean, but the meaning will change with each day, each season of life, each pilgrimage.  

In some seasons, being sent might mean preparing our young children to be sent into the world, or modeling to them what it means to be active and alive in the Domestic Church.  

For my husband and me now, with most of our young-adult children out of the house, being sent means something different, and takes on a new urgency in light of our upcoming journey.  

Father Ambrose said that in our earthly pilgrimages, we “receive the light of Christ,” which “he wants us to carry with us as he sends us back into the world.” This calls to mind the Mass, and how we are transformed by receiving the Eucharist — by receiving Him. 

“We receive the light of Christ, and carry it now brighter than it was before,” Father continued, “because he has prepared us, through pilgrimage, to receive it even better, more deeply, than before.” He added, “We pray today for the grace to radiate the light of Christ, to evangelize this dark world by being radiant with grace.” 

Again, I pause: “to evangelize this dark world by being radiant with grace.” 

How blessed we are to be recipients of God’s very light, not just when we travel the world on pilgrimage, but when we travel to our children’s bedrooms in the middle of the night to tend to an urgent need. Then, too, we become “radiant with grace,” as we do Christ’s work, fueled by His light. 

We Are What We Receive 

A key here is remembering that we are not alone, but acting in accordance with God, with His grace feeding our movements and what is possible.  

Father Ambrose said that at Mass, “the light-flooded altar is itself a source of light,” which we are called to reflect. There, rays of earthly light enter in from the outside and illumine the altar, “but the sacraments that flow from that altar make us vessels of the light of God’s grace. They transform us into so many sources of heavenly light — tabernacles of light, we might say — because we become what we receive.” 

Because his reflection was a lead-up to the Feast of the Holy Angels, he ended by acknowledging Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, who “bear the light of heavenly glory.” 

“The angels are bodyless, luminous beings,” he said, and Saint Michael “shows us what it looks like it to reflect the light of the Lamb.” 

And so we ask him to help us carry the light of Christ into the world, he concluded, to help make us beacons for others. “Let my life and everything I do point to Christ, so that I can help you draw many more souls to him.” 

We can do this on pilgrimage to Rome, or on pilgrimage to the grocery store. Wherever we find ourselves, we are, in a sense, on pilgrimage, seeking the light of Christ on our journey to Heaven, collecting rays of light along the way to share with others on our paths — and those in our very own homes — so that Christ’s light might spread and intensify. 

What a beautiful mission we’ve all been given, wherever in the world we happen to be! 

Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2025 Roxane Salonen
Images: Canva