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To make the idea of strannik—which is the Russian word for pilgrim—
known to the West, I suggest you read The Story of the
Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. It is a short book, a lovely one.
A strannik is a pilgrim who stops everywhere to do good, not one who is hell-bent to get to some holy shrine and who ignores the intervening steps.
Rather, a strannik is one who takes time during a journey to be alert to the opportunities of grace that lie along the pathway, to be on the lookout for God and to meet him in another person’s eyes.
While I was on procession in Vermont once, it started raining, and we passed an elderly lady who couldn’t get her raincoat organized. The sleeves wouldn’t fall into place, and she couldn’t find the hood. So I stopped and helped her.
She smiled at me and said, “Thank you!”
The woman walking next to me said, “Do you always stop to do good?” I said, “No. I stop to be of service to my brethren, which I do not consider doing good, but being normal.” And I went on. That’s what I mean—that sort of thing.
For some people, stopping and helping when needed could be an apostolate in itself—entering the terrible loneliness of the world, experiencing that loneliness, sharing that loneliness, and becoming wiser for it.
Adapted from Grace in Every Season, (2001), December 19, p. 333, available from MH Publications