Choose a particular saint you’d like to make a pilgrimage to in your imagination. You might choose one of the European mystics such as Hildegard of Bingen or Teresa of Avila. It might be an African mystic such as Desmond Tutu or Augustine of Hippo or the Desert Mothers and Fathers. Perhaps you are drawn to a more contemporary mystic from North America such as Howard Thurman or Dorothy Day.
To engage in this meditation, you will first need to do a little bit of research. Search online for some articles about the saint you want to encounter. In particular, make note of where they lived or journeyed to.
Then search online for images of these places by entering the place name in the search bar and clicking the image tab. Select four to five images that especially spark your imagination or some kind of longing. You can print these out, or you can keep them bookmarked in your browser or saved to your photo album on your device.
Look online and find images of the places your favorite saint lived and imagine yourself there. The imagination is a powerful portal and can transport us across time and space. We can close our eyes and see ourselves wandering those pathways, embraced by that landscape, and breathe it all in to see what it speaks to our own soul. We can see ourselves coming to meet our saint or mystic as we draw closer to them in the places where they lived, worked, and loved.
— Christine Valters Paintner in The Love of Thousands