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PILGRIMAGE: Thoughts from cassino to Jerusalem
Intro
If we wish the future not to remain a mere projection of the shadows of our past, then we are called to question the way we inhabit the present. It is not enough to identify a direction; one must assume responsibility for the journey itself. It is within this space—at once fragile and decisive—that the human being seeks to understand his place within the order of Creation, measuring his steps not by the urgency of the world, but by the silence of conscience before GOD.
PELLEGRINAGGIO: Thoughts from Cassino to Jerusalem arises from this necessity. Not as a heroic tale, nor as an edifying spiritual diary, but as the testimony of a search lived with radical commitment: a journey on foot, without money, spanning approximately three thousand kilometers, entrusted to Providence and to human solidarity. Theology served as its compass, history as a stern guide, philosophy as a discreet companion; yet the true field of inquiry was time itself, offered both as sacrifice and as question.
Within these pages, the physical path becomes an instrument of interior excavation. Each step subtracts something from ordinary life, and for this very reason opens a space for unexpected reception. The pilgrimage does not promise definitive answers, but it clarifies essential questions: what meaning does our succession upon the earth hold? Is happiness a destination, or a discipline of the gaze? To what height may the human being rise without losing his proper measure?
Abrahamic Study Hall presents here an analysis and a selection of significant passages from the work, not to canonize its conclusions, but to accompany the reader into a reflection that remains open. For pilgrimage, like authentic faith, does not eliminate uncertainty—it educates it. And perhaps it is precisely within this honest tension, between a questioned past and a future only glimpsed, that the human being may still hope to walk before GOD without lying to himself.
MAP & PICTURES
Structure
PELLEGRINAGGIO: Thoughts from Cassino to Jerusalem is structured into ten chapters, preceded by a Preface, following an order that is simultaneously geographical, historical, and interior. Each section marks a concrete stage of the journey, while also representing a progressive deepening of the spiritual question.
Preface – (p. 2)
The threshold of the work. Here the meaning of the vow is clarified, along with the nature of the pilgrimage and the underlying intention that sets the journey in motion: not to demonstrate, but to question; not to assert, but to seek.
Chapter 1 – Departure (p. 3)
The initial detachment: leaving what is familiar in order to enter uncertainty. Departure is not merely geographical, but ontological—the act by which a person accepts exposure, renouncing material and mental securities.
Chapter 2 – Completing the Appian Way (p. 26)
A confrontation with Roman history and with the idea of the road as an ordered human construction. Here the journey measures itself against the structured past of the West and the theme of continuity between civilization and responsibility.
Chapter 3 – Along the Via Egnatia (p. 48)
The passage toward the East. The road becomes more austere, less protected, and the pilgrimage begins to shed familiar reference points, preparing the spirit for otherness.
Chapter 4 – In the Heart of the Balkans (p. 64)
A direct encounter with human complexity: borders, historical wounds, and difficult coexistence. Here the theme of unity—possible despite fractures—emerges with particular force.
Chapter 5 – Reminiscences of Greek Currents (p. 77)
The encounter with ancient philosophy and the great questions of being. The outward journey increasingly intertwines with metaphysical reflection and with meditation on the limits of the human condition.
Chapter 6 – Mysticism on Mount Athos (p. 87)
A moment of suspension. Silence, prayer, and asceticism reveal a different path to knowledge: not accumulation, but emptying.
Chapter 7 – Scents of Istanbul (p. 114)
The city as a crossroads of worlds, faiths, and languages. Here the pilgrimage opens itself to lived interreligious dialogue—not theorized, but experienced through concrete encounter.
Chapter 8 – Beyond the Shores of the Bosphorus (p. 138)
The symbolic crossing between two continents. The West now lies behind; the journey enters a harsher dimension, where the essential prevails over the superfluous.
Chapter 9 – Desert in Anatolia (p. 162)
The final stripping away. The desert—both physical and interior—reduces the human being to what is essential and forces a reckoning with solitude, endurance, and trust.
Chapter 10 – Near the Destination (p. 189)
Approaching Jerusalem does not coincide with a definitive conclusion. The destination draws near, yet the meaning of the journey remains open: what ultimately matters is not arrival, but what the traveler has become along the way.
QUOTES
(Preface)
From the kings of nations down to the poorest on the earth, from those who live by proving themselves to be foolish to those whom we consider among the wise, well, there is no distinction at all: in the presence of the Creator’s greatness, we are only passing through, just a shadow destined soon to disappear. Nevertheless, only after understanding our miserable condition as “pilgrims” can we truly set out on the path of personal elevation, the same one that can make anyone an active part of an “Eternal Plan”. This gives value to every life, for only faith can transform hopeless human beings into “immortal” men and women.
I have always felt the need to run, ever since my youth. Being faster, I thought, corresponded to arriving at my destination sooner and thus enjoying my achievements for longer, but I was wrong. After yet another hard-won goal, I expected to find peace and fulfillment. However, instead, I observed that the satisfaction in my Soul continued to be limited to a period that was too short compared to the years I had spent trying to reach it. So, as happiness still faded, I soon found myself looking for a higher and more desirable peak, convinced that this time it would be the right one. But then that wheel proved to be endless until, by Grace, I realized that to go fast and meet my future, I was missing the beauty of the path in the present.
That speed did not allow me to frame a “purpose”, not at least one I considered worthy. So, I began to delve deeper into what made an existence meaningful, soon understanding that investigating the past helps to find more precise answers in the present. “There is nothing new under the sun”, yet we often fail to grasp the depth of the famous quote by Solomon, considered the wisest by the biblical narrative. Well, what happened once happens similarly today, and what will happen tomorrow, in a way, has already happened yesterday. In the whole physical world, from the cosmic to the subatomic, it is only the forms that change, not the essence; past, present, and future are one road that winds before the seeker of truth. There would be no need to live a hundred lives when, in one, we can already learn from the thousands of existences inherited from our ancestors. Of course, the Holy Scriptures remain the most remarkable heritage we can source, the oldest and most widely translated Texts in the world, had to contain answers.
Throughout the years, this quest inside me has taken various forms, culminating in a true “wanderlust”, in which, however, crossing the surrounding lands proved to be less exhausting than walking the “way of the Soul”. However, this travelling on foot has taught me to consider the details, and the fast-flowing scenery I used to observe as I frantically proceeded, has eventually been replaced by a slow pace, which has led me to focus on everything that exists on the “roadside”. I knew I could not let the past distract me, and I did not want to worry too much about the future, and walking for so long in solitude teaches precisely that: to know how to live enjoying the present time.
Pilgrimage, by definition, is a journey made out of devotion to places considered Holy, where, however, the destination is never more important than the journey itself. My faith has brought me back to Jerusalem several times, first as a mere visitor and later as a pilgrim. So, I decided to hit the road because moving is the only way to leave things behind, get out of ourselves, and abandon our everyday routine, focusing all our energies only on the essentials. By walking, we no longer look at things individually but at the world in its wholeness, rediscovering along these lands the unseen connections we have with GOD: the purpose of existence. Only by knowing ourselves can we achieve enduring happiness, but more importantly, preserve it and find it again when inevitably it seems to vanish. A search and pursuit occur in a cyclical succession of events involving humanity of every age.
Crossing a territory on foot means being ready to sacrifice oneself to overcome trials, understanding that every tribulation will come our way is exclusive to triggering growth within us. Those who are tested will also be the same ones who succeed in improving themselves, bearing witness to the ones who will be pleased to welcome it.
All this was happening during the many confrontations I experienced as a pilgrim, collisions of ideas between bodies that had traveled far away, but in that moment finding themselves in the present impacted, generating a powerful energy. I don’t know exactly how this was being employed by my interlocutors, but I certainly felt it flowing through me going to fuel a deep-seated conviction: we are making it. An absolute conviction of how far we, understood as humankind, remain projected and ever closer to the most important goal ever achieved, an era of Peace. Like the needle of a compass, which no matter how much it may be wiggled and shaken always returns to point in its natural direction, so mankind, despite vacillations and sudden retreats, continues inexorably to pull straight toward the progress of unity. Anyone who cannot yet realize the good things that are happening is unable to make accurate assessments with the Spirit, and summarily makes them with reason. Thus an old saying came back to my mind, “it makes more noise a tree falling than a forest growing.”
As I proceeded, step by step, my now habitual flow of thoughts brought to mind a story I had heard just a few days earlier in Tirana. My journey as a pilgrim had stirred memories of an old Balkan tradition in some of my fellow mosque-goers. The story was about a journey young Albanians once undertook to reach Istanbul, a city that remains one of the world’s most important religious centers. Nearly a thousand kilometers in about three months on foot. A custom that soon became an obligatory act of faith, expected at least once in the life of every believing man. Yet already by the time of my friends’ grandparents, that tradition seemed to have faded, and it wasn’t only religiosity that had been diminished by its loss. That departure from home had been intended not only to strengthen the Spirit of the young, but to forge people in both body and mind. Facing hardships along the way, and the determination to sacrifice oneself to reach a distant destination, represented a true initiation into adult life. Every good parent knows that, after doing their best to raise and guide their children, the day will come when they must let them go, free to have their own experiences.
By meditating, you manage to detach yourself from the reality you’re experiencing, allowing you to observe and analyze it from a more objective perspective. I gave myself time to listen carefully to what the sound of my breath was communicating to me, only seemingly a simple act, because in emptiness there are those who can find infinity. I rearranged all my emotions, pushed away the useless illusions I had created, and made room once again for the present Truth, better prepared than before to face it. Re-establishing a connection with one’s Soul is sometimes the simplest thing that separates us from feeling fulfilled, while instead we stubbornly search for a solution in the chaos.
There are places that succeed in awakening feelings in the Spirit that seemed to have disappeared, but were instead simply hidden, perhaps behind the myriad of thoughts and worries that burden us daily. For the well-being of the believer, it is necessary to recreate around oneself the ideal conditions that foster peace of the senses, purifying both mind and Soul. The more things I saw along the road of pilgrimage, the more people I met, the more I felt I was progressing along the ladder of my newfound being. I felt rewarded by a greater inner order, a disciplined disposition taking clearer shape in my mind. In that kind of internal balance, I was also able to regenerate my tired body, intent on not giving up until I reached my destination, Jerusalem.
(Page 17)
Believers may indeed be fewer in number than in the past, and yet I can testify with certainty that the strength of these Souls together has by no means diminished over time. In our unity we are stronger than ever, apparently still only because we are in preparation, in the waiting for the great advance, in the hour in which the righteous will finally unite, as Promised.
(Page 19)
Above all also at Mount Athos in Greece, where the monastic peninsula had come to host up to forty thousand monks, but at present the number has fallen to less than a thousand. Different State but identical problem, and this led to the same conclusion: institutions need to change together with society. Only in this way will it be possible to preserve the only teaching and Law that can never pass away and fall into disuse: the Word. Sacred Scripture will remain current ad eternum, but doctrine, instead, must always be enlivened with earthly interpretations and works that live in the present. If the perpetually insufficient understanding of the eternal and immutable Word does not evolve, then Knowledge and justice for the people perish. One can welcome and make a teaching one’s own only if it is clear and shared; yet if today we find ourselves ever more unknown to ourselves, less free and alone in the depths, the fault will always remain with the human being and never with one’s own spirituality. MESSA IG
(Page 19)
but I hold that prayer must lead the believer toward a more individual reflection, tending toward silence and moving away from excessively codified schemes.
(Page 19)
The highest moment of this truly miserable existence of mine I consider to be my vocation: a calling, which in the same way I could define as awakening, salvation, maturation, or in very many other ways with which one could try, without success, to conceptualize it. A moment in which the infinite was finally contained, even if only for an instant.
(Page 20) From that day onward I devoted more time to searching on the map for the presence of religious institutes, in the conviction that believers would be able to understand more deeply the motivations of my journey. Yet over the course of my ninety-four days as a pilgrim I had reason to change my mind: the goodness and altruism I found revealed themselves to me in every context, regardless of creed, ethnicity, or the social status of my benefactors.
(Page ?)
From the completion of the pilgrimage, I can state with certainty that never, throughout all my ninety-four days of walking, did I cross a region, a Nation, or a people particularly hostile or particularly inclined to solidarity. I met both good and bad Italians, generous and less sensitive Greeks, altruistic and more selfish Turks, as well as good and bad Christians, Muslims, and Jews. This simply because there exist only two types of human beings: those who act in favor of good by promoting it, and all the others.
(Page ?)
After a long journey on foot, one can never again claim to have known a place, if first one has not walked through it. By walking one manages to perceive the absence of one’s own impact on the environment, and I, in my silence, interrupted only by repeated yet light steps, truly managed to understand what it means to be one with what surrounds us. It is not impossible to grasp fully what one’s place is in the Design of GOD, nor what the task of each of us may be; it is only necessary to know how to immerse oneself, from time to time, in Creation.
(Page 60)
Once again the Opposer of the human race manifests himself, feeding dissent among us, making us consider our own brothers and sisters antagonists and adversaries, when instead, like us, they are simply in search of Truth. Thus his aim seems achieved: neighbor hates neighbor, making us all divided and weaker. Yet those who truly believe know that, in this present we are living, everything had to be fulfilled in this way, only to allow the prophesied future to reach us. All believers who seek good will unite, and Lirko and I were aware of it and intended to prove ourselves patient in this waiting.
(Page 61)
There are places that manage to awaken within the Spirit feelings that seemed by now to have disappeared, but which were instead simply hidden, perhaps behind the myriad thoughts and worries that weigh upon us daily. It is necessary, for the well-being of the believer, to be able to recreate around oneself the ideal conditions that stimulate peace of the senses, purifying mind and Soul. The more things I saw along the road on pilgrimage, the more people I met, and the more I felt that I was proceeding along the ladder of my rediscovered being, feeling rewarded by means of a greater order within me, a disciplined disposition taking more and more shape in my mind. In that kind of inner balance I was also able to regenerate the tired body, intent on not giving up until my destination Jerusalem.
(Page 77)
Yet every trace of worry was swept away the moment something so unusual revealed itself before my eyes: a rainbow in the sky. So incredibly complete that it formed a perfect semicircle alive with colors, immersed in the dull gray of the clouds. In the Bible this is the Sign of the Covenant between the Creator and every living being; for me, a clear invitation to remember that I was not alone. Even in the saddest moments of one’s life, one must always keep in mind that beyond the clouds, however dark they may seem to us, there is always a clear sky that waits only for the right moment to reveal itself. Only to GOD is it granted to know the outcome of events, while for us human beings, in order to live happily, there remains only to commit ourselves to our duties, enjoy the present, without depending on and deluding ourselves too much about the future.
(Page 81)
The true strength of every religious institution, not only the ecclesiastical one, lies in the love that its members manage to generate and spread in Creation. At times even masters show that they have much to learn from their students, because whoever speaks of good from a pulpit but then does not do it once he has come down, denies the Word he has uttered.
(Page 86)
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in the most intimate and sacred part of their doctrines, contain the Secret that reveals how to reach the next stage of our evolution, and yet we still persist in dividing ourselves.
(Page 97)
At that point I too felt at ease in confiding in him, telling him my difficult recent story, maintaining that the sailors who possess the best qualities are precisely those who have managed to escape the most violent storms. No one can be exempt from unpleasant vicissitudes in life and from one’s own dramas; what matters is knowing how to face them and trying to treasure them in order to grow. If you retreat once in the face of adversity, it is likely you will end up doing so very often; but if you face them head-on, you will always come out strengthened.
(Page 116)
My pilgrimage was made possible thanks to the cooperation I had found, and to everyone who had helped me, listened to me, and understood me. In the same way I tried to do so with all those brothers and sisters scattered across the vastness of the World: they propelled my steps, and I tried to sustain theirs, sharing my experiences and seeking to spread proactive feelings. Thus we reminded one another that, during all those paths so personal, no one in truth had ever effectively remained alone: I had sought them and they had made themselves found; and likewise with Unal, we had supported each other, and even if those pieces of advice would lead neither him nor me to the summit, they proved fundamental along the choice of our itineraries.
(Page 117)
People seemed tired of always hearing the usual bad news, or accounts of negative experiences; but when I spoke of all the good I had found, and of how the journey was proceeding in the best possible way thanks to brotherhood, people, amazed, were pleased and satisfied. There is a great need for trust in our neighbor and in our society; for this reason, being able to bear witness to my experience began to become a further motivation to reach my goal.
(Page 122)
What truly matters was not is with whom we walk, but how far together we manage to go. There are infinite paths that lead to Truth, and what matters is never the road we take or the time we will spend walking it, but only to continue proceeding straight, without turning either to the right or to the left.
(Page 122)
I resumed marching from the same mosque in which we had met the previous evening; only a few hours had passed, and yet in the conception of existence that faith has given me, I remained certain that those two travel companions had only found each other once again. Our Spirits must already have encountered one another in the past, and perhaps, who knows, even in a future already written, spending identical and edifying moments together, amid brotherhood and respect—the same feelings we had rediscovered in this last present reality.
(Page 163)
I had managed to find shelter, and it did not matter to me that I had had to walk in the cold, with exhaustion, all those additional kilometers. On the contrary, I recognized that the walk from Dokuz to Bosna Hersek had helped me clear my thoughts. It is precisely when one believes one has suffered an injustice that we must prove ourselves compassionate in evaluating every external situation, so as to find ourselves always ready for forgiveness, closing the door to the negativity of the past, and opening it to the good intentions that will come.
(Page 167)
The outcome of our lives is in our hands, and it does not matter whether they are joined, resting on the ground, or raised toward the sky.
(Page 259)
In this way too the road was healing me, drawing me away from the chaos of collectivity. I reconsidered many aspects of my entire existence, understanding how much, at last, I felt better and more myself in humble conditions than in the luxurious ones of Alexandroupoli. I found benefit in interacting amid the dust, and discomfort in moving near the вершices of the social pyramid. Thus those two elements, dust and the pyramid, offered me, as I walked, a cue for reflection that contained a great truth about existence. Dust represents the state of human nature, since GOD Himself has affirmed that we were born from this element and to it we shall return, while the geometric figure of the pyramid represents the structure to which we have always entrusted our communities, conditioned and defined by the position in that triangle in which we operate. Yet that pyramid, over the centuries, has always ended up collapsing, and with today’s evolution we can finally understand that there can never be a prosperous future for humanity if we remain imprisoned in such dissimilar schemes. Everything evolves, and our species begins to understand that where there is inequality, there can never be complete harmony. If we stop continuing to move between the base and the apex, breaking down this system, we will find ourselves all within a single social network, and it will be then that we will experience how interacting on a flat surface is always less tiring than continuing to climb up and down. The Internet is a new example of such a structure, but we still must prove ourselves capable of making full use of this boundless potential.
(Page 267)
It made me reflect greatly, the sarcastic way in which those boys had more than once defined themselves: outlaws. Yet according to conscience, the true criminals ought to be the rulers of nations who close the borders on a land that belongs exclusively to GOD. The children of Adam were granted to administer Creation, not to behave as masters by denying the rights of the weakest. We cannot accuse boys because they do not see a future in their States of belonging, because surely the problem does not concern those people, but the way in which nations are governed. The time for words and proposals is over; now the countries that consider themselves more advanced must act, first of all by supporting poor States, and thus giving their citizens no reason to flee. Despite these thoughts, it remains obvious that every government must think first of tranquility within its own walls. Yet if at the same time we do not also take care of the problems of those who are outside, and who do not even have a place to feel at home, then we cannot complain if GOD will then bring down our societies to place them in the hands of more righteous people. Our desire for well-being cannot drown in selfishness, because in this way we break the fundamental precepts of faith. No one should ever feel like a stranger on Earth; and if the associations of the leading countries cannot resolve this drama with practical actions, then we cannot speak of progress. Good intentions are no longer sufficient, and this is because the evolution achieved imposes on us the obligation to support those who have been left behind.
(Page ?)
Continuing to proceed toward Istanbul, in the afternoon I decided to stop just a few meters from the beach. I wanted to rest for a few minutes and eat some of the many eggs I kept in my backpack: Unal’s mother had cooked them two days earlier, but they were still excellent for a substantial snack. Being able to move with sufficient food allowed me to be even more serene, and this even though the areas around me were by now beginning to reveal themselves as far more urbanized, different from the desolate countryside of the first days in Turkey. By then the distance from the capital was less than one hundred kilometers, which corresponded to two or three days of walking. I had practically reached another important milestone on my path.
(Page ?)
In an age in which appearance seems to prevail over essence and fiction to surpass reality, when I dug together with my interlocutors into their Soul and mine, we found a common desire, pure and simple, that regenerated us. The main assumption I drew from that universe of people I had met left my Spirit and reason unable to understand why nations, just like religions, still continue to divide and declare war. The вершices cannot behave in a hostile way if instead the people—namely the base of those institutional pyramids—are absolutely at peace among themselves, united in seeking peace and well-being for their neighbor. Regardless of Creed, level of culture, gender, ethnicity, and social class, no one who attains true happiness can then wish that their “neighbor” live in a state of affliction, because as righteous people they would ruin their own experience of existence. Yet the concept of “neighbor” in the Scriptures is usually misunderstood, whereas it is fundamental to understand it in order to grasp the power of the Word. Not simply “anyone,” but more precisely: each one who is progressively closer to us. Depending on the step on which we find ourselves along the road of our improvement, we should include what we find “outside” within our “inner context.” One thus begins with the closest family members, and then “widens” one’s sphere toward those whom we usually frequent, up to one’s neighbor next door, the traveler, and one could go far beyond. I certainly did not meet, in my pilgrimage, heads of State or world spokespeople of religions, nor men and women who have the power to change the balances on Earth; and yet among all the myriads of ordinary people known, every believing person who was “neighbor” to me, with whom I compared myself, recognized himself within a single great Divine Plan. United in this destiny, tolerant toward diversity, desirous of cooperating in safeguarding the interests of all for the achievement of an ultimate end, lovers of good. For this reason it is absolutely incomprehensible why hatred and division can still be contemplated under our same Sky. It is we—the small, but also the good—who are more numerous, even if our voice proves stifled by those who seek power and utter lies, disintegrating the only true resource that good possesses: Unity.