The pilgrim’s progress moves toward Mystery

This year, I am working with a team on a series of retreats based on 12 Step spirituality. The theme we have chosen is ‘Progress not Perfection.” As a result, I have been thinking a lot about progress. Where science and economics see progress as quantifiable forward improvement, I wonder if this definition limits us spiritually. What if spiritual progress is more about movement through and in, rather than to some defined end?

Oversimplified approaches to world religions often highlight outcomes for a tradition’s followers: in Buddhism enlightenment, in Hinduism breaking the cycle of reincarnation to reach spiritual liberation, in Christianity eternal salvation in Heaven. It is tempting to understand the practices and rituals of faith primarily in light of achieving this end. This reading presumes that there is a static end state to reach, where things will be complete. I am not convinced that the great mystics and teachers in these traditions would be satisfied with this framing.

When my kids borrow video games from the library, they race to “finish” the game before it needs to be returned. There is a sense of accomplishment in completing the levels, figuring out how the game functions, and winning. And there is also restlessness and disappointment. What is there left to look forward to? What will come next?

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In my experience, the divine is so much more dynamic than a straight-forward line. God is a mystery, a depth without end or limit. If this is true, then even enlightenment, liberation, and Heaven are on a different plane than completion. Spiritual progress, then, must mean more than leveling up. 

My experience is that spiritual progress is about movement. It is more like the way that wind moves through trees, how cooler temperatures and shortened days trigger the turning of leaves, and the way that water flows from a spring. The movement is a function of the relationship between the parts. When one season comes to an end, a new one begins, shaped and shifted and given life by what came before.

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Human relationships also reveal this wisdom. The connections between us are never static. We move toward and away from one another, reaching out and responding to real time. Relationships evolve and shift, with gifts offered and rejected, withheld and received. Moving toward one another deepens connection. But continuing to move toward one another does not threaten to bring about the end.

Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese puts it this way: “We approach our lives on different trajectories, each of us spinning in our own separate, shining orbits. What gives this life its resonance is when those trajectories cross and we become engaged with each other, for as long or as fleetingly as we do. There's a shared energy then, and it can feel as though the whole universe is in the process of coming together.” Spiritual progress is awareness of the possibility of this kind of divine connection, and openness to receiving it.

In a CBC Radio Tapestry interview I have referenced before, Kathleen Norris argues that “up until the Enlightenment, the word “belief” in the English language referred to relationship rather than knowledge. To say one believed in God was to say that one was engaged with God.” To be engaged with divinity, with creation, with existence is not a thing that can be perfected. Spirituality has to be lived, imperfectly, a breath and a heartbeat and a step at a time.

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Spirituality is flexible and responsive, alive and constantly moving. It is this movement, the breathing in and out, the catch and hold, the long sigh – all of it points to vitality. Progress is simply continuing to try to move toward the Mystery. We will undoubtedly misstep along the way. But if perfection is neither possible nor the goal, then the most important thing is that we stay engaged, keep allowing the trajectories to cross, keep longing for the coming together.

We move toward the Mystery in whatever ways we can, trusting in the miracle that the Mystery is also moving toward us. What a sweet relief to know that we will always be invited deeper, on earth, as it is in Heaven. Amen.

(Leah Perrault is executive director at Mount St. Francis in Cochrane, Alberta.)

A version of this article appeared in the October 04, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "The pilgrim’s progress moves toward Mystery".