'Images of pilgrimage inform the consciousness and aspirations of every human culture, from the most primitive to the most sophisticated, in modern as well as in ancient times, in every quarter of the globe. These images belong somehow to the essence of our humanity; they are essential and permanent features of our spiritual landscape. Even if we deny the images, and seek to banish them, and lose ourselves in immediate occupations, still they impinge upon our consciousness, in the sense of emptiness and futility they leave behind them.’
 
This book collects six addresses on the theme of pilgrimage which were delivered by Robert Crouse, one of the finest contemplative theological minds of our age, to a handful of retreatants at St Augustine’s Monastery, Nova Scotia, more than thirty years ago.
 
Robert Crouse , contemplative, teacher, gardener, mystic, preacher, and theologian of twinkling, mischievous wit, lived much of his life on Crouse Road, Crousetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, where his family had lived for more than 200 years. A world authority on Augustine and Dante, he taught for much of his life at King’s College, Halifax, and was in great demand internationally as a lecturer on the theological tradition of the ancient and medieval worlds. In a fragmenting civilization he was an unmovable force for stability, prophetic in his determination to re-focus the Church he loved on things heavenly and eternal. His invitation to all to journey this timeless pilgrimage leads both the secular and the sacred soul to the Good and the Beautiful. He died in 2011.