Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 276.

YOUCAT Question n. 276 - What is the purpose of a pilgrimage?

(Youcat answer) Someone who goes on a pilgrimage “prays with his feet” and experiences with all his senses that his entire life is one long journey to God.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1674) Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals (Cf. Council of Nicaea II: DS 601; 603; Council of Trent: DS 1822), etc. 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In ancient Israel people made pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem. Christians adopted this custom. And so this developed, especially in the Middle Ages, into a regular pilgrimage movement to the holy places (above all to Jerusalem and to the tombs of the apostles in Rome and Santiago de Compostela). Often people went on pilgrimage so as to do penance, and sometimes their actions were affected by the false notion that one had to justify oneself before God by tormenting and punishing oneself. Today pilgrimages are experiencing a unique revival. People are looking for the peace and the strength that come from those grace-filled localities. They are tired of going it alone; they want to get out of the rut of the daily routine, get rid of some ballast, and start moving toward God.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2663) In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. The Magisterium of the Church (Cf. DV 10) has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ.

(The next question is:  What are the Stations of the Cross?)