Have you ever made a Pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is defined as a journey to a sacred place for religious reasons. Being a pilgrim is all about a spirit of adventure and a willingness to discover God’s voice in your life.
I had been on pilgrimages before where we make the arrangements, pack our bags and take off. Jane Lakatos, a former marathon training coach and now a Camino de Santiago specialist, says “This pilgrimage is so different than other pilgrimages where you are on a bus and drive from holy site to holy site, it is an active pilgrimage not a passive one.”
She coordinates Camino trips and sets up the training schedule for anyone hoping to endure the physical grind of The Camino. She continues, “On The Camino, the spirit travels with you, inside of you and reveals itself to you in different ways, not necessarily in the ways you want it to or are looking for. You can go on The Camino with one specific purpose in mind but God may have other plans for you and you get something totally different out of it. You just have to be quiet and listen to what God’s purpose is for you.”
There are two dimensions of the Camino, the physical and the spiritual. You take yourself and there are so many people you meet along the way. New places, and special foods of Portugal and Spain.
Although there are many routes or “ways,” we followed the Portuguese Coastal Route, walking over 100 miles in about 8 days from Viana do Castelo, Portugal to the Cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Other “ways” may be shorter or much longer, like the Camino Francais which covers about 500 miles.
Compared to other pilgrimages I have been on, this one required months of physical training, beginning with shorter walks each day and working up to much longer ones.
Being able to walk 16 miles in one day is one thing, but being able to do that several days in a row is much more physically demanding.
There is a distinction to be made between a pilgrimage and a vacation. Certainly. being in Portugal and Spain was wonderful… I met so many pilgrims from all over; the food and wine were great...but more important was the spiritual aspect. There were 12 of us from Texas; some from St. Rose, some from other parishes and Fr. Clint Ressler. Each morning after an early “pilgrim’s breakfast”, we would begin our day with prayer and reflection around 7:30 AM and then we were off to walk the Camino. The day would end with a Mass or silent reflection, followed by a meal and usually some local wine.
There were many things that I will always remember: having the opportunity to lead the prayers many mornings, the other pilgrims that we met, in addition to the “recuerdos” and “milagros” that pilgrims would leave on rocks and fences along the way, small items or notes or pictures that meant something special to them. On the first day, as we walked along in the sand, I tripped over a piece of driftwood. I carried it with me the rest of the pilgrimage, aware of how we may feel like a piece of driftwood sometimes, being tossed about by things around us; in reality though, we are being shaped by God much like the sand, water and weather shaped the driftwood that now is in my office instead of on a beach in Portugal.
The last Mass we attended in Santiago was at the Pilgrims’ Center. During his homily the priest officiating reminded us not to let this be the end of our pilgrimage, but to carry it forward with us out into the world. And in reality, all of us are on our own Camino daily if we pay attention and listen because “the spirit travels with you, inside of you and reveals itself to you in different ways…” Many blessings and Buen Camino!
-Deacon Ed
