Author: Michael Wanta

Today was a good day. Last night we stayed at a donativo alburgue, which is run by the localkraus parish and only asks for a donation from pilgrims. They treated us with the best breakfast we’ve had yet, complete with plenty of bread, Nutella, jam, and coffee. After such an excited start, we made some good time and caught up with some friends we had made the night before. We exchanged some hellos and kept with our quick pace. By noon we had reached our day’s destination, we had some lunch and pressed on a little further so that our Sunday’s hike could be a little shorter. Many of our friends had the same idea and we ended up at the same alburgue after a very hot 8km hike in the heat of the day. The alburgue was like an oasis in a desert, complete even with a tiny pool.

Tonight we shared a pilgrims’ meal, rather than cooking, and we are glad that we did. It was a mix of many cultures and languages. We shared some stories from our seperate travels and wrote messages in the guest book. There was also a tiny dog that many were quite fond of despite his churpy barks and incesent biting. It was a table of laughs and good cheer, with some whom we met on the first day and others just yesterday, but they all felt like good friends.

-Michael

Today is the third day of walking and we are both feeling the strain of the journey. Luke managed to get a few blisters but has taken care of them well. I also have one starting, and I don’t look forward to caring for it as I’ve never had even one on any of my other hiking trips. The muscles are ever so slightly starting to adjust but as with any workout program, the third day is often the hardest, we both took a good long nap when we got to our albergue in Cizur Menor, after a 7ish hour hike. The thing about this workout program is that everyday is leg day. So we look forward to future ease as we stretch and rest.

The pilgrim community continues to be fluid. We see a lot of familiar faces, but also new ones. It is pretty cool to hear a little more about each person when you see then again. Today we also ran into Angela Peters, wife of Ed Peters, a Canon Law professor and prominent blogger. We had a nice chat with her before continuing on our way.  It really is a small Catholic world. Tonight we were able to attend Mass which is not already available, and again made some food in the Albergue kitchen.

-Michael

We left our hostel relatively late at 7:30, and began an ambitious pace fueled by our excitement. We hit giant hills immediately and they would continue all day, yet continued on for about 1 and a half till a break for morning prayer. During its duration, just about all 20 or so people who we passed started to pass us. The break having finished, the continued at a more moderate pace though we still passed many, especially those who stopped a while at a small hostel in the mountains where we only grabbed a sandwhich to go.

With 9kms under our belt, we proceeded to tackle the remaining 18. The mountain views were beautiful and kept getting better, as our mountain pass route wound around the summits with the next always higher than the last, the path was filled with look outs over the valleys or random herds of horses, cows, sheep, and goats. We met a number of other pilgrims (from London, a lot from Texas, Sweeden, more French, and Spain) we chatted with a few, walking a bit of the way together.

The hiking ended with a knee killing decent, where in about 40 mins we lost about half of the elevation that we had gained in 6 hours. The day is drawing to a close in the albergue of Roncesvalles, valley of thorns, close to the spot where Charlemagne lost his rear guard, lead by Roland, while returning to France.  The town is tiny, 30 residents, and completely sustained by pilgrims and tourists. The albergue here is a pilgrim’s paradise, with good accommodations and services, and it is very clean! It used to be run by a monestary which is still standing as a museum.

On the spiritual side of things I have a few disjointed tidbits at the end of a long day.

Brother, high spirits, community, time for prayer

When in Paris, we visited a number of tourist highlights including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum, Notre Dame, and the French Catacombs. We ate at restaurants and sipped some espresso from a cafe. While in Lourdes, we have continued with the restaurants and added a castle visit and gelato to our list. During the whole pilgrimage we have sought out Churches for Holy Mass and to say a few prayers, especially at notable shrines. Our visit to Lourdes has been exceptionally beautiful, yet I find myself pondering again a question I had in Paris: What exactly is the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim? And why are we pilgrims if we have done so many touristy things?

We aren’t pilgrims  just because we have bought food from grocery stores for a few meals. Certainly not because we’ve had some tough times like our travels to Lourdes or waiting a little longer for a meal because of Mass times or other activities. Nor are we such because we have said some prayers or since we are seminarians. Rather it is our intention that makes us pilgrims. We aren’t here simply to have an experience in Europe, to get away and travel, or see the sites and learn about the culture first hand by talking to people, eating the food, and staying in hostels. All of these things are good and a part of being a pilgrim but there is a still higher goal that we hold.

We all know that, for a pilgrim, the destination is a big deal, but that the journey is an end in its own right. After all, a pikgrim is “one who travels through” taken from the Latin. But I would posit that the same is true of a tourist- I don’t think that the difference is made by a lot more walking, lots of people use transportation for pilgrimages, anyway. The journey is important, it shapes the traveler, but the end destination, which represents our ultimate goal in heaven, is the true heart of a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is the intention to grow closer to God, to love him and follow him better, and thus to become a more virtuous person who understands, respects and cares for others.

Our faith is incarnational, dealing with the body and the soul, the human and divine. The people and cultures (even the more ordinary stuff like food and buildings) encountered along the way cannot be seperated from a pilgrim’s goal, rather, they help to form him and make him ready to arrive. Cultures are able to express different aspects of our faith and humanity. They help us to better understand ourselves and others.

Lourdes, I think, is a great example of thsee two facts: that different cultures enhance each other and that ordinary, even touristy, activities are taken up by a pilgrim’s intention. In short, it is a Catholic Disney land. Two worlds collide in a place where you can walk through the outside holy door, near the main gate, with some gelato in your hand.

There were so many things to do here, and it was difficult to get a good look at a chapel without running into a group celebrating Mass. We began the day with a quick tour of the main churches, followed by confessions and stations of the cross up a grueling hill. Next, on our way to lunch, we stopped by the centre of town to tour the hill top fort (absolutely awesome). After a short siesta we headed back to the sanctuary to visit the grotto where Mary apeared to Bernadette, and the spring continues to flow. (I’ll spare the story, but look it up if you are unfirmiliar! Hete is a link to the full stroy, Wehttp://www.medjugorjeusa.org/lourdes.htm). We lit two candles for those whom we are pilgrimaging  and walked around the grounds saying a rosary and afterwards we attended an afternoon Mass. Later on I went back for the candle light procession. And there is even more to do there!

The place was crowded with people walking to all the different Christain “attractions.” Everone on their own schedule of events, waiting in lines for the grotto and confessions. And although there was a great sense of peace and stillness, there was always something happening, some group singing at Mass or a procession, or people just walking about. Lourdes is a mixing pot of people, which is more than evident by the nightly candle lit rosary where everyone ends up responding to the prayers in their on language. It was awesome to hear the different languages and to realize that we were all there for the same purpose.

A pilgrim is motivated by a higher end: to become a better person by seeking to be more aware of God who is in search of us, and is reaching out to us through the church, our neighbor, and the world around us, every little circumstance.

I’m sorry if this has been long, but it is the result of a few lines of thought that have been building up. Besides, I’m sure I’ll have less to say after the long days of hiking ahead.

-Michael

We are still adjusting to our new time zone, and although we did not have much planned for the day, it has been long. Two highlights worth mentioning include attending Mass at a Melikite Church and visiting the catacombs of Paris.

We stumbled upon the church on our first day in Paris and thought that it would be worth coming back to. Since they only offer weekday Masses on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we decided to make time for it today. The Melikite Church is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, though it belongs to the cultural heritage of the Eastern Orthodox, using the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The Divine Liturgy, which is their name for Mass, was again in French, and so we understood very little of the prayers. I’m not sure if we would have understood more had it been in Greek. Neverthless, we tried to follow along as best we could by making the gestures of a parishioner in front of us  and murmuring some prayers in English when we recognized the Creed, Our Father, or other prayers common to our own liturgy. We could not understand much, yet the liturgy had a special chatacteristic that was both intensly human and divine. It seemed to bring religous truths to a human and tangible level while yet showing the radical transendence of God and our dependence on him. In all, it was a beautiful experience and we’ll worth the hour long walk from the Eiffel Tower. You know what they say: “when in Paris attend a Divine Liturgy that originated in the East.”

Our second note worthy stop were the Parisian Catacombs. The catacombs are the final resting place of about 6 million sets of Bones from various graveyards throughout Paris. The bones were transferred there at a time when the graveyards were filling up too fast and various old mining systems were found to be collapsing throughout the city. Following one such tunnel, it took a good 10 or 15 minutes before we finally arrived at the Ossuarium. After seeing a number of plaques in French, I began to hope for a few in Latin so that I might put my education to use (we take some latin for seminary and I am also a classics double major). I quickly got my wish and no sooner did I stop to pause and read when a man asked whether we spoken english. “Yes.” “And french?” To which we replied, “No, but we do speak a little latin!” The remainder of the time was spent translating various latin plaques and saying some prayers for the dead. It was an eerie experience with walls of bones to our left and right, but it certainly made me think of the significance of life and inevitability of death. 

Together, these two events from today served to remind me how close God is to us and how strongly we ought to seek him.

-Michael