Community

We promised you several posts, but I guess you’ll have to make do with one really long one. It’s been our shortest day of walking (just around the city) but probably our longest blog post.

After being in Santiago for a day, the idea of reaching the goal of our walking has started to sink in. At first, it seemed both surreal and simply matter-of-fact. I was thinking both “I can’t believe we’re here!” And “of course we’re here, this is where we’re supposed to end up.” Such contrary thoughts may have been aided by the deviation from our original plan by pushing for Santiago in one day rather than two 20k days. We decided to walk it in one day because our fellow seminarian and friend Wade was anxious to be here since St. James was so close. It has been characteristic of Wade to push ahead. In the past, he has left us behind, although we managed to catch up with our 50k day, but this time we decided to go along with his mad love of walking far and fast. We have come to enjoy his company very much as we share many similarities  from our various seminary experiences and belong to one common brotherhood of those aspiring to the priesthood. In a sense, we had formed a little seminary community by this fraternal bond.

Yet even this bond could not keep Wade ten more minutes for a late morning breakfast at a cafe on the trail. He downed his espresso and was off. We planned to meet up further down the trail. As Luke and I ate our breakfast more liesurely, we met another seminarian who was walking with some friends. I forget his name, but he has finished two years of college seninary and is now enrolled in the Baslin program where he will finish his twork remaining years of philosophy in DC at Cathokic University of America and take an extra year of study to gain a teaching license in philosophy. We chatted for a bit about some differences between our seminaries (they get their own dorm rooms). The conversation was good but we eventually started walking again as they started into their food. We had a ways to go yet.

Luke and I began to chat about seminary for a while and were making some jokes about why the Sem we had just met would want to take an extra year of studies. A philosophy license would be cool, but it adds another year before ordination. Sure he might be smarter than us, but we’ll be priests sooner!

As we were joking and laughing loudly about such things, we passed by a fellow pilgrim. As we drew even with him, he said “you must be seminarians” “yeah, how did you know?” “It’s written all over you.” He turned out to be a priest, Fr. Greg, from Australia, who had just finished a license in Patristics, the study of the Church Fathers. And so began a long walking conversation of just about everything. We talked about patristics, the Church in Australia and America, the presidential race, the liturgy, religious communities, his ministry experience, everything. We were enjoying ourselves so much that he missed his stop and continued with us to Santiago. We also met Wade randomly at a cafe for lunch before the last 12kms. It was a great day of walking and a perfect way to come to the end of our Camino. There was something energizing and familiar about walking with Wade and even Fr. Greg, who we had just met. It is kind of like seeing an old friend. Again, there is a strong fraternal connection among seminarians and Priests.

Religious orders were among the topics of conversation. We were noticing how common identity is essential to their community. It reminded us of a conversation we had many days before with a hospitalaro, an albergue worker, at a donativo parish albergue in fancebadon. He had been a Religious Brother back in the states but had left right before making his final vows. These were the times after the Council. He was a solid man and was very knowledgeable of the faith. You could tell that he lives it and loves it. He decided not to make final vows because he saw many friends make them and be dispensed from them a year or two later. He had joined the order to live in community and for a common purpose but now the order had lost its direction. The brothers could live in different apartments, pursue any job, and decide to not wear the habit. Differences are not bad but such diversity did not fit the internal nature of a religious order, and he could sense it. There was little community now. We’ve heard this observation often, that after the council, some orders lost their sense of community, and with it lost their common purpose. Having lost that, there seemed to be little reason to join, why make some vows when you could do the same things in life without them. Religious life ought to be a radical and inspiring living of the Gospel that, while not spurning the world as evil, still transcends it in favor of the life to come.

Today in seminary, the need for a strong fraternity is strongly stressed. It is promoted by the faculty but also by our brother sems. Community life, although challenging at times, is attractive. It is a great blessing to live in a community. When looking for fun it is always available whether it is joking around in the kitchen, watching some tv, sports, or some nerf gun fights. When needing support, it is there either by prayers or a consoling conversation, and often both. There is rarely a dull moment in seminary, unfortunately even when you’re trying to sleep. We have our common interests but most of all we are united by our pursuit of holiness through the priesthood. We live similar lives even among various seminaries and have similar jokes and banter, but most of all, we all love Jesus Christ and want to serve his people.

Although we share much in common, we’re all unique. Luke and I may have been able to pick Wade out as a Sem by sight and fr. Greg noticed we were sems by our conversation, but we all have our own personalities. These are what make communal life interesting. It adds a lot of life to the community, but it also enevitably leads to some conflicts or annoyences. But these differences help us to become better people too. We are forced to confront our own weaknesss and those of our brothers and to treat both with charity, with patient love.

Really, we are all in need of community, and we live in one already. We have families, and coworkers, fellow citizens of our country, world, and the Church. This is made so evident on the camino when you are among fellow pilgrims from everywhere and you are all walking together. So I encourage you all to reach out to your family, to enjoy the good parts and work through the difficult ones. We are made for community, and it is through authentically sharing ourselves with others that we will be fulfilled (Gaudium et Spes 24). It is in giving that we receive.

I am so thankful for seminarian fraternity which is like one big family. I’m glad that I had the oppertunity to meet some cousins (Wade, Robert etc) and an uncle (Fr. Greg) on this trip, all because we noticed a similarity and reached out to the other person.

Lastly, a bit of our day…

Today we slept in till about 7 or 8! We woukd have liked to sleep in later but our bodies are so used to waking up early. We attended the noon pilgrim Mass and spent the rest of the day in prayer, roaming the city, and some much needed relaxation. We also stopped by the pilgrim office had recieved our compestelas, the certificates saying that we walked the Camino. We’ll spend tomorrow enjoying the city a little longer. We’ll even get to go to an English Mass at the Cathedral!

I’ve mentioned coming to the end of our pilgrimage quite a bit, but don’t worry, we are not done yet. We’ve reached the end of the Camino here in Santiago, where St. James the Apostle is barried. We’ll share a little more if his story later.

But day after tomorrow we will continue our walking, this time to the coast. After that a bus to Fatima, Portugal for a few days before a plane to World Youth Day in Poland. There are many more days ahead in our European Pilgrimage, many more people to meet, and many more lessons to learn.

-Michael