Seminarians' Pilgrimage

After walking for 31 days and covering roughly 800K, we arrived in Santiago de Compostela.

The last day of walking brought many pleasant surprises. We had run into many familiar faces and met some incredible people at the Cathedral. There are many stories to tell, but for now we are going to rest before we go any further.

Tomorrow, you can expect some posts dedicated to all the stories we did not have time to share.

Our journey is still far from over. As we rest here in Santiago, we are finalizing our plans to go to Fatima and World Youth Day in Poland. Thank you to everyone who has been reading along and a special thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. And as always, please know that Michael and I have prayed for all of you at the tomb of St. James!

-Luke

Tonight we are staying in Azura, about 39kms from Santiago. The walk today was quite a bit of down hill. I thought I woukd enjoy it more than the uphill we’ve been facing lately, but it was actually harder on the knees. To compensate, I ran down some of the smooth slopes which was quite enjoyable.

In an earlier post, I compared the Camino to the spiritual life using the three ways: purgative, illuminative, and unitive. I warned not to try and figure out exactly what stage you are in as such an examination often leads to over thinking and unnecessary focus on one’s self. I think that the Camino might be similar.

I was excited to draw the comparison, but I think it falls short. I expected a time of transition and purification as I adjusted to Camino life, and this stage happened. The next two did not fall into place as much as I had hoped. I had envisioned the second stage as a deeper discovery of the reason for being here, walking. The third stage was supposed to be a digging deeper into that reason and, I guess, being really spiritual and thoughtful about it. These preconceptions have not quite panned out, though they may meet some peoples’ experiences. Overall, I have found the journey to be determined more by the peopke we walk with. We’ve had times meeting new people from various countries and we’ve learned a bit of their culture and ideas. We’ve also met Americans and made some seminarian friends. Lastly, we’ve spent some time walking by ourselves and functioning as a smaller group.

The three ways may not be a perfect analogy and my first guesses were off track, but I’ll attempt to readjust the schema since there have been general patterns to my journey.

The second stage was a little bit of figuring out why I’m here, and really what I was supposed to learn from the journey, at least that is what I had hoped for. I found my answer in realizing that I was over thinking things. I’ve expressed this insight before in the terms of the Camino being a continuation of life. The Way is a special place where you get to meet tons of people, see grand and ordinary places, and experience a good deal of suffering whether by hunger or foot problems or whatever. But all of this is situated in the larger context of life. No break through, life changing moments are necessarily going to happen, though it is a good idea to have an eye open for them, especially in the little things. So, where as the first stage was adjusting to the new physical way of life, I think that the second stage is adjusting to the new mental or spiritual way.

I expected the third leg of the journey to be a time of deeper prayer and reflection as we approached our goal. I was met, however, with new challenges. The mountains provided rough and long days with less food than normal, especially due to my dietary restrictions. Tired and hungry, I found my patience tried and had to practice a new suffering of letting go of things I couldn’t control and making do with what I could. Once we got within 100 of Santiago, the trail became flooded with new pilgrims and the shops and restaurants became more touristy. We’ve started to walk a little earlier to avoid the crowds, which has provided time for prayer and reflection. This last stage has not been as intense as I expected, and it has had its ups and downs. It has been both a time of thankfulness for our many experiences on the way and has made us more eager to arrive in Compostella. So much so, that we might try to walk the remaining 40k tomorrow. If we decide that route, I hope we don’t get lost, and we shouldn’t since it is a straight forward trail.

Overall, the three ways don’t make a perfect comparison with the camino but there are some similarities. Just as with the spiritual life, the stages of the camuno are not sealed off in seperate segments, but it is a fluid whole marked by certain emphasies. My expectations didn’t turn out exactly as I thought, but I suppose it is the same in the spiritual life. When we try to map everything out and have it all under control, control often slips from our hands. We should strive toward the good and examine our activity, but we cannot fathom the mind of God and the wonders which he has in store for us, even if they are proceeded by some suffering.

-Michael

 

Today we are staying in Palas de Rei. I think that it would translate to something like palace of the king, but we have been joking that it is palace of REI, the outdoors store at which we bought most of our gear.

We are only 62kms from Santiago, and, although we are close, the past few days of hiking have been quite mountainous. This has presented me with, unluckily, not a new problem but one with which I have delt many times on our pilgrimage: blisters. The terrain isn’t making anything better either and is starting to take a small toll on my calves. Don’t worry, my pains are nothing truly considerable and this post isn’t just me venting about my aches and pains.

Michael and I have joked about naming our blisters after virtues. So when I feel a sharp pain from the blister on my heel, I should focus on using that discomfort as a reminder to grow in perseverance. We have only been saying this as an ongoing joke, yet I think there is something valuable to be learned here.

We are always told by society and popular culture that we should do what feels best and if we don’t like doing something we should simply stop. But is that really what we are made for? Is our life supposed to be just a collection of emotions?

When speaking about this very topic, Pope Benedict XVI offered some simple yet wise words. “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting to feel comfortable. Likewise wanting to fulfill our sensory needs are apart of being human. However, we are so much more than just an emotional body. Each of us has a very specific purpose for our life. One that goes beyond this world. As I have pointed out before, if we seek to be fulfilled by earthly means, our thirst will never be quenched.

We are all made to be great, in fact we are all made to be saints. And to achieve this we must go beyond our own desires and deny ourselves. When pain and discomfort presents itself, instead of retreating into a place of temporary consolation we can embrace it and offer it up. When we offer our sufferings to the Lord we unite ourselves to Christ and his passion.

To find a perfect example of this, we don’t have to look any further than our Blessed Mother, Mary. Her fiat (“let it be so”) to God brought about the salvation of the world, yet it wasn’t without pain. Mary wept as she watched her son be whipped, torchered, mocked, and crucified. I cannot think of anything more tramatic than a mother witnessing the death of her own child. Although Mary was already intimately connected to Christ as his mother, she drew even closer to him when her sufferings were united to his. Her “yes” at the Annunciation allowed Christ to come into the world and eventually brought her to the cross with her son. Even at the cross, she accepted God’s will and trusted in his plan, and by doing so entered deeper into relationship with him by suffering with him.

We should all be trying to grow closer to Christ everyday. Any physical, mental, or spiritual sufferings are not a hindrance, but an aid to achieveing this goal. Suffering is a fact of life and we can either look at it with fear and aversion or we can see it as a tool of purification and as a preperation to accept our future death, when we will surrendor everything into God’s hands. Imitating our Lord, especially in his sufferings, may not be easy, but it will bring us closer to truly fulfilling our lives.

– Luke

 

Due to our long 50k day, and the subsequent longer days where we pushed a little to get to a decent town, we have managed to catch back up to friends who went ahead of us weeks ago. Yesterday, we stayed in Sarria, and ran into Wade, a seminarian from Texas, after the vigil Mass. We invited him to our home cooked dinner, I made pasta. It was nice to see him again and share a bit of what has happened since we last saw eachother.

Today, after the first few kilometers, we decided to pull off at a country cafe for some coffee and morning prayer. It was there that we ran into Casha, am Alaskin whom we had met a few days before and with whom we had shared our vocation stories. We also saw a good number of the larger group which we had fluidly been traveling with, including a Sweed, Bulgarian, New Zealander, and an Israeli. We spent the rest of the day chatting and talked a lot about the faith and our vocations. We ended up staying in the beautiful riverside town of Portomarin. Although it was good to share our thoughts, and they asked us many questions, I regret not asking them more about their own lives and view points.

Lastly, we have officially past the 100 marker to Santiago. We should be there in about five days. Since this is the last stretch and you need to walk a minimum of 100ks to get your compostella, the Camino cerificate, the way has become crowded with new faces. It is a little difficult to cope with the crowds after spending so much time on sparcely populated trails. I find the newcomers testing my patience but it is a good oppertunity to grow in charity, and really reminds me of how cool it is that we started at the begining.

-Michael

After our 50k day, we were pretty tired but still managed to get in an average 24kms of walking. We made it to the little town of Vega de Valcarce, nestled between the mountains on the way from the region of Castilla y Leon to Galicia. Overall, the day was enjoyable but it was still nice to get to our albergue and rest our sore legs and blistered feet (I got one between my toes three days ago that has since popped). I happened to make too much food for two people so we shared it with a fellow pilgrim and met two more Catholic. It all led to a good conversation in which we were happy to share a common faith. Many who walk the Camino do not have a religious motive so it is fun to meet fellow Catholics.

After dinner we headed to the local Church, where we expected to find Mass. Unfortunately this town is only one of the seven rural parishes that the local priest covers, so there ended up being no Mass today. Here is a shot of the small town yet beautiful church.

Due to staying in small villages or being exhausted from 50kms, we have not been able to get to Mass. It is a big change from seminary life at St. Andrew’s Hall, where, like every seminary, we attend Mass every day. Even at home, on breaks, we will attend Mass often, even if we sleep in a day or two out of the week. Today, when there turned out to be no Mass, it was painful. I really wanted to be present and receive the Eucharist. Even though I can’t understand everything at these Spanish Masses, and will use my phone to see the readings in English, it is still the same sacrament. I don’t know what the priest is saying most of the time, but I do know what is happening, and it is consoling just to be there and know that God is there too. In these past days without Mass, and every morning on the trail, I make a spiritual communion. I tell God that I love him and wish to receive him in the Eucharist, and I ask him to come into my soul spiritually. I united my will to his and ask him to be with me. Such a practice is good, but it still isn’t the same as Mass. So I look forward to tomorrow and continue to hope for Mass.

Tomorrow we don’t know exactly where we’ll stay, but we will be climbing about 700 meters of elevation over about 10kms. It will be a tough trip and a good way to culminate our half way mark of our entire European Pilgrimage.

Here are some photos from the past few days.

The sunrise

Cruz de Ferro. Sorry for the alignment…

A view of the clouds as we decended from the highest point of the Camino.

An eerie hike down through the clouds.

Luke a couple days again before we entered the city if Astorga. There was a Cross that marked the spot from when a bishop was expelled from his own city and fell to his knees.

Lastly, a picture of part of our route today because it is just too cool that we are walking in the middle of Spain, through the mountains, next to some highway. It is a blessing to be here among a ton of ordinary things that have gained an extraordinary significance thanks to the Camino.

-Michael