Ten years on the Camino

It has been 10 years since I began walking the Way of Saint James, the Camino de Santiago. The Camino is a network of historic paths leading from various points in Europe to the tomb of Saint James the Greater, the son of Zebedee, friend of Jesus and the first apostle to give his life for the Gospel. 

For many centuries, the desire to go on pilgrimage has been deeply rooted in the Catholic consciousness. The three great historic pilgrimages during the Middle Ages brought thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem, to Rome and to Santiago de Compostela in the northwest corner of Spain. 
Those destinations, and many others, remain popular among modern day pilgrims even today. A pilgrimage is an image of the Christian life. It is patterned on the life of discipleship. It is a spiritual journey. It differs from a holiday vacation or a walkabout in that it is purposeful. It has a specific destination and a more-or-less explicitly religious motivation. It usually entails some forms of hardship or sacrifice and is an occasion for experiencing solidarity and communion with fellow pilgrims who share the journey. 

For more than 1,000 years saints and sinners have walked the Camino de Santiago as pilgrims. Why do they go? Perhaps they make the journey to fulfill a vow or do penance for their sins. Many go seeking heavenly favors through the intercession of Saint James or simply because they have been drawn there by the invisible movement of grace in their lives. Pilgrims who arrive in Compostela after days, weeks or months on the Camino are eager to give thanks for their safe arrival and to honor the memory of Saint James in the magnificent cathedral where he is entombed. The journey is an expression of the pilgrim journey, which is the Christian life. The joy that so many pilgrims experience at the end of the long arduous journey when they first catch sight of the splendid cathedral is but the faintest echo of the joy that we hope to experience one day when we enter the gates of heaven. 

For me, the Camino has been like a walking retreat. The path itself is the retreat director. It affords time for prayer, for solitude and silence as well as for companionship and adventure! It keeps the pilgrim in touch with the things that are concrete and real in the created world around us as well as in our own needs, joys, aspirations and limitations.

When I set out with a few friends 10 years ago to walk the last 100 miles of the Camino, I could not imagine what was in store nor did I plan to return as often as I have. One of the lessons that the Camino has reinforced for me has been the importance of living in the present moment and entrusting the future to the Lord! 

Earlier this month, I completed my fifth Camino and now have tallied more than 830 miles walking various routes. I have walked all these miles with Bishop Wall and many of them with Bishop Conley. We have completed the entirety of the French Way (the one popularized in the film called “The Way”) as well as the Camino Primitivo and the last 115 miles of the Camino Portugues. 

People have asked, “Are you finished yet?” The answer is that while I do not know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to return to Spain and walk the Way of Saint James again, our Camino goes on for as long as life goes on. We are pilgrims, sojourners living in a foreign land. Our true home is in heaven. I have been very fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to make these pilgrimages. But, there are ways we can all have our own pilgrim experiences closer to home as well. 

In the months ahead we will dedicate the shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother and the Tepeyac hill on the shrine campus. Those will provide opportunities for pilgrimages much closer to home. And there are many others beside! Being on pilgrimage, or on Camino, is a mindset we can adopt and make our own no matter where we are in life. Buen Camino!