Reflections from the Camino

As the excitement grows amongst every peregrino that tomorrow we will reach our destination, the great Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, I wanted to share several thoughts that have been bubbling around in my head over the last 3 weeks.

Although the path I’ve been called to follow for these last 3 weeks is the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St James, this has never really been about St James or what may or may not be his bones in a gilded box in the cathedral I’ll visit tomorrow. Instead, this has always been, for me, a journey and an adventure, in the company of James’s Lord and Master, Jesus.

There is something truly liberating in the simplicity of the daily routine on the Camino: Rise, pack, walk, eat and drink, walk some more, arrive and find bed, unpack, shower, put on tomorrow’s clothes, wash dirty clothes, rest, eat and drink, and sleep. This routine has created lots of space. Space to worship, space to pray and think, and space to meet and share with new friends as we journey together. Space to concentrate on being in, and making the most of, the present moment.

There is equally something levelling about being one pilgrim amongst many other pilgrims. I’ve met many people who’ve started in different places, who have been out here for many, many different reasons. There are folk of all ages and nationalities. Some have been sending most of their luggage forward each day, others are being collected by a coach each day (and so seem not to carry much aside from a water bottle), and others too have lugged rucksacks every day. Some have slept in private rooms and hotels. Others have been in albergue dormitory rooms, snoring quietly or loudly. Some have booked ahead and some have not. Many are on their first Camino and others have done many already.

But we have all been putting one step in front of the other, in the literal footsteps of countless millions of predecessors over the centuries, as we’ve shared the common endeavour of walking towards Santiago. And we’ve been encouraging one another along the way with a friendly “Buen Camino” (and other translations, meaning “Good Way”) or the traditional pilgrim greeting “Ultreia (et Suseia)” (meaning “Keep going, look beyond” and “look up, to the heavens”).

As I’ve talked to many that I’ve met along the way, I’ve often been asked why am I out here on the Camino (and I’ve regularly asked the same question in return). It’s a question I’ll be asked too in the Pilgrim Office in Santiago tomorrow.

So here’s the gist of the latest version of my answer: I’m here in part because I turned 50 earlier in the year, and when friends asked me what I was going to do to celebrate, the idea came to me that, rather than have a big party, I would walk part of the Camino de Santiago. This gave me the impetus to plan and so on, and to book the necessary time off work. But I’ve come to recognise too that I have been called by God to walk this particular pilgrimage journey.

I might not have expressed this as clearly as this before I started, but I have become very conscious that I have been called here by Jesus. As I’ve walked, plodded and (even once or twice) trudged along, I’ve thought quite a lot about calling. I’ve come to see that the most important thing about that sense of calling is to focus on the One who is doing the calling. So often we put much of our energies into trying to discern with misplaced precision to what or where we think we are being called. I’ve learnt many times on the Camino that the destination will take care of itself and is not important. Our task is to head out, putting one foot in front of the other, and to concentrate on the One who calls us to walk with Him.

The words pilgrim or peregrino both come from the Latin word peregrinus, which means a foreigner, or one who wanders. The sense of wandering seems to me to fit well with the idea of a sense of call to walk the ways of the One who calls us.

On a similar note, one verse of Scripture that has reverberated inside my head, almost every day as I’ve walked, is this: “Show me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.” (Psalm 25 v4).

I know said, at the outset, that I was going on a long walk in Spain and I may have intimated the sense that I thought Jesus would be coming with me. In fact, the reverse has been the case. He’s always been there, walking alongside me, through the ups and downs of life, both here in Spain and previously. In the same way, He has always been there, and will continue to be, with you on your journey through life.

And so I’ve sought to discover a small glimpse of where He has led me these past weeks, as I’ve tried to get to know Him more closely, and to learn more about His ways.

One more sleep until I walk into Santiago, God willing. Ultreia et suseia!Read more