Music to My Ears - Santiago de Compostel

We arrived to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela at roughly 3:40 PM after just over seven hours of walking with very little stops. The group stay together most of the day. When we set out, it was sunny and the terrain quickly started with an incline. We eventually climbed 250M over the course of the 20 miles to our hotel.

The students on this trip, loved finding and taking photos of all of the different animals. Most of the morning we were in cat heaven. With each turn and twist, there was a different breed and color of cat at every stage of life. It was fun to watch them get more excited as each cat passed - or as we passed each cat. That wore off quickly!

As each hour past, the pain increased, not just in my feet, but in multiple places. I was praying through each step and thinking of all of the people who had sent me prayer intentions before I left on my trip. I had spent most of my journey from the beginning in silence outside of a couple of moments where Becky and I tuned into some dance music at the very end of the day just to get through the last stretch to the hotel. On this day, I turned to music pretty quickly to get my mind off the intense pain in my left foot, arch, and right knee.

I have to thank Billy (Joel), Chris (Martin), John (Mayer), Sting, Phil Collin’s), Joe (Jackson), Bruce Springsteen, and Elton (John) for carrying me through hours of inclines! At one moment, the song, “King of Pain” by Sting came into my feed…that really made me chuckle. Soon after, “Lean on Me.” Honestly, every song spoke to me as if God wanted to stay in my head to keep me focused on delivering prayers at Mass in Santiago!

Years back, I was a part of a Bible study where we read the biography of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. During the beginning part of his ministry, he had a bum leg where one leg was longer than the other, and as he journeyed all through Europe and the Middle East by foot, I was in awe that any one person could cover that much ground walking - not to mention with a bad leg. At one point he was in so much pain, he asked someone on the journey with him to surgically cut the extra bone. Being reminded of this gave me much perspective on my pain.

For the last hour of the trip, it became cloudy and looked like it was about to rain. After we arrived at the Cathedral and took a group photo, we were all so exhausted. We had another 20 minutes to walk to our hotel.

We took a little rest before we ventured out to the Cathedral once again to get seats for mass. We were hoping that we would be at a mass where they would use this famous incense burner called the Botafumeiro. It's a large, silver-plated brass thurible, one of the most iconic symbols of the cathedral. The Botafumeiro is used during specific liturgical ceremonies and is known for its impressive size and swing through the nave. The Botafumeiro is believed to symbolize the believer's prayers ascending to God, just like the smoke from the incense rises.

It's used in solemn masses, especially on important dates at the cathedral, and can also be used upon request by pilgrim groups.

There was a mistake with our group. We had thought that we had requested it, but when we inquired further, were told that was not the case.

It was our hope that maybe a different group had already requested it. The mass was in Spanish and difficult for us to understand. It was packed with lots of pilgrims, many whom were not Catholic. At the end of the Mass they closed with a song and it became evident that we were not going to receive the Botafumeiro blessing.

Directly from Mass, we went to dinner with the group and had one of the best meals we had since arriving in Europe. It was Italian!

Tomorrow we get to sleep in for the first time. We will explore Santiago and are planning on going to the English pilgrim’s Mass at 10:30 followed by the pilgrims mass in the cathedral where we will once again hope to see the Botafumeiro in action!Read more