Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, north downs way, pilgrimage, pilgrims, st swithuns way, st thomas a becket, the pilgrims' way, therese of lis, therese of lisieux, walking
Last year I wrote about pilgrim traces on the eastern section of the Pilgrims Way here. I was not disappointed in what we encountered in this month’s section. Indeed, for me, the journey took on more and more of the characteristics of a pilgrimage with every step I took towards Canterbury.
There were ancient traces, the most evocative being in Detling. On this street
is a Tudor Gateway
behind which was a domus hospitur or refuge for pilgrims. This information plaque tells all about it (click on the image to enlarge the text):
I was reminded of the ruinous medieval albergue Meenakshi and I rested outside of at Sigras on the Camino Ingles:
At tea time on our second day (and we’d been up since dawn, so it felt later) we arrived at the Vigo Inn. This place is excellent and deserves support. Andy and Val welcomed us with open arms and invited us to camp in their field. They knew about the pilgrimage and valued pilgrims.
view from the tent as I went to sleep – in the morning mist meant there was no view
The route was reminiscent of the Caminos in Spain in that it goes through towns and villages on the way to Canterbury, mixed in with some beautiful walking. On this walk through the world, there are some spectacular constructions including the Medway Bridge which has a dedicated footpath (there was a man with a big rucksack on the other side who we couldn’t catch).
For myself, there was a significant interior journey reflecting the outer one. Much of this was to do with the continuing realisation that if I am to thrive in the ministry I live, I have to trust in and rely on God – again a deepening of hard won insights from the Camino. On returning home, I found this quote from St Therese of Lisieux which sums so much of this up for me:
Teach us to let go of what is unnecessary.
As on the Camino I found a deepening devotion to St James, so on the Pilgrims Way I am finding a devotion to St Thomas Becket. I am looking forward so much to the arrival promised arrival in Canterbury Cathedral in the summer.
As readers of this blog will know, I believe that contemporary pilgrimage informs us how to live in the world we find ourselves in. More reflections on this to follow.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, Christmas, pilgrimage, spain, wine
My Christmas presents this year had a bit of a theme:
I’m very happy with this. Keeping tastes of the Camino alive until I go again. And memories of a bottle of wine arriving with each solo meal. Salud!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Advent, camino, Camino de Levante, Camino Ingles, Christ the King, Christmas, generosity, graham greene, gratitude, humility, pilgrimage
Reflecting further on the themes of gratitude and generosity that I have touched on in the last few posts, there is also something about how one is able to receive.
the first sign on the Camino Ingles, Calle de Santiago, A Coruna
It would, I guess be possible to walk a Camino with little or no interaction with people along the way and to receive very little. I’m not sure what this would feel like. I try hard not to impose or to expect things (two exceptions to this being on the Levante, on one occasion when I was lost and made a car stop for advice, and once when I had run out of water and was in danger of heat exhaustion). But I suppose I do try to interact with people I meet along the way as much as possible. My Spanish is limited (and I am determined to be reasonably fluent in a few years) but I try to speak to people, greeting them, asking them the way, if they know where a shop or bar is, talking about the Camino. And people have been unfailingly kind in return. You will find examples sprinkled through my posts on the Levante and the Ingles, although I have tried not to identify individuals along the Way.
I recently read this in Graham Greene’s Stamboul Train:
He was tied by her agreement, by her refusal to make any claim. Before so complete a humility one could be nothing else but generous.
I’m not claiming this for myself, but there is something here about a state of being that helps others to act in a generous way.
On this Feast Of Christ the King, and as we begin to look towards Christmas, there is also clearly something here about the nature of Jesus Christ and how we should respond to him and to other people.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: acts of kindness, camino, Camino de Levante, Camino Ingles, generosity, pilgrimage, pilgrims
I reflected yesterday on one of the gifts of pilgrimage being the learning to accept adverse situations.
I want to balance this by looking at the positive things that happen on the Camino and how this teaches me some lessons for everyday life. I am assuming here that good things are to be embraced rather than risen above; the Camino is hard enough anyway.
In posts on the Camino Levante I have written about the unvarying kindness I received as I walked alone for three weeks; gifts of food, invitations into people’s homes, warmth and encouragement. The pilgrimage with Meenakshi a few weeks ago was much smaller but we found some of these moments that kept us going. Sheltering in the tunnel on that last soaking day
we read prayers glued to the wall.
Whichever anonymous pilgrim or amigo had done this gave us a real boost.
I was glad we stayed at Bruma Albergue on the first night as it gave Meenakshi a chance to meet other pilgrims and experience pilgrim life more deeply. There were six or seven of us. As we ate our Menu, we talked deeply with Michel, a French pilgrim walking the Ingles from Betanzos, then from Santiago to the coast at Muxia, and then back to France along the Camino Frances until winter hits the mountains.
We bumped into him once or twice the next day as we arrived in bars for cafe con leche y refrescos y bocadillos.
When we entered the dining room of Hostal Miras for our 9pm feast, there was Michel waiting for us. We had a real Camino evening of talking over much of life in a coupe of hours and then parted. When we came down for breakfast there was a packet for us in the bar with a note and a small gift.
Small kindnesses like this make such a difference. How in our lives everyday can we perform such acts and change lives – and life -for the better? It may be small, but it may be the seed secretly growing underground or the seed that becomes the tree.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: big fun in a tiny pueblo, camino, Camino Ingles, Gerard Hughes, gratitude, in search of a way, penitence, pilgrimage, rebekah scott, simplicity, thankfulness, walk to jerusalem
Life on the Camino becomes simple and pared down. I like establishing the rhythms of waking before dawn, walking, eating, finding somewhere to sleep for the night. In a life that is always in danger of being too busy, it is a wonderful corrective to be able to have just one thing to do at a time.
In this simplified way of life, external events can have a disproportionate effect, especially when you are on your own. It can be hard to keep things in proportion. It can be easy to lost the essential marks of gratitude and thankfulness which for me are the marks of the pilgrim. Gerry Hughes writes of the effect a petty act of meanness had on him on one of his pilgrimages (I can’t find the reference; it’s the story of a barman filling his waterbottle but then being told to pour it away by the boss. It is either in In Search of a Way or Walk to Jerusalem – read both; they are excellent).
This really affected him negatively until he realised that he was down and tired and without the spiritual resources to deal with it. He was able to let it go and ignore it.
For Meenakshi and I on the Camino Ingles recently, the weather, especially on the last day of torrential rain, effected us. There was the challenge to keep going as well as the challenge to make something more of this than an unpleasant wet plod.
Rebekah Scott, who runs a House of Hospitality on the Camino Frances and gives us the fantastic blog Big Fun in a Tiny Pueblo, wrote this recently on the Camino Forum:
If you are a pilgrim, you supposedly take whatever the camino sends your way. You don´t expect much, and you are grateful for what you do get. Sometimes your “bed” may be the porch of the church. It will not be comfy, but it will probably not kill you.
Gratefulness, simplicity, receiving what comes your way. For Christian pilgrims, the awareness that pilgrimage is a penitential discipline, the discomfort and pain adding to the journey into Grace, giving weight to the prayer.
This post has gone in a very different direction to that which I had planned! More tomorrow when I have reflected some more.
Hasta luego!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bobby king, camino, i am a pilgrim, johnny cash, pilgrimage, ry cooder, the byrds
Here are three wonderfully different versions of the folk song I am a Pilgrim
by Johnny Cash
by The Byrds
I am a pilgrim and a stranger
traveling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
and it’s not, not made by hand
I’ve got a mother, sister and a brother
who have gone this way before
I am determined to go and see them, good Lord
for they’re on that other shore
I’m goin’ down to the river of Jordan
just to bathe my wearisome soul
if I can just touch the hem of his garment, good Lord
then I know he’d take me home
I am a pilgrim and a stranger
traveling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
and it’s not, not made by hand
sunrise santiago airport
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, pilgrimage, poetry, stability, Wendell Berry
My friend Eve has sent me this excellent poem by Wendell Berry. It certainly speaks to walking the Camino for the second time; to the certain stability which is more usual pattern of life, to anticipated walks in the next weeks along familiar paths.
Even in a country you know by heart
it’s hard to go the same way twice.
The life of the going changes.
The chances change and make it a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, Camino de Santiago, Camino Ingles, occupy lsx, pilgrimage, prayer, priesthood, urban ministry
Coming back from our Camino Ingles walk has meant going straight into a week of intensive work. Today has been my first chance to draw breath and reflect.
I feel deeply refreshed, spiritually and mentally, by the Camino, if still a bit short on sleep. The Ingles meant for a short Camino of a few days, but it was an epic. It is interesting for me to compare it with the much longer Levante a couple of years ago.
It was, of course, a profound privilege to be able to walk it with Meenakshi. Sharing this has deepened our relationship; we have learned about each other and ourselves. And it felt a real achievement to have done it, hence those happy faces in the Obradoiro Square in Santiago – here we are in better weather the next day:
We stayed in albergues (pilgrim hostels) and hostals; we ate bocadillos and menus; we walked around 45 miles; we met other pilgrims; new friendships were made and others deepened. I will give a report on the route and tell some of the stories that came out of it soon – although Meenakshi has already told the one of me falling right at the end, which may be the best one. For me, the memories are held and prompted in my credencial, the pilgrim passport with its stamps:
I like walking the Camino routes. There is the fact of it being a pilgrimage, of walking to Santiago Cathedral, to the Apostle’s Tomb, to make prayers for particular people and situations. There is the sense of it being a conscious walk with God, of us doing our best to begin and end the day with prayers, of the times of silent walking so that prayers can be made, of going to Mass when possible.
There is the sense of walking with other pilgrims – both now and past. Thinking about the folk who made the difficult voyage from Bristol to La Coruna and then walked – although remembering that their route is probably shared with the N550; Some present day pilgrims (not us) walked its hard shoulder to save a kilometre or two on that dreadfully wet last day.
Taking a rest in a tunnel under a railway, we found a psalm and a prayer pasted to the wall by a pilgrim a few weeks before; their prayers inspiring and helping us on to our goal:
The Camino route took us through a great deal of peaceful beauty, but it is also deeply honest and incarnational. It meant walking out of urban A Coruna, through the industrial zones on the outskirts of Sigueiro, past outer urban social housing and then beggars in Santiago. It is not an escape from the difficulties of the world. Coming back home to the realities of ministry in outer urban parishes in a time of recession and economic and social difficulty, to the Occupy protests (and the initial mess that St Paul’s had made in London), I am glad that I walked the Way I did. There is a very close connection, a deep reality of it all being taken into prayer, of a new readiness to exercise my priesthood. A deeply good pilgrimage.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, Camino de Santiago, Camino Ingles, pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela
Hello, I’m Meenakshi, and dad and I thought it would be nice if i just contributed a post to the blog about our recent pilgrimage to Santiago last week. I will just share a couple of things-
The thing I enjoyed most about our walk was getting up in the morning and just walking, without having to worry or over think anything, knowing that each step we took was getting us closer to our goal.
The thing I hated the most was, probably most obviously, the rain! Although it wasn’t pleasant having to trudge along with soggy boots, it didn’t stop our enjoyment of the pilgrimage, and once we’d arrived, the weather was forgotten.
The most funny thing that happened in Spain, although it makes me feel very guilty for saying this, was when dad fell completely over on the wet patio when we were being shown our room by the lovely lady in our hotel in Santiago. Although we were relieved to see he wasn’t hurt, the mental image of his glasses flying across the ground still makes me chuckle to myself.
And finally, the thing i learnt was to be determined and motivated, and when it got hard, and it did many times, was to just keep walking, keep faith and when we reached the Cathedral, i felt a massive sense of achievement and very privileged to have had all of these amazing experiences while on pilgrimage.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camino, Camino de Santiago, Camino Ingles, confraternity of st james, photos, pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela
We are back home now. It was a fantastic pilgrimage. The Ingles from A Coruna is an excellent route. It might be short, but it is certainly testing but with a great deal of beauty. I would definitely recommend it; the signposting and the CSJ Guide were great; we were in no danger of losing the way. I would hope to walk from Ferrol and investigate that slightly longer route next time it possible to walk a short Camino.
It was a deeply spiritual experience, not least because of walking with Meenakshi – and I think it is going to take me quite a bit of time to mine this experience, which is something I’m really looking forward to. As with the Levante a couple of years ago, the benefits of the Camino unfold in their own time.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers, good wishes and comments – they are appreciated especially in the tough times. There will be some more posts soon, telling some of the stories – as well I hope a guest post from Meenakshi. In the mean time some photos:
walking out of A Coruna - a day of heavy rain and bright sun, often at the same time
It took an hour and a quarter to climb this hill towards the end of a nineteen mile day
bocadillo power!
arrival!
