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!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: jennifer lash, nature, on pilgrimage, photos, pilgrimage
Spending a couple of hours walking through Worcestershire, I found my senses engaging with the landscape, drinking in colour, shape, texture and smell. My camera helped slow down and look.
A little later I found this thought in Jennifer Lash’s excellent On Pilgrimage:
I felt increasingly sad to be moving on. It made me realise why places of pilgrimage give rise to such terrible souvenirs. There is such a temptation to take something fragile from a place with you. But such instincts probably signify a too rooted, earth-bound ego, and not sufficient trust in the transient unity of things. I suppose it’s like learning to look at rather than pick wild flowers.
There’s lots to think about here. From my perspective, as a Christian committed to the Incarnation, rootedness and being bound to the earth are fundamentally good; possessiveness of things is not.
There are an excellent couple of articles in The Guardian today about Liz Hingley’s new book of photos of Soho Road in Birmingham. John Harris’ article is here and a selection of the photos here.
Here is my friend Fr Gregg:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Camino de Santiago, photos, pilgrimage, poetry, prayer
There are some wonderful photos of the Camino taken by Hilda here. Hilda went through more than most pilgrims, so it is excellent to get the chance to contemplate them.
There are some very good slideshows of Karoki Lewis’ photos of pilgrimages on the BBC website.
Click here to view.
Thanks to the wonderful and very green institution that is Birmingham Freegle, I have found myself in possession of a copy of England: The Photographic Atlas. This huge book has large scale aerial photographs of the whole of England. I am enjoying spending time poring over it, working out where I live, where I travel, where I walk and cycle. So far, and I have only had the book for a few days, the main impression it is making on me is just how green England is. Even major industrial cities like Birmingham and Leeds are predominantly green when photographed from above at a scale of 1:72,000. This is a new angle to view the place where I live and move and have my being.
One of the things I have been reflecting on in the months since I walked the Camino is the relation between the urban and the rural. I like the urban. I choose to live and work here. I spend the bulk of time in engaged in urban ministry of one form or another. I also like the rural. I am refreshed by getting into the countryside for walking or cycling. This Friday I’m planning a day on the hills of the Cotswolds. Often, these two spheres are set in contrast and opposition. We might see this in political culture wars over hunting. I found that the Camino path brought them very much together. When I go walking for pleasure in Britain I usually go off somewhere solitary and beautiful in the countryside for peace, fresh air and refreshment. The Way to Santiago goes through Spain from where you start on to Santiago, traveling through the cities and towns so that pilgrims have lodging and food and safety. There is an integration of everything – the rubbish heaps, the graffiti, the stunningly beautiful views, the Cross and the Resurrection, the light and the dark.
The Solitary Walker, who is trudging his way to Santiago from Sevilla at the moment, sums this up in a poem:
How dark the soul in the dead of night! But how bright the morning sun!
And all I ask is a warm bed before the day is done.
