These past two weeks, I was blessed to make a pilgrimage with 53 wonderful people, including Fr. Steve Brunner of our diocese, to Lourdes in France and to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route to the tomb of St. James the Greater in the beautiful city of Santiago Compostela in northwest Spain.
Tradition tells us that James journeyed to Spain shortly after Pentecost to evangelize the people who lived on the fringe of the Roman Empire.
Discouraged by a lack of results, he was tempted to give up and go back home when the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was still living at the time, appeared to him standing on a pillar in the city now known as Zaragoza, and encouraged him to keep persevering.
James did so, winning many converts to the Catholic Faith, and then returned to Jerusalem where he was beheaded by King Herod, as the first apostle to suffer martyrdom.
His relics came back to Spain as a tribute to his evangelizing work there, but knowledge of his tomb’s location was subsequently lost.
In the early ninth century, a hermit saw heavenly lights and heard celestial music pointing the way to the tomb of St. James.
A magnificent church rose on the site and ever since, pilgrims from all over the world have walked to pray at the tomb of Santiago and to venerate his relics.
The journey
Our group walked the last 100 kilometers to Santiago over the course of five days, enduring heat, blisters, exhaustion, and pain, but feeling joy, exhilaration, and spiritual renewal as we made our way on this ancient path of pilgrimage.
The Camino takes pilgrims through stunningly beautiful landscapes of fields, forests, and villages. The terrain is very hilly, dotted with ancient stone chapels where travelers can stop to pray and rest.
The Camino is symbolized by a shell because, in the Middle Ages, pilgrims would return from Santiago with a shell from the nearby ocean as proof that they had made the journey. They also used it as an eating and drinking utensil.
Today, many pilgrims carry a shell on their backpacks, and signs marked with a shell point out the way to St. James, telling how many kilometers remain on the journey.
Because of films like The Way and the increased popularity of unique travel experiences, the number of people walking the Camino has exploded; last year it was 438,000 people!
Not all walk it for spiritual or religious reasons, but I think the transcendence of the experience must touch every person’s mind and heart along the Way.
The strength, endurance, and grace of Spanish Catholicism are evident everywhere.
In the ancient and dark churches made of stone; in the graphic statues and paintings of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, some with real human hair; in the lives of Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Josemaría Escrivá and the martyrs of the Civil War, I find myself seized by the power of a faith generously lived and sacrificially defended down the centuries.
Completing the trek
The journey ends at the magnificent cathedral of St. James, an ancient Romanesque church in its interior with a newer Baroque envelope built around it.
In the crypt is the simple tomb of St. James, the goal of this arduous and beautiful journey, where we offered our prayers and laid our intentions before the intercession of this evangelizing apostle who was so close to Jesus.
That evening, I was blessed to preside at the pilgrims’ Mass. The Church was packed with people from all over the world, a moving testimony to the beauty and vitality of the faith, both in its universality and its particular expression in every language, culture, and country.
All had journeyed here to pray at the tomb of St. James, many walking hundreds of kilometers over the course of months.
At the end of the Mass, both Father Steve and I stoked up the Botafumeiro, one of the largest censers in the world, with incense, and we all watched in wonder as eight men in special garb pulled it on a very thick rope and made it swing through the church.
This vision is quite a sight to behold, as it flies through the air at great speed, cutting right in front of the altar. I was happy to observe the stout strength of the rope!
The whole experience left me inspired, stunned, and grateful for the grace of God and the incarnational beauty of our Catholic faith.
Along this entire spiritual journey, I prayed for our diocese, for the continued fruitfulness of Go Make Disciples and Into the Deep; for our priests, deacons, Religious, lay leaders, and faithful; for a renewal of the Catholic faith throughout our diocese and in every heart; for the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our efforts to evangelize, serve, and love.
I carry all of you in my heart and prayers, as we make our pilgrim way to the Father’s house in the Kingdom of Heaven.