Going On The Camino

Having finished my CPE studies a few weeks ago, and having no immediate prospects of full time employment in clinical pastoral care in the immediate future, I've decided to embark on a physical journey that I've been wanting to do for a while already: the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James).  I heard about this pilgrimage while still at Regent, and have wanted to go on it ever since.

The history is more or less as follows: in about the 9th century (?), king of Alfonso of Spain heard that the bones of St. James (Santiago) were buried in a small church in a city now called Santiago (Spanish for St. James).  Upon hearing this, he felt compelled to go and pay tribute to the man who evangelized Spain.  Indeed, St. James is today the patron saint of Spain.  King Alfonso did the journey, beginning in the city of Oviedo, walking approximately 320kms to Santiago.  When other Spaniards heard of this, they too began making the pilgrimage.  Before too long, hundreds of pilgrims followed suit, not only from Spain, but from the rest of Europe also.  Over the years, thousands have walked the path, and today, upwards of 100,000 pilgrims make the journey to Santiago each year.

Various routes have emerged, depending on where one walks from.  The most popular route is the Camino Frances, which is the path the bulk of Europeans followed.  There are also the Norte, Portugues, Ingles, and the Via de la Plata, to name a few.  I plan to walk the original route, now called the Camino Primitivo.

What intrigues me about the Camino is its relevancy to the life of a Christian.  The Camino forces us to incarnate the values that Jesus taught us to pursue: traveling light (discerning between the "necessaries" and the "nice to haves"), and trusting in God to take care of us.  Pilgrimage is a significant motif in the Bible, one that we ignore at our own peril.  Of course, walking 20+ kms each day provides for great opportunities of reflection and life discernment, and sharing meals and rooms with other pilgrims provides the opportunity to meet and get to know other pilgrims from around the world.

The date I aim to start my journey is sometime in mid-September.  Jennifer too is walking on the Camino, but she's doing the Camino Frances.