Camino de Santiago de Compostela - revisited for five weeks of services - From Wilderness to Wonderment a Pilgrimage.

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The idea for this update came today as I revisited some of the comments we received from fellow travelblog writers who have followed our trip on the Camino Frances August to October 2015.

When we returned to our home town we provided the interim pastor at our church with a scallop shell as a token of our appreciation for his blessing for our journey. He then took the opportunity to say, "You know, I have been thinking! The period of lent is really like a pilgrimage. How would you like to spend 10 or 15 minutes each of five Wednesday evenings recounting your spiritual journey on El Camino de Santiago de Compostela?"

So we put together five different segments: (1) Preparation and Beginning, (2) Tired but Undaunted we continue, (3) This is not what we thought it would be, (4) To the End or NOT, (5) The Beginning at the End.

The experience of scripting and putting together photos and then the stand up delivery, summarizing the most significant events of our spiritual journey, was both rewarding and more of a spiritual event than the actual trip. Not to mention a lot of work.

If you have followed our blog you will know we arrived without our bags and Karen and I spent the next 6 and 12 days respectively, walking and hoping for the arrival of our bags with walking poles, hiking shoes and clothes for the trip. We were blessed by so many pilgrim angels who helped us and walked with us and whose support we would come to depend on. Inigo and Ines of Pamplona were our saviors.

The assignment to find good use for the $100 given to us by friends in our church proved to be the real launching pad for our spiritual experiences. Most unforgettable was the young man who had no money for a protective cylinder for his compostela and had difficulty communicating with the lovely ladies who were preparing the Compostelas for the pilgrims. When we gave him and them the money for the cylinder all were moved to tears.

The pilgrims blessing in San Juan de Ortega and the message by the priest from Germany at the pilgrim's mass in Rabanal del Camino were also highlights of our Camino when we came to reflect on the entire journey.

So to those who will be traveling the camino this year we wish you Buen Camino and at least as many pilgrim angels as you can count each day. They are there so try hard to recognize them.

Harlan AKA SUBMAN

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Did your church video your talks?
If so, were they posted on You Tube or otherwise made available? I would love to see your presentations.

[subman]

No, unfortunately they did not. We have only the power point of presentations.