Friday, February 27, 2015

Day 1 - Camino de Santiago - Monday - January 26, 2015

  Last month, on January 27,I left for the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  It was my third time going.  I went in the summer of 2003 as I discerned a call to the priesthood.  I went again 9 years later in the spring of 2012 with several parishioners and friends.  This time I went in the winter, primarily because it was the only time I could get away as a priest.  In fact, although I had taken days off during the week, I had not had a weekend off since the last time I went to Spain in 2012. I desperately needed time off. I needed to pull back and reflect. I felt the Camino calling me back.
     This time, I approached the Camino as a retreat, looking forward to the solitude and the time for prayer and reflection.  I made my reservations in the late summer of 2014.  I was so excited about going.   Yet, a couple of months later, I had a conflict come up with the diocese. I had to cancel my reservation.  I had intended to go for 4 weeks, but I was able to make a change in dates and make a new reservation, but could only go for 3 weeks since I had to be back for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  Then, to top it off, I had a reservation going through Philadelphia, and the East Coast was bracing for a huge storm the day I was supposed to leave.  I tried to call the airline reservation number that Sunday night, but after being on hold for more than two hours, I gave up.  I left the US after being re-routed through Dallas, and was on my way to Spain.
       As I left, I knew that I would not have time to walk the entire route, so I started in Pamplona and would decide later if I wanted to eventually end up in the city of Santiago.  My goal was to walk the Camino, to spend time with God, and to heal and pray. It did not matter to me if I made it to the end point of the pilgrimage or not.  I was open to whatever surprises the Camino had in store for me.  Someone later asked me what I had learned on my previous Caminos.  The first thing I mentioned was this: If you have plan as to how the Camino is going to turn out, know that those plans are definitely going to change.  Never start the Camino thinking that you have all the answers, thinking that it is all going to go according to plan.  That is not the way the Camino works.  So I made my way to the Memphis airport looking forward to landing in Madrid.

     I will continue to post my entries on the Camino as they occurred last month, recounting my journey day by day.  

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