Resting now with some closing thoughts

I have been meaning to create one more post for a few days but I have found that I am not in the state of mind to be "working".  Good thing really, my soul wishes to be at rest.  We have been in Madrid now for three days and have been shopping and seeing the sights.  The palace real is beyond opulent.  The palace is the prototype for all things opulent and spainish.   Madrid itself is quite something, most buildings are public art.  The guide books tell you to look up because many buildings have statues and cravings on the roof and walls.   

The shopping is quite something and I have been relaxed enough to just wander and let it happen.   Yesterday we went to open air market, the largest in Spain.   Clothing was purchased.     

Before we left Santiago we attended the pilgrims mass.  We took our own advise and sat down 45 minutes early to assure we had a seat.    It was amazing that at 11:55 people would come to the front and look for seating.  Really did they think that there would empty seats five minutes before the start at the front?   They often looked surprised.   The mass, of course, was in spainish and I only caught a few words here and there.  I was able to watch closely the priests manner of preaching since I understood little of what he said.  It was an interesting exercise.   The liturgy for the mass itself was easier for me since I knew which part was next. I yearned to go forward and recieve but non Roman Catholics weren't premitted to recieve.  

There was two observations I gained from the expereince.  One was how foriegn worship seems to someone with no exeperience of the church,   It must be like listening in a language you don't know.  When do you stand, when do you sit, do you go forward to partake....     However, my second point is this, at the end of the service the priest stepped outside the liturgy to offer a blessing to the pilgrims.   He turned to his many colleges behind him and ask them to raise their hands in a blessing as well.  It was an authentic moment and nearly moved me to tears.  Suddenly I felt included and I could feel the true desire to bless.  The church puts up barriers of language and behaviour that may cause many folks to feel shy and detached but an authentic moment can still reach through all social barriers.  

The chancel, from our best seats in the place.  

One interesting aspect of the Cathedral in Santiago is that it has a Celtic flavour.  Swills and curves.  Looking closely at the columns I noticed spirals of colours.  Also there far less emphasize on the crucifixion.   There were few pictures or sculptures of Jesus on the cross.  

Notice in the above picture that the Crosses on the top of the cathedral.  They bare. 

But as I indicated above we are now in Madrid. We have visited the royal palace, the Cathedral, the Zoo, and the park with the crystal palace,  Oh and the shopping district and the open air market.   I suppose you may think I am going to make a comparison between the commercialism of the City to the spirituality of the Camino.  It certianly is there and would offer a rich source of commentary, however, that is too easy a target. Rather what stuck me was the historical opulence of the city.  The royal palace was mostly created in the time of Ferdinand and Isobel and it out shown the cathedral and the rest of Spain.  It is reflective of the immense wealth being taken from the Americas.  Beyond the glitter and extravagance is the multitude of personal glorification.  Throughout the City there are statues of historical figures often on horses towering over the square below.   Ego seemed to, have ruled the world, particularly when there was an abundance of wealth.

 Yet all this ego and wealth left a city full of amazing public art.  In Madrid one most keep one eyes up to see the art on the buildings. 

This was in the middle of the park just because.   It was blazing hot day. 

The below image is from the staircase in the palace, we weren't premitted to take photos in the main rooms of the palace. 

But enough of this rambling.  We have had five days in Madrid and at first we thought this was too much time but now I feel that it is good to be very ready to return home to the busyness and the familar. Even if that familar is new and requires set up as it does for us.  We know that more time before September beginnings would only have meant more planning, more fussing and more work.  With less time to get organized then the work is less for the same accomplishments.  We return to a move, an ailing loved one, two or three grant applications, September start up at the church, plans for a special joint worship with our neighbouring congregations, a major renovation project at the church, the need for a stewardship and capital drive, and a have in my heart a deeper passion for an authentic ministry particularly in spiritual healing and a deep desire to see my people.  

The trip has been a blessing and I sure has changed me in ways I have yet to discover.   Peace to all. 

Nearer the Sacred Destination.

We are now only a few days from Santiago de Compostella.  A number of folks we meet along the way have arrived already and we think few are still behind us.  Because we have done a few short days we are experiencing a whole new set of pilgrims each day.  The Canadian family we met yesterday have moved on. They began in Sarria and hope to get to Santiago in four days.  Our American friends from Santiago cal. are a full day ahead of us now, although we get the occasional email.  She is hunting for a particular ice cream treat.  Our pace changes the experience but we promised ourselves not to get caught up in the stress and pace of others.  

After all of the wisdoms of the Camino is that "the right pace is your pace."  In other words listen to your own body and don't let ego needs or perceived social obligation push you beyond your capacity.  Good wisdom to remember in life. 

Now that we are well within the last 100km there are far more pilgrims and everything is busier.  At times we saw groups of 15 to 20 pilgrims walking together.  In the last two days we were rarely walking out of sight of other pilgrims.  Occasionally when there was a village with a few bars, pilgrim traps to capture the pilgrims, we might have a break from the crowds.   The walk is different now.  Reservations are necessary for the following nights and albergues want confirmation calls if we might arrive after two. The pilgrimage is taking on some of the stresses of life and I find that I am unhappy with the change.  

Part of this change in my reflective mood may also be that the end of the journey is near.  However in order to be truly ready to return home one must be tried of the journey.  When this happens then Home becomes a sacred destination as well and in a way Home becomes pilgrimage as well.   There is a another layer to this for us.  While walking we have decided that we will rent our condo to a friend serving a church in our area and we will move out to Abbotsford.  Soon after this decision a friend in the congregation, who has allow us use the basement suite in her rental house, sent us a message to say the the main floor of the house is available for rent as of sept.1st if we are interested.  So in fact our pilgrimage doesn't end in the home we left but in the task of creating a new home.   

The pilgrimage of the church, from what was to what is yet to be, is like that as well.  We would like all the necessary changes to lead us to a defined destination but the journey doesn't end at some sacred location.  The  pilgrimage, in the final stage, is always to home but like our situation a new home has to be created.  The church home many of us grew up with is know longer available and our new home won't be the same as that imagined past.   The destination of the churches pilgrimage isn't the part of the journey that is sacre rather it is the journey as co,minty that created the sacred moment and sacred event.  It like climbing the steep hill and arriving at the top only to see another climb and more journey.

Here in spain the Church is greatly depreciated from its former position in society.  The evidence of past influence is in the cathedrals but even more so in the central placement of the church in every village, town or city.  The centre of the community is always the location of the church.  In most communities the church bells still chine on the hour, half hour and every 15 minutes. Through these bells the church guided the daily lives of the people.   When to rise in the morming, when to eat, time for the afternoon siesta or time for dinner.  In the few masses I have attended there has been a gathering a few dozen local people.  Now the more influencial religion of Spain seems to be football.  Every newspapers, every tv news cast includes the daily update of trades, scores highlights and commentary and every third man or boy is wearing a team shirt.  The football stars have replaced the Saints.  

In most of our communities in BC the church didn't ever have this same role. Yet we still have unspoken expectations about what the church should be.  Just as I find I have expectations of what the daily pilgrimage should be, based on our first 25 days of walking.  This being our second times we knew that as of Sarria the character of the walking and the community of the pilgrims would change.   However I find I miss the way it was a week or so ago.  The church isn't what it was and can't be what it was.  Th journey is forward not backwards. 

The wisdom of this for our personal journeys is apparent in our habit of romaticizing the past.   We might yearn for our childhood home, or the quiet and safe community we grew up in. Or we idealize a past relationship, job, or situation.   We may know that we are on a journey to home but not realize that that home is new and different and that I fact it has to be.  It is not that the old home was necessarily flawed rather we have changed and the old home would not "fit" our souls any longer.   

So we walk the final 53km over the next three days and will arrive into Santiago early in the morning.  This piece of our sacred journey will be closed but pilgrimage doesn't end with a fancy document and collection of pictures rather journey doesn't end until we rest in God, in completion, in joy and in union. Walk on friends.   Blessings on th journey,   Bill

Connections and meetings.

Over and over again we run into folks we have seen in the past.  One wouldn't think this is unsual since we are all of the same trail but a moving object will more likely bumb into a stationary object rather than a moving obese.  A clock which is stopped twice a day reports the correct time.  A clock running fast will not report the correct time until it has caught up 12 hours.   Our meeting of camino friends seem to be less random and more intentionally planed by the universe.  In Ponferreda on our rest day, early one morning we text a family we had met a week earlier to tell them where we were.  We then headed out to a street market and as we entered the main plaza the mom and two daughters entered the far side.   We greeted each other with joy and a little amazement.  What were the chances that we would be the plaza just as they entered the city? There was only a 15 minute window of,there time in the city. 

This sort of thing happened to us a number of times and others reported to us the same experience.  In Pintin, the tiniest of villages which few people stop, we were sitting down to dinner and our friends from Santiago Cal. sat down to in the chairs right next to us.   They took a rest day to recover and we carried on.  This morning as we left our albergue they appeared around the corner.    We walked them the rest of the day. 

But it is more than just chance meetings that seems divinely initiated.  Over and over again we have heard stories of people meeting just who they needed to meet just when they needed it.  The Catalonia who met a surgeon who cared for his terrible blisters and gave wise advise to rest unless he risk losing his toe.  The pilgrim who met someone from their home country just when they needed it the most.  Our own expereince meeting our German friend who needed care and compassion just when we needed a clear reason to pause. The pilgrims who showed up around a corner when we thought we might be off the Camino.  We were on an alternative route with no markers and they were just as confused as we were but together we found our confidence and our way.  

I think these sort of "coincidences" happen all the time in our lives but we miss them or take them for granted.  I have often said that for a person of faith there are no coincidences, rather there is faith and mystery.  When we needed the distraction of new conversation today, our two friends appear and our day rushed by; 18km in no time.  Just a coincidence or gift from the divine.  

I also think these sorts of happenings occur for churches all the time as well and the role of the spiritual leaders within the congregation is to point them out.  When we miss the subtle intervention of the Holy One we miss opportunities to nurture the collective faith of the community. Missing the gift misses the mission.  Missing the gift impoverish our souls.  Disregarding, missing, or explaining away,the serendipitous events starves our souls of sustenance.  

On the Camino our souls are fed because we can feel the spiritual hunger.   A well fed soul gives one strength to endure the climbs of life.  At the end of today's walk a very steep set of stairs welcomed us into town.   With today's nourishment we walked quickly up the steps and took a picture.   Life is good even when there are steep inclines ahead.   

Mist and rain

The last two days have offered us mist and rain plus a long climb to the 1250 meters high alto pollo.  We had short day and nice stay in Los Herriros before powering up a 600 meter climb.  A good breakfast and a good nights sleep makes all the difference in the world.

Throughout that day of climbing the mist would change to rain and we would slowly get wetter and then with a break our clothes would dry out.  Our first day of mist and rain ended in the village of Pintin at very welcoming Albergue. We had a private room with a tub for 26€.  The village was essentially in the middle of a dairy farm with the expected smell and mess on the road.  However the room was quiet, clean and had a heater to dry our clothes.  

Walking in the mist for most of two days offers a different perspective on the surroundings.  The world is closed in.  A fellow pilgrim would pass us or we them and 10 meters later we would be alone once again.  The character of the sounds change in the close in mist.  The low of the cattle drifts from all sides.  The bells on their necks clang in the distance but the source was nearly impossible to determine.  The mist seems to embrace us.  I found that I watched the placement of my feet more perhaps because there was no view to admire.  The world became smaller.  Without the larger perspective of the path before us we had to trust path we could see and just keep walking into the mist. 

This was particularly true since we had lost our map book the previous day.  The way is marked at each junction with a marker or a yellow arrow. Sometimes when there has been no new signs after walking 30 minutes or so, our pace would slow and doubt would set in.  We would start looking for any signs or evidence that we were on the right path.  A well worn path, pilgrim litter, other pilgrims, a faded yellow arrow and then when a marker is seen we have a sense of relief, and unspoken anxiety disappears.  Since we had walked the Camino once before often our evidence was our own memory.  

In the mist the small hidden world of a path speaks to the heart of loneliness and solitude.   This is reflects a common human spiritual quest.   Do we walk alone in this world or do we walk in community? Both are evident on the Camino: solitude and community.  Loneliness is the first fear of life.  An infant may cry for hunger or discomfort or pain.  All of these are dealt with external help.  Food is provided, the source of discomfort or pain is removed but when a baby cries in the night for comfort because it is alone, the help comes in the form of someone who brings love, but it isn't the giving of love that alleviates the loneliness rather it is the receiving of the love.  Hence not everyone can comfort the child, the mother or father is needed.  Someone the child knows and trusts.  Our whole life we seek to receive what our heart needs to end the loneliness.  Love may abound in the world, from family and friends and from the divine but will we receive it?  Will we let our hearts receive the love that heals our loneliness?  Will we recognize the voice of our loving Creator?  Will we pause in our cry of loneliness to listen to the comfort offered by the divine within the world? 

Mostly in our lives we seek to end the loneliness with alternatives.  Entertainment and distractions to keep us from realizing our status.  Busyness and accomplishments to trick us into think we don't need others rather that material processions and ego gratification can replace love.   In the mist, on a long path, the truth is clear; we need community.  One of the pilgrim blessings I spoke of in an earlier post is: "blessed is the pilgrim that realizes it not that you arrive at the end of the path, but who who arrive with."   There is no true alternative to loving community, family, and friends.  The need of our human souls require divine love expressed in relationship with other loving beings.   In the mist this truth is clear. 

In the Camino Mist

My world collapses in the drifting white mist

I am alone, as I was at first

The path wanders ten meters forward and ten to the back 

Sounds of poles click and clack

 A pilgrim appears passes by and is lost.

I am alone on the misty path. 

We walk side by side,

         without her, have I being?

We talk in silence, sharing the endless moment. 

Nothing imposes, just our foot fall.

Soft chunch, on moistened gravel. 

Then a pathway decision 

          interrupts 

our private world.

In the whiteness,

          loneliness is my only fear.

Alone in the collapsed world my heart opens

Only an empty heart can be ready to receive.

Come to me now blessed One,

 the world has escaped the cage of my heart. 

And Now is my moment on the misty way.

The Iron Cross

We arrived at the Iron Cross at about 10:00 am, and sat down to wait for our opportunity to go the base of the 30 meter pole to leave our stones.  Eventually we each did so and we tried to get a meaningful picture.  However there were a number of spainish men taking multiple photos in their spandex biking suits.   For them it was a photo op while we were trying to have a meaningful spiritual moment.

There are lots of pilgrims on bicycles on the Camino often in couples but there is also many groups of six to ten of spainish men in matching spandex biking shorts. Lots of groups.  It seems that their journey is about a bicycle vacation and isn't about the spiritual pilgrimage.   They rush by and usually have little to do with the pilgrims from various nations.   Because they are on the bikes they aren't meeting people along the way during the day.  They are on vacation following a designated route but not on a spiritual pilgrimage. 

In the church we could possibly design our worship and programming to appeal to the spiritual vacationer.  Use only upbeat music performed by professional musicians, make the spiritual journey easy, and fast, avoid unnecessary relationships, avoid any inconveniences, but in doing so we will be feeding people spiritual pablum, food without substance that requires no chewing.   The church might gain in size but loose its soul in the process.  Many of the big mega churches have followed this route and many have felt the hollowness of this path.

True spirituality nurtures relationship and social and personnel transformation.  True spirituality engages the struggles of life and does not offer short cuts. 

Eventually the biking group left the iron cross and there was a break when no one else arrived.  In that moment the wind gusted at the base of the pile rocks and  created a little twister in the dust.  Our prayers, our letting go, symbolized by our rocks,  were gathered up in the wind of God and taken away.  It was a Pentecost moment.  It was a gift, unlooked for, unexpected, and perfectly timed.  To add to this as we contined on the journey, the path was filled with butterflys, a favourite symbol of transformation.

Three things this event offers for the spiritual journey.  One, sometimes one has to pause and wait for the Spirit to respond.  Sometimes the distraction has to move on before we are ready to see the work of God in our lives.  Two, we need to trust the Holy One to respond when we step forward and follow through on the planned ritual.  Three we must watch for the signs of The Presence in the timelines of the ordinary and the extraordinary. 

Describing this experience does not share the reality.  It is easy enough to explain away both the wind and the butterflys but spiritual meaning comes from the heart.  We give meaning to an experience because or our hopes and our spiritual needs.  

In our lives and in the life of our church, we need to keep our hearts open to the timely intervention of the  Holy One. 

Peace Bill

Pushing through and a Mountain welcome

August  3rd Sunday, one day short of,the iron cross, it was along 26km walk today but the weather was cool and we broken up the walk with early lunch stop in Astorga.  Tomorrow we will reach the ferro crux (iron cross). It sits atop a high pole at an elevation of 1500 meters.  

But just before Astorga on the hill top we were welcomed by David.  He lives in the ruins of an old stone house summer and winter.  Each day he welcomes pilgrims on their way, offering refreshments and food.   It is his ministry.  He has created a shelter beside one of old stone walls and has his bed under the roof the open air.  Imagine the committment to serve in this way.  He takes donations but this is hardly enough to sustain him.   Such committment is perhaps what is missing in our lives.  I not saying we all have go live on a mountian but it is a gift to live ones fully dedicated to your calling and passion.  

We admire people who give so much of themselves for the sake of others.  The Camino is full of stories of people who served beyond what seemed humanly reasonably.  In past centuries they were made saints. Santo Domingo is one example.  But our admiration and the sanctification becomes a means to  excuses ourselves from serving, working or giving to change the world, or even the sacred acts of simple compassion for others.  

It may seem monumental for someone to walk 780 km but while doing the walk it is truly one day at a time.  We aren't walking 780km but 20km today or just 4km between rest points, just a few more steps along the way between each breath.  Keeping this in mind in ines daily life will perhaps keep things in prespective.  Keeping this in mind for the journey of the church will perhaps help to keep the focus today's ministries rather future demise or glory.  

The days that followed were long.  We walked past Astroga to El Ganso in preparation to make our ascent to the Iron Cross.  The next day was 26km over the mountain and took us to Acebo.  There was long hard decent to finish the day.   

The evening gave us a beautiful so sun set viewed from the window of our hostel room. 

In my next post I will share our experience at the Iron Cross.   Bill

Hornets and Moving again

Fun times today with a hornet or two.  Stopping to take sand out of my shoes both Kelly and I were stung by a horent. First Kelly then as I was helping getting an antihistamine and one got me.  I jumped two feet.   Sometimes things just reach out and bite you.  It certianly took my mind off of the blisters on my feet which are much better.  We walked for the last two days, 20 and 21 kilometres which is so satisfying to be back in the waking partnering.  Last night true to form for a Friday night the local community had all night dance party with loud music, 9:00pm to 7:00am.   We had very distrubed sleep.   

But we are walking!  The walking gives us purpose again. The three recovery days were necessary but it was hard to stop our primary purpose.  I wonder if this is the feeling of congregation in  time of transistion.  The primary purpose is paused as the congregation seeks to heal, or seek the path, new or old.  But pausing I the journey requires courage.  Even while I knew that rest days were needed I resisted.  After the fact it is clear that it was the correct decision.  

Then on our second day of walking again we get stung by a hornet!  I could imagine a congregation experiencing the first new steps on a new found path and then giving up because something stung them.  A sacred elder passed, someone steals the office computer, the PA system fails, an essential volunteer moves away or no shows up for the new community outreach ministry or one of a thousand other perceived set backs.  What we discovered in our hornet incident is that we were prepared.  We had antihistamine, and iodine.  We also discovered help was at hand.  Moments later a couple arrived to hear our story and they offered cortisone cream.  Perfect.  I cannot help but think that the Divine Spirit was at play.   Be prepared but be willing to accept help.   Good advise for our pilgrimage, good advice for a church, good advice in life in general.  By the way hornets are even bigger jerks than wasps!

There is something deeply satisfying about walking again.  The purpose part is true and makes sense but there is more to than just a basic purpose. We are on the move, and once again experiencing new things and doing this with our own strength and intelligence. It isn't just purpose it is sastifaction, the pleasure of being good and tired at the end of the day, food tastes better, views are earned and thus more inspiring, and arrivals at the end of the days journey feels like an accomplishment.  Something has been gained.  

There is the reconnection with the moving community.  We met anne set of pilgrims these past two days, each with their own story,but each sharing some of our experiences.  We et a coupe from California starting a years travelling with the Camino.  We met a group six young women from Lithuania.  We met a Spanish man laid up for two days with a nasty blister.  The list goes on.  Our community of fellow, pilgrims expands and we are enriched by the experience.  This reconnection is very much part of the greater meaning of the journey.