For several years now, since I first heard about it, I have been keen to walk the Camino de Santiago or Way of St James. My appetite was whetted in 2009 when I walked an ancient Irish Pilgrim Path in Dingle, Co. Kerry for three days with an American friend and subsequently co-authored a book on the path called Cosan Na Naomh - Walking the Saint's Road. As part of the research for the book I read quite a bit about the Camino de Santiago and discovered that many Medieval Irish pilgrims actually set off by boat to Northern Spain from Dingle Town - the starting point for the Saint's Road as well.
I came to realise that walking the Camino would combine many of my interests; walking as a pilgrim in the fresh air would be enjoyable and physically challenging compared with my work life sitting in a modern office all day and my love of history and nature would be nourished as I walked through the historic villages, towns, cities and diverse landscapes of Northern Spain.
But these were not the only reasons for walking the Camino. Being an Evangelical Christian, I am not a Catholic and in many ways am not impressed by the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church. It may therefore seem strange at first glance, for someone from my stream of Christianity to want to walk the Camino as a pilgrim, but I don't believe it is! I have experienced the grace, acceptance and love of God over many years and although I can't subscribe to the teachings, traditions and rituals associated with the Camino I knew that in the act of walking the path I could still make it a time of withdrawal from "normal life" for solitude, Christian reflection and meditation and seeking after God.
Peter Grieg, one of the founders of the 24/7 prayer movement notes that "Atheism is the religion of the busy" and that to more effectively hear God we need to "slow down and soften up". He also argues that "it is ok to hear God the way he has made you". And Richard Foster in his book "Celebration of Discipline" contends that "we must seek out the recreating stillness of solitude if we want to be with others meaningfully". Some may think it self indulgent of me to walk the Camino and take time out for myself, but as Foster observes "to enter solitude we must disregard what others think of us. Who will understand this call to aloneness? Even our closest friends will see it as a waste of precious time and as rather selfish and self-centred". I realise that I am a person who hears God best when I take time out to withdraw from the "rat race"; not to become a hermit, but to be rejuvenated and put God back at the centre of my life so that I can more effectively serve others; to deny this is to deny who I am and I suspected that time walking the Camino would allow me to do this and refocus. When my friend Ben suggested we walk a section of the Camino in 2014, I knew it was time to stop talking and start walking!
The aim of this blog is to share my experiences walking the Camino de Santiago with my friends and family and anyone else who might be interested. Primarily, I am really writing it for my own amusement!
There are many Camino paths to the city of Santiago de Compostela; The French Route or Camino Frances from St Jean Pied De Port in France via Roncesvalles, the Camino Portugues from Porto or Lisbon, the Camino del Norte along the Northern Basque Coast, the Silver Way or Via de la Plata from Cadiz & Seville - these are but a few of them, and of course the pilgrim paths stretch back across Europe to Paris, Maastricht, Le Puy, Arles and even Budapest! I hope to walk some of these Caminos, but to begin with this blog is focussing on the Camino Frances. I can't walk the whole route at once as I don't have the annual leave from work and I don't think my wife would be happy, but over the next few years I hope to gradually walk the whole of the route, in sections of a week or so, blogging on the things that interest me as I walk.
I hope you enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment