Striking Out: Poems and stories from the Camino

By Stephen Cottrell

On a September morning, Bishop Stephen Cottrell said mass in his chapel, kissed his wife goodbye, stepped out of his front door and walked two miles to the nearest station. It was the start of a 700 kilometre pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.



Choosing the least travelled route across northern Spain, he craved the solitude of the road and felt the small vulnerabilities of not knowing what each day would bring - where meals or a bed would be found - would be beneficial. As a busy diocesan bishop, he looked forward not so much to arriving at the great destination, but to what the journey itself would reveal to him.



This is a spiritual diary of that journey, comprising reflections, prayer poems and evocative images from the road and poetry which Stephen Cottrell has written for many years. Arranged in four sections, each with seven paired reflections and poems, the shape of the book echoes the rhythm of walking and is an intimate and honest account of the profound effect of the age-old tradition of going on pilgrimage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786221186

Stephen Cottrell

Stephen Cottrell is the Archbishop of York.

Book preview

Contents

Title

Dedication

List of Photographs

Introduction

Week one

1 Starting with myself

2 These are the steps I am taking today

3 Yellow arrows

4 I know a man who carries heavy loads

5 Walking in the autumn of the world

6 The effort and intensity of stillness

7 The spaces in-between

Week two

8 Locked doors

9 Consider the lilies

10 Pearl of great price

11 A stone rolled away

12 Carrying his stamp

13 St James

14 If you don’t lose yourself

Week three

15 Walking? I remember that

16 The tenacity of love

17 Footprints

18 The road given

19 If Mondrian did clouds

20 I leapt! I leapt!

21 Even shadows

Week four

22 Barn owl

23 I haven’t seen my shadow for a while

24 In order to be still

25 Emmaus

26 Today, the road ahead

27 All pilgrims keep

28 Why are you walking?

Acknowledgements

Copyright

Blessed are those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage

Psalm 84.5 (Jerusalem Bible)

For all who walk and for all who dream of walking.

List of Photographs

First steps in Spain

One of the first yellow arrows I saw

The way through the mountains of northern Spain

On the way to the Albergue in Serdio

A welcome sign at Ribadesella

The pilgrim greeting

Welcome refreshment

At Poago, between Gijon and Aviles

Towards Llanes

Walking by the road at Tabaza

My blister

Food for pilgrims

Entering Galicia

On the way to Llanes

The sky above Sobrado

On the road to Arzua

Early morning outside Ribadeo

Nearly there

Arriving in Miraz

The robin who prayed with me outside Santiago

An arrow on the path outside Miraz

Just outside El Pito

At Mompia on the road from Santiago

In the cathedral at Santiago, 5 October 2016

Introduction

We must be the first generation of Christians who think that pilgrimage is about arriving rather than travelling. Nowadays going on pilgrimage often means just booking a coach and visiting a holy place. Our forebears knew the truth we have neglected: that all the important things are learned on the road.

I walked to Santiago for all sorts of reasons, but most of all because I craved the solitude of the road and reckoned I would benefit from the small vulnerabilities that come with not quite knowing where the next meal is coming from or where I’ll sleep that night. I’m also one of those people who needs to keep moving in order to be still.

It was good to have a destination, especially one as venerable as Santiago, but what I looked forward to was ‘each step’ of a journey.

Known as the Camino – Spanish for ‘the way’ – the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is perhaps the greatest walking pilgrimage in the world. Over many centuries thousands of people have made the journey.

I walked a very large chunk of the Camino del Norte, the ancient northern route to Santiago that begins in Irun. I joined the route at Santander, and over the course of three and a half weeks walked the 700km to Santiago. That was about 30km a day.

It is said to be the hardest route, physically, though I didn’t realize that when I chose it. It just fitted in with my desire to start from my own front door. I’ll say more about that later.

It is also the route with the fewest other pilgrims, and this suited me. The most popular route, through the centre of Spain from the Pyrenees, can get very crowded in the summer months. The Camino