A Little Book on the Camino: A Sacred Journey into New Life

By Rev. John J. Lombardi

“Walking the Camino was a “bucket list” item for me. It stretched me physically and spiritually. I came home realizing that life is like the Camino-a way that Christ asks me to walk with all its ups and downs, joys and trials and I am called to persevere with Him to the end! Some highlights - the serenity of the countryside, the quaint villages and churches, and pilgrims from all over the world.”

+Stephanie Rubeling, mother and pilgrim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664186385

Rev. John J. Lombardi

Rev. John J. Lombardi is a Catholic priest of thirty years of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and is pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Western Md. He enjoys the mystical life of the Catholic-Christian Church, outdoor activities and social outreach, and pilgrimages to both local and foreign lands to serve the Lord especially in the poor and needy. He loves the balance in discipleship between spirituality and activities and wants to pass this on to you!

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Copyright © 2021 by Rev. John J. Lombardi.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/29/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 What Is a Pilgrimage?

Chapter 2 On Pilgrimages

Chapter 3 On the Camino

Chapter 4 O Cebreiro: The Beginning of the Camino

Chapter 5 Day One: O Cebreiro to Triacastela

Chapter 6 Day Two: Triacastela to Sarria

Chapter 7 Day Three: Sarria to Portomarin

Chapter 8 Day Four: Portomarin to Palas de Rei

Chapter 9 Day Five: Palas de Rei to Arzúa

Chapter 10 Day Six: Arzúa to O Pedrouzo (Arca do Pino)

Chapter 11 Day Seven: O Pedrouzo-Arca to Santiago

Chapter 12 After Walking the Camino

Chapter 13 Bringing the Camino Home

Epilogue

To all those who

walked the Camino with me in

2017, prayerfully witnessing our faith, may you, and

all, continue The Way to God, our Lord!

Thank you to Marge Redmond who graciously edited this

as a manuscript; Susan Miller and Laura Hamilton and

Amanda Miller who reviewed and produced it and who

supported me in this spiritual and literary venture!

INTRODUCTION

Camino Traditional Prayer in Honor of Saint James

O God, who brought your servant Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans, protecting him in his wanderings, who guided the Hebrew people across the desert, we ask that you watch over us, your servants, as we walk in the love of your name to Santiago de Compostela.

Whether you are working in the world, forming a family, discerning your vocation in life, or going on vacation, you are a pilgrim, for the word pilgrim literally means to go through.

We are all traveling through a time, a land—this earth—to heaven, our homeland.

We are all pilgrims.

Wonder

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. St. Augustine

For centuries, pilgrims have been traveling the Camino, a sacred walkway mostly through Spain with the endpoint culmination at Santiago de Compostela in famed and beautiful Galicia. I’ve now walked the Camino or the Way, as it is also called, or at least part of it two times, beginning both trips from the small town of O Cebreiro in the Pyrenees foothills. This particular segment is a microcosm of life—embodying all the ups and downs and frowns that abounds in life (see below)—and so you learn from it, this sacred walkway, the Camino, by plodding one step at a time.

In 2010, I first went to the Camino with a group of fifteen. We walked from O Cebreiro to Santiago in seven stages, averaging about fourteen miles per day. As a pilgrim in the summer of 2018, many companions and I covered the same pilgrimage route as years earlier. Our primary reason to do so was to experience pilgrimaging and to learn just what it means to be a pilgrim in this fast, busy, and technological life of the modern world. While reading about this latter journey, I hope that the Camino will teach you about life, yourself, and God. Perhaps, at some time, you will walk it yourself, but if you cannot go, maybe this little book will let you experience some of it.

What Can You Expect to Experience?

Ups: Fun, festive meals together after a long day of walking, sweat, and tiredness. Food, fellowship, and fun satisfy and offset the daily walk grind. A little Spanish wine helps too!

Downs: On our initial journey to the Camino, our plane got postponed. But we rebounded. While walking the Camino, we got lost a few times, sometimes became frustrated, and then walked more and more. We also lost luggage in our travels and worked through that too.

Frowns: With fellow pilgrims getting fatigued and dealing with challenging medical conditions, we all had to overcome and persevere just as in daily life.

Abounds: We experienced transcendent moments like meeting a Latino couple who got engaged on the Camino and hiking in the Pyrenees Mountains with beautiful views that inspired us to go on!

The Holy Way

Walking is a beautiful activity that can eventually become intoxicating. Yes, even for a runner like me or any active person who thinks walking is for wimps, it becomes therapeutic. Jesus did it, and so did Henry David Thoreau, America’s great naturalist, who walked for hours each day, because, as he said, he needed to! Walking may not be in your nature as moving quickly is part of your daily life. So make a conscious effort to take down the pace. Tell yourself, Slow down. Relax. Detoxify. Actually experience the surroundings by walking.

In Latin, the Camino is called the Peregrinatio Compostelana, the Pilgrimage of Compostela, the Way of St. James. It winds through Spain and France to the holy place of Santiago de Compostela. The name Santiago developed by way of the Galician dialect (heard in northwestern Spain) from an ancient derivation of the name Saint Iago. Compostela means field of stars.

The word camino is from the Spanish and can mean road, path, or way. The Camino is all of these, but most especially, it is a sacred path. The Camino was formed during the Middle Ages, about AD 900. Holy souls have trod this sacred path for over a thousand years! Originally it was a holy route, a path laid out and suggested for a penitent so that he or she could make a religious journey for God, ending at the saint’s resting place.

The scallop shell is the most visible and pervasive symbol of the Camino and was used by pilgrims to prove they walked and completed the Camino. Today, this iconic scallop shell is emblazoned on concrete posts all along the Way as a means of directing a pilgrim on the Camino.

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The Camino is more than the sum of its parts. More on this later, but suffice it to say, the Camino is not just rubble and stones and walkways or walking and getting to a destination, although most certainly, forward movement over the path is part of the process. It is, as mentioned earlier, a sacred path trod by many millions of others, and so has accumulated a kind of cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1). This spiritual cloud is with us all along the Way, and of course, so is God himself and St. James, our patron.

When you walk the Camino, it usually consists of old roads, modern streets, or paths seemingly nothing more than stone, asphalt, or dirt. So how can this inert stuff change a person? How can it be (or become) so supernatural? We will attempt to answer this over the course of the book.

Just as an aside, Juan and Miguel, two Spanish pilgrims we met just before beginning the Camino, spoke of the Camino in supernatural terms; their language and demeanor were striking, intimating the true meaning of pilgrimage spirituality. They said things like, The Camino changes you and It is our destiny and It is a path of life. All very true and truly inspiring to hear!

We may divide and define the Camino in two broad ways: sacred and secular. Some who walk the Camino are religious, perhaps Catholic or Christian. Others are spiritual walkers without a specific label but who walk with a general sacred intention. Others, sometimes known as secularists, walk the Way for personal reasons or physical fitness. Nowadays, the Camino has become many things to various people (or pilgrims), but originally, as we have stressed, it was a sacred Christian route. So in a way, we Christians and Catholics must reclaim it.

There are many routes, eight major ones—including from Portugal (Lisbon), north to Santiago, from Madrid and Barcelona, and the Primitive Route along the coast of northern Spain, and so forth. The traditional route of the Camino is known as the French Way. Traveling from St. Jean Pied De Port-Roncesvalles, France, to Santiago, it is one of the longest routes, nearly five hundred miles.

The Road Ahead

While thinking about traveling—and pilgrimages—ponder this meditative thought by a great traveler and pilgrim Thomas Merton:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do