The Sisters of the Sacred Heart who care for the pilgrims who visit the church of San Esteban at Zabaldika share their love and wisdom so freely. Their stamp in my pilgrim’s passport sums it up, the open heart of God surrounding the world.
They have written down words of encouragement and challenge for pilgrims which I share below.
EL CAMINO
The journey makes you a pilgrim. Because the way to Santiago is not only a track to be walked in order to get somewhere, nor is it a test to reach any reward. El Camino de Santiago is a parable and a reality at the same time, because it is done both within and outside in the specific time that takes to walk each stage, and along the entire life if only you allow the Camino to inhabit you, to transform you and make you to a pilgrim.
The Camino makes you simpler, because the lighter the backpack the less strain to your back and the more you will experience how little you need to be alive.
The Camino makes you brother/sister. Whatever you have you must be ready to share because even if you started on your own, you will meet companions. The Camino breeds about community: community that greets the other, that takes interest in how the walk is going for the other, that talks and shares with the other.
The Camino makes demands on you. You must get up even before the sun in spite of tiredness or blisters; you must walk in the darkness of night while dawn is growing, you must get the rest that will keep you going.
The Camino call you to contemplate, to be amazed, to welcome, to interiorize, to stop, to be quiet, to listen to, to admire, to bless … nature, our companions on the journey, our own selves, God.
Communidad Sagrado Corazon – Zabaldika, Navarra, Espana.
The Beatitudes of the Pilgrim
Communidad Sagrado Corazon. Zabaldika, Navarra, Espana.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you discover that the road opens your eyes to the unseen.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if what concerns you most is not getting there, but getting there with others.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, when you contemplate the road and discover it full of names and dawns.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if your backpack is emptying of things and your heart does not know where to hang so many emotions.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you discover that one step back to help another is worth more than a hundred steps forward without looking at your side.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, when you lack words to express your gratitude for all that surprises you at every turn of the road.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you make your way a life and your life a journey, in search of the One who is the “Way, the Truth and the Life”.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim if on the way you meet yourself and give yourself time without haste so as not to neglect your heart.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you discover that the road has much to do with silence, and silence with prayer; and prayer with the encounter with the God of Love who awaits you.
- Blessed are you, pilgrim, for you will discover that the true journey begins when it ends.