Thursday, February 18, 2021

El Camino - The Way #2

El Camino - Spanish meaning - The Way.  For this Lent my intent is to help lead everyone on a journey from Ash Wednesday through the 40 days of Lent - ending at the celebration of Easter. This journey will follow the journey that my wife and I made in the fall of 2013 - when we did a walking pilgrimage - starting at our home in Illinois to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  A journey that began in October 2012 and ended in October 2013. The back story - we had been invited by a friend to view the movie starring Martin Sheen called The Way.  At the end my wife turned to me and asked "how would you like to do this?"  I replied  it was only a movie - but turned to the computer to verify - my surprise - to learn that The Way - El Camino de Santiago de Compostela was a legitimate pilgrimage going back a thousand years or more. After some serious discussion - we made the commitment to learn - prepare - execute that pilgrimage.  The video below is a short overview of The Way 

Camino Video Clip

At that point in time we had already been gaining experience on international travel during the previous thirteen years - selecting places to visit - learning languages - local customs -  travel requirements so we could confidently travel to foreign places - initially just the two of us - then - starting in 2010 leading pilgrimages of groups to Israel - Poland - Italy.  Any undertaking like this takes Faith.  Faith in God - Faith in ourselves - Faith that we would be able to actually do this.  Just as we begin our Lenten journey - all of us pray that we will be able to walk these next days in Faith.

Deacon Dale