Why We Walk

Prior to each of our previous Camino pilgrimages, I’ve tried to articulate why it is that we walk. Everybody’s answer is, of course, different. It has ever been thus.

Before my first Camino, I had this sense that God was calling me to it, and maybe that was enough of a reason. Maybe it was partly the sense of adventure that drew me, or the idea that I would be walking through these villages that millions of pilgrims had trod before in pursuit of holiness. Who knows?

The twelfth century the Codex Calixtinus has this to say on the topic:

The pilgrim route is for… the thwarting of the body, the increase of virtues, pardon for sins, sorrow for the penitent, the road of the righteous, love of the saints, faith in the resurrection and the reward of the blessed, a separation from hell, the protection of the heavens.

It takes us away from luscious foods, it makes gluttonous fatness vanish, it restrains voluptuousness, constrains the appetites of the flesh which attack the fortress of the soul, cleanses the spirit, leads us to contemplation, humbles the haughty, raises up the lowly, loves poverty. It hates the reproach of those fueled by greed.

It loves, on the other hand, the person who gives to the poor. It rewards those who live simply and do good works.

Each time I’ve walked, I’ve come with prayer intentions and with something I needed to bring to the Lord. Now, you can obviously do that anytime and anywhere – and you should.

There’s something to be said for devoting days or weeks to it, however. And there is certainly a sense on the Camino that God is perhaps more imminent, that miracles and wonders are around every bend in the road.

Whether this is true, or whether we’ve just put ourselves in a place to better notice the miracles and wonders that are always happening everywhere is a question I’ll leave to the theologians.

We leave in just over two weeks, and I thought I’d share just two of the intentions I’m bringing with me on pilgrimage.

I walk for my late granddaughter, Charlotte Franchesca Robinowitz, taken from this life when only a few hours old, and for the healing of her parents.

I walk for my late parish priest, Rev. Michael Wagner. Once when we were discussing the Camino, Father told me he would love to go.

Though he never will walk in Spain, I will carry his photo with me, so perhaps this is his way of “going on Camino”.

There are other prayers and intentions and conundrums I carry with me, of course. And years down the road when I do this again, there will be still others.

So why walk the Camino? Perhaps the best answer is still that God calls me to it.