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Camino Santiago
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January 1, 2023I have been asked to give a second reflection on my Camino journey which I happily said yes to. One of the greatest blessings of walking the Camino has been the ability to share the Camino with others. Sharing my journal articles on Facebook while I was walking and then speaking to people about my experience since I have been home has brought me great joy.
One of the most common questions I have gotten from people when asked about my Camino experience is: “Did the Camino change me?” The short answer to that question is “Yes.” And then I follow that yes with “it made me stronger.” Now obviously, walking 500 miles in 26 days made a tremendous impact on my physical strength. I lost weight during the Camino and gained muscle. My cardiovascular strength was better than maybe it had ever been in my life. But the real strength that I felt increased was more internal. It was a strengthening in virtue. The Catechism has defined virtue as “habitual and firm disposition to do good” (CCC 1833). The virtues help us habitually do what is good.
As we begin this new year, many of us will make new year’s resolutions. These are typically connected to a desired growth in healthy habits or healthy virtues. We have probably all experienced in the past making these new year’s resolutions only to find ourselves failing and abandoning them almost as soon as we make them. I definitely have experienced this personally. But how can this be different for us?
As I prepared for my Camino journey, there was a conscious desire in me for growth. Growth in physical health was of course there but more importantly growth in spiritual health. I felt a desire to grow in freedom in my life and to grow in my ability to love God and serve God with a renewed strength. The Camino helped to give me a focus and a structure to aid me in achieving these goals. As I mentioned in my previous article, before I began the Camino, I lost 25 pounds. This was accomplished through a change in my diet and the extra physical conditioning that I did to prepare for my long journey. I would walk back and forth with my heavy pack over the bridge by Terrebonne General Hospital and I took a Saturday journey from St. Bernadette in Houma to St. Genevieve in Thibodaux in the hot summer heat. The goal of being able to be successful on the Camino helped me to be focused on my training.
While on the Camino, several things helped me to accomplish growth. The first and most profound thing was the increase of silence while walking. Walking for an average of eight hours a day, some days as much as 10, gave me a tremendous amount of time for quiet reflection. I used this time to pray devotional prayers like the rosary and divine mercy chaplet but also to do a lot of listening to God. God spoke through all sorts of ways on the Camino and I was in a posture of being able to listen because of the silence.
Another help to this growth was a specific destination to my journey. I knew I wanted to make it to the tomb of St. James in Santiago, and I knew I had a limited time to do that. I knew I wanted to walk the full 500 miles. This specific destination motivated me every day to hit the trail and walk the miles. There were days that I was tired and sore, but I pushed through and began again every day. Recognizing that the destination of Santiago was a symbol for me of my true destination of heaven put it all in perspective. I wanted to reach Santiago but much more importantly, I want to reach heaven.
Another help to this growth was doing it every day. Pushing myself physically and spiritually for that long of a time made my daily walking and daily prayer and listening habitual. It became easier to do it as the time went on because a habit was being formed. A virtue was being strengthened. The virtue that I saw being cultivated was the virtue of fortitude. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the virtue of fortitude as “the cardinal virtue that ensures a steadiness of the will in the pursuit of the good notwithstanding any difficulties” (CCC 1808).
Through daily spiritual and physical conditioning, my will was being strengthened. These helps that the Camino offered me helped me to grow in this virtue of fortitude which made me stronger to persevere in the things that God has asked of me. Sometimes, we need these helps to help us to accomplish our resolutions.
As I said in my last article, I am not speaking about the Camino simply to advertise it. Some may be able to make the specific journey, but some may not. But all of us can identify the potential helps in our lives to help us to grow in the ways God calls us to grow. St. Francis de Sales says, “All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be.”
Happy New Year to all of you and let us pray for one another as commit again to growth in the Lord.
(Very Rev. André Melancon, V.F., is the pastor of St. Bernadette Church parish in Houma, and the dean of the Terrebonne Deanery.)