Friday, April 22, 2016

El Camino 2016 - Pilgrimage

We are all pilgrims: temporary resident aliens passing through this world; exiles on a homeward journey to the Father, hungry and thirsty for personal discovery, questing for eternal meaning and truth.  It’s life-long, sometimes it feels like merely aimless wandering, while at other times we tap into an evidently greater call and purpose beyond ourselves.
We’re all on this journey. Some just never realize it, but spend their lives trapped seeking personal gratification, fearful or just unmotivated to venture beyond their comfortable horizon and break through mystery into revelation. 
The answer lies somewhere out there … beyond… within.
I’ve journeyed to Jerusalem, Rome, and Auschwitz and other pilgrim destinations, even searched out family roots in Poland and Russia, but a couple years ago I saw The Way, a movie by Martin Sheen + his son Emilio Estevez, about The Way of St. James, a Medieval pilgrim route from various parts of Europe culminating in northern Spain:
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Its simplicity caught my attention; last year my son, Michael watched it also and this year we walked part of its 800 kilometers together over 14 days.
‘Change’ has been a constant for our family since Erica’s death almost 3 years ago, and The Way helped bring healing as we walked that same route where little has changed over the last 1200 years and countless others have found solace along its timeless paths.




So I invite you to join me on pilgrimage over the next 2 weeks: different places, people and events; pictures, stories and insights along the way. You can take a FB shortcut here or just click on my blog: henryschmidt.blogspot.com  for a more in-depth journey. And as peregrinos = pilgrims encourage each other along their way: ‘Buen Camino!’ 

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