Pilgrims Way

A graffiti-scrawled message on a Camino waymarker challenges a woman to reconsider the rules for pilgrimage that seemed so clear and straightforward to her nearly a decade earlier and to find compassion for herself and others making their own way.

During Vespers in an ancient convent, a pilgrim on the Camino de San Juan de la Cruz is delighted to discover the townsfolk and friars in attendance using a smartphone app to follow the Evening Prayer. Ever since, on most days he accesses the app on his own phone to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, finding a modern means of keeping an ancient practice.

Upon returning from her first Camino, a woman speaks with a priest who tells her pilgrims have only one obligation once they come home: they must talk about their pilgrimage, to share the experience. Fourteen years later and so many pilgrimages since, the self-described natural born storyteller is still talking about her Camino.

A pilgrim offers advice for coping with the post-Camino disorientation and sadness some can experience upon returning home.

Being active with his local American Pilgrims chapter helps a man find a sense of continuing community that allows him to relive his Camino experiences anew while helping others foster their own.

A man embarks on a Camino with four other older gentlemen, and along the way learns lessons about the trials, tribulations, and tensions that can arise on a challenging journey amidst group dynamics. Despite these many lessons, he is still grateful for the experience and his traveling companions.

A woman realizes she is the most organized, most patient, and best version of herself on the Camino, and she wonders how she can reboot herself to be that person at home.

A man who lost his father before he turned 30 and chose a career caring for those facing the end of life taught his son to make every moment count. When that man died, his son sought to carry on his father’s example, creating meaningful experiences with his children, including a 12-year-daughter with whom he walked the Camino. Connecting with her in that moment helped him feel connected to his late father, too.

As she sits in a rustic, rural church on the Meseta, a woman notices a patch of light dance across the sanctuary wall, and in that moment senses a spiritual invitation to “Always look for the light.” As she continues on her Camino, she finds abundant time with sunlight to recognize how her soul experiences God. Back home, she makes a daily practice of noticing how the shifting sunlight draws her pilgrim soul’s attention to the light of God within her.

A woman spots an infographic in Santiago that heightens her awareness for how we can all do our part to be good citizens of the Camino.