Welcome to La Concha. Read first hand accounts of pilgrim experiences along The Way.
A man walking the Camino Francés encounters a group of Lithuanian pilgrims. When they learn he is an Episcopal priest, many in the group ask for his blessing. He, in turn, discovers that through the connections made, they had also blessed him with a wonderful memory of unity and friendship.
A 64-year-old woman on her first Camino in France forms a special bond with two 26-year-olds from Belgium and Germany. They stayed in the same places, shared meals, and looked out for each other. She didn’t know the expression then, but they’d become a Camino family.
The prayerful hymn “How Great Thou Art” carried and comforted a woman as she experienced an overwhelming sense of unity with God and humankind through the joy of nature’s tranquil beauty along the pilgrim’s path.
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.