Peripatetic Prayer

Yesterday, Jenny and I entered the middle phase of the Camino de Santiago, known as the Meseta, the plains. However, day one of the plains was a different experience for each of us. Jenny took a taxi as she didn't feel well and I walked the 30 kilometers. 

Some describe the Camino as being in three phases: mind, body, and soul. The first phase is a challenge to the body as pilgrims battle long, steep ascents and descents which challenge knees, hips and feet often creating shin splints and blistered feet over those first 300kms. The middle section is deemed "the mind", as it challenges one's resolve over the ensuing few hundred kilometers and engenders reflection and contemplation. The initial excitement has past as has the more dramatic scenery and the long grind of the plains has begun. The third and final stage is labeled "the spirit", reflecting the joy of  anticipated completion and the soul being lifted as one arrives at the Cathedral of Santiago. 

This first day of our Meseta experience was, as we sometimes say sarcastically, "special". Naturally, I didn't like being separated from my wife, but having our phones meant we could be in touch. As it turned out there was no cell coverage all day, which left me concerned about her health and her concerned about my feet. It was a cold and windy 5 degrees Celsius and after walking 10kms I was very excited to get my first coffee of the day and some breakfast as I entered the village of Hornillos. No coffee to be found. Eighteen kilometers in, one of the blisters on my foot burst painfully, sucking out what little of my soul remained in my body after the great coffee let down of Hornillos. While I did secure a "breakfast" of a sandwich, coffee and pint of beer at 11:45, I still had 10kms remaining, which by now had become rather painful on my blistered and cracked feet. (I am keenly aware that some of you endure incredible physical and emotional hardship everyday, so please forgive my whining over small matters).

There were highlights to this uncomfortable day too. Although I walked alone I did have several uplifting encounters including bumping into Benedict, a delightful chap we met 3 days ago. There were vast fields of wheat punctuated by seemingly random fields of stunning red poppies and paths lined with all manner of cheerful wildflowers in yellow, white and purple.

I must say though, that the dominate themes of yesterday's journey were prayer and simply, painfully, and silently putting one foot in front of the other for 7 hours. The "Mind" moniker given to the Meseta region already began to make sense. And let's be honest, this reality of walking the plains is an apropos metaphor for how we experience life in various stages, grinding it out, step by step.

Over the 7 hours I naturally engaged my usual prayer liturgy, which when interspersed by short chats with fellow peregrinos (as pilgrims are called in Spain), my many scattered thoughts and the occasional pause to take a picture, might last an hour. I also spend perhaps thirty minutes engaged in something like repetition of the Jesus Prayer or a short breathing prayer. For those of you keeping score at home, as baseball broadcasters say, this left me with five and half hours of, well, just walking. Silently walking. This leads me to reflect on St. Theophan and Sister Maria.

The 19th century Russian Orthodox monk St. Theophan the Recluse was celebrated for his teachings on how to live the spiritually life. He said this about prayer, "The principal thing is to stand before God with the mind in the heart and to go on standing before Him unceasingly, day and night until the end of life." I like this distillation of what it is to pray and trust Theophan would not object to the substitution of "walk before God" for "stand before God". After all, life necessitates motion. We are all peregrinos in some fashion. My silent walking was also prayer.

I wrote about Sister Maria of Zabaldika in a previous post. One item she gives each pilgrim is a paper called The Beatitudes for Pilgrims, though I do not know the authorship of these sayings. The 9th beatitude states, "Blessed are you, pilgrim, if you discover that the road has much to do with silence; and silence with prayer; and prayer with encounter with the God of love who awaits you." As we walk the Meseta I think this will become clearer.

As stated above, there were small delights along yesterday's path.  One I failed to mention was the Cuculinae, or cuckoo birds that have been daily companions during our walks. Until this trip I had only heard this sound coming from old "cuckoo clocks", which have largely gone the way of another famous bird, the dodo. The call of this bird, which I have yet to actually see, makes me smile every time as it strikes me as comical, almost cartoon like.

In the silent prayer of walking these small delights feel oddly important, I might even say sacramental. They are reminders of grace and of God in the simple monotony of putting one foot in front of the other.  I am told that Pastor Richard, who is covering for me during this sabbatical, shared these words from Elizabeth Barret Browning last Sunday: "Earth is crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God: but only he who sees takes off his shoes." Whatever your path brings today I hope you keep walking and that you also see flowers, encounter friends and hear birds and maybe even take off your shoes - not to replace dressings on blistered feet but out of awe of the presence of God.

Posts in this series:
Welcome to The Long Walk
Ent-ish

Fog and Crosses 

Zabaldika

The Alto de Perdon

Peripatetic Prayer

Odds and Ends

Common slogans on the Camino

Holy

Trees and Time

...   

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