Reflections on Christian Pilgrimage: My trip on the Camino Ingles 2025
Note: We’ll resume on Monday with the Bible in a Year posts, picking up on the readings for March, day 15: Numbers 28-30, Psalm 36.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Psalms 84:5)
Pilgrims were already making the journey to the site in Galician Spain on which St. James’ bones were reported to have been discovered in AD 814 when construction began on a cathedral in 1075. The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral was consecrated on April 21, 1211 and continues to welcome pilgrims to the completion of their journey, the magnificence of its architectural beauty a fitting symbol of undertaking this pilgrimage of spiritual significance.
Centuries later, the Camino de Santiago (“Way of St. James”) stands out as a premier walking pilgrimage in Christendom, though today the nearly half million a year who undertake the journey on one of dozens of routes may have deep faith or none whatsoever. All are seeking something.
In May 2024, a pastoral colleague friend and I discussed undertaking the Camino in 2025. By the end of July we had purchased plane tickets and were recruiting what would end up being seven more men to make a total of nine pilgrims for a trip over the last two weeks of February. I had been interested in doing this pilgrimage since hearing stories from my father-in-law, then others, several years ago. I love hiking long distances, spending the bulk of a day covering ground at the pace and from the perspective that come by traveling only in a pair of shoes.
The Camino Ingles (“English Way”) is 113.3 kilometers (about 70.4 miles) and is one of dozens of routes to Santiago that qualify one to receive a “compostela,” a certificate of completing the pilgrimage on a recognized route and with a required minimum distance travelled (100 km/62 miles). It begins in the port city of Ferrol in the northwest of Spain, follows the bay north before turning south on the opposite shore and meandering along shoreline and across countryside, through cities and hamlets, until it reaches the cathedral square in the old district of the modern city of Santiago. Traditionally, it is either a five or a six day Camino. Due to a delayed start to my trip, it was a five day Camino for me. This worked out to days of 20, 12.5, 15.5, 15.5, and 10 miles (yes, that adds up to more than 70.4—getting lost is an essential part of an authentic Camino experience, which I did on the first day for about 45 minutes until a gracious older gentlemen helped me get back on the correct route in Ferrol).
The travelogue and pictures from a trip like this is wonderful and interesting, of course, and I’ll continue to share that with folks as I have opportunity. Yet, the significance is in going on a pilgrimage not just on a trip. I’ll certainly continue to reflect on what my pilgrimage meant, but here’s a few meditations thus far.
Journey and Destination
The act of journeying is often the most transformative. We almost always learn the lessons and gain the experiences of wonder while we are on the way rather than once we have reached our destination. So, is it “about the journey and not about the destination” as is so commonly expressed?
My conclusion is no. Without the destination, their may be a lot of walking around, but there is no journey. As the Cheshire Cat told Alice, if you don’t know where you’re going then it doesn’t matter which way you take. The destination organizes and infuses purpose into the journey. A destination makes a journey possible. Yes, the journey may be the greater teacher, but arriving at the destination is a wonderfully satisfying and irreplaceable capstone to the journey and which gives it a beginning, middle, and end.
The Cathedral of Santiago with its relics of the saint, its monumental beauty, and its place of worship and devotion creates the very notion of a pilgrimage to go see it.
A physical pilgrimage like this is a metaphor, or if you prefer, one heck of an object lesson. My third day was the most demanding at 15.5 miles and almost 3000 feet of elevation gain. The real kicker, though, was six and a half hours of steady rainfall, light at first and then, well… not. It was a day of experiencing your gear hold up as long as it could, then piece by piece eventually surrender to inevitability. Yet, the end of the day still concluded with a warm meal, a washer/dryer, a hot shower, radiators to dry out gear, and a bed on which to sleep. Two days and many miles later, walking into Santiago on a crisp clear afternoon, I thought, “In the middle it seems like it will never end, but you keep walking and eventually, all of a sudden, it’s over.” This has rung true with anything I’ve experienced—good and bad, and going on pilgrimage provided a vivid illustration and reminder. Without a destination—an end, the journey would not have embodied for me this durable truth.
To Jesus, With Jesus
So, aside from a beautiful medieval cathedral and old city, what was my pilgrimage about? I’m a protestant (Methodist), not a Catholic, so while I do not rule out wonder in the world, I’m less drawn to do it for the relics at the end.
The spiritual architecture built by centuries of Christian pilgrims afforded me the opportunity to consider my pilgrimage to be what I believe is the heart of the Christian life: “to Jesus, with Jesus.” What do I mean by this?
Jesus is the end, goal, and purpose of our lives. A believer who is actively pursuing a Christian life is pursuing Jesus Himself—desiring to go deeper into the heart of Jesus to enjoy Him, to be formed in Him, to abide in Him—for the soul to find rest in Him. The Santiago cathedral provides a physical terminus that allows us to organize our time for a spiritual voyage deeper into the heart of Jesus and to recognize that this is the true end for our lives.
At the same time, Jesus is the Way. He is our guide and our teacher. He is the One who not only calls us to the journey, but also accompanies us as we walk the road.
As on the Camino, so in life—Jesus is my goal. And, Jesus is my way and companion.
Receiving an Encounter instead of Seeking an Answer
The prospect of walking with Jesus—through life and certainly through 70 miles of Galician countryside for just under a week—invites expectations for what may happen on the way. The temptation to go seeking answers is great. After all, I have questions and He has answers. This seems straightforward, doesn’t it?
However in the Gospels, we find many stories of people coming to Jesus seeking answers while He is more interested in leaving them with questions. People had profound experiences with God in both the Old Testament and New in which specific answers were less the point than a life-altering encounter.
When I walk with my mind and heart set on answers, I can be so locked into my narrow expectations that I miss what God actually wants to do with the time. I didn’t know what to expect other than plenty of miles, some solitude, some community, and a good adventure. Over the course of the Camino, I learned to begin each day open to how God wanted to spend the time and to trust Him to provide. Meditations, conversations, prayerful provisions, and lingering questions all came over the course of five days. Learning to receive the encounter was essential to recognizing blessings otherwise easily overlooked while obsessing over my agenda.
Ordinary Extraordinary Life
Finally, the Camino Ingles traversed port city and bay, industrial parks, business and commercial centers. It included quaint pubs and cafes and historic chapels. We saw large cities, tiny hamlets, and picturesque countryside. It was beautiful in many, many places. But it was also plain in many places and had eyesores in a few. In other words, the terrain of the Camino was the terrain of real life.
The locations of the Camino did not transport me from my real life to an idyllic one. But partaking of a place built along a centuries-old path did remind and reinforce for me that the pilgrimage called the Christian life happens in my real, ordinary extraordinary life. What sanctifies the terrain is not the way itself, but the One who is Lord of the way and Friend of anyone who endeavors to walk it in His company.
If you have an opportunity to go on pilgrimage, I recommend it. I may do another route someday. It’s possible I could be convinced to do one with you.
Thanks for sharing “the Way!”