The Markings along the Way. November 10, 2012

You can't walk the camino only using a guided map: you have to have the concrete and hopefully visible signs or markers to guide your pilgrim way. The yellow arrows, the yellow shells, the bronze shells emblazoned in the highway, the red and white blocks of color....these markers guided us along the way. You miss one and you can walk miles off the way and become list. Getting lost is part of the camino which means you walk a lot more than 500 miles.

I do not like the city of Logrono because I got really lost with a backpack that "broke" of so I thought. While walking in the city I couldn't find one of the markers. My backpack was starting to hurt so I tightened one of the cords But something seemed to snap and one of the plastic buckles flew off one of the cords. I thought the backpack was "broken" so I went on a long odyssey, yes odyssey, through Logrono trying to find a store to buy a new backpack. In my broken Spanish and talent in charades, I was directed to a store. The only backpack they had was a child's made for school with Mickey Mouse on it. Another store only had the book type of backpack. I kept walking and walking with an unbalanced backpack weighing 35 pounds on my back. None of the "markers" was evident. I kept asking, "where is the camino?" Some just shrugged their shoulders. I started to become furious and entered a restaurant where I announced to the waiter that I was lost. He pointed where the camino was but I was having none of it. So I asked a guy quietly eating his food, " please show me the way?" He smiled and walked me out of the restaurant and physically brought me on the road leading directly to the camino. What a kind man. He grasped me, hugged me and said "buen camino." What am angel!

We need to be shown the "WAY" markers along the camino or path of life. We have those markers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Mary and joseph; Teresa of Avila ; the Eucharist ; the sacraments ; the prophets; scripture; tradition; prayer; the saints; pilgrimage ; the parish community of catholic faith. These are our markings along the journey. They keep us on the Path of Life... of the Way. We need them. Let us thank God for them and never lose sight of them. May they be our treasures, treasures of the heart, leading us into the Kingdom.

PS: the backpack wasn't broken. I just had to learn how to put that plastic buckle back on. What saved me was the red scarf given me by Liza and Pete. That scarf kept my shoulders harnesses together.
Buen camino. Padre