Since Spain is not in the Lazzuri family’s travel plans, they’re recreating their own “camino” using local hikes, beaches, parks, and mountains. (Clare Lazzuri photo)
Have you found your “way”? I plan to find mine this summer.
“Camino” is the Spanish word for “way.” Most of us have heard of the famous Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James in Spain. For hundreds of years, countless pilgrims have made their “way” along varied routes, some for hundreds of kilometres, that culminate in the northwestern Spanish town of Compostelo.
The hike is supposed to be a spiritual pilgrimage, honouring the memory of the Apostle St. James, perhaps retracing some of his evangelizing steps. The journey can be physically gruelling, and thus a penitential experience. The Camino can foremost be a reminder of the greater pilgrimage we are all on in this life – following Jesus, who told us he is “the way, the truth and the life.”
Summertime equals travel time for many families. Many summers have found us on long road trips to see our American relatives. Some summers, like this one, we stick closer to home. Numerous ballgames will take us on the road a couple of hours away in a few different directions. We often manage to escape to a friend’s cottage in Prince Edward Island for a few relaxing days in August. But, overall, we won’t go far. And I’m glad about that because I want to make a local “camino” with my family.
Lately, my mind keeps coming back to the idea of pilgrimage and I don’t think we have to travel far to experience a journey that exercises both body and soul.
If there is one thing the 21st-century family knows, it’s busy-ness. Our lives are full of running from one thing to the next – school, work, sports, groceries, social activities, volunteering, etc. Too often, we are an exhausted people. Not only can our bodies be exhausted, but more critically, our souls can get dangerously weary.
For example, every year I look forward to that deep breath of relief I can take on the last day of school. Another year under the belt feels so good, so rejuvenating. Looking ahead to the sunny days of summer I am so optimistic about all that potential downtime – until the calendar starts filling up with track meets, ballgames, camp dates, visitors, all the appointments that got put off during the school year. I start to feel like I just traded in one kind of busy for another.
Then I remind myself that raising children, and in this case, six of them, is a big commitment to which I agreed almost 18 years ago. And I take another deep breath and I realize that busy is okay. We make choices for our children to participate in worthy activities. What is not okay is the busy that entraps us into forgetting that as a Catholic family, we are always on a pilgrimage. That pilgrimage needs attention and deliberation.
As a concrete reminder of the greater pilgrimage, the plan is to make the Feast of St. James the Apostle on July 25 a focal point for a family pilgrimage this summer. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, St. James, also known as James the Greater, was personally called by Jesus to leave his fishing nets and be a “fisher of men.”
Along with being the brother of St. John, the beloved disciple, St. James is thought to have been the first of the Apostles to be martyred. Many traditions believe he brought the Gospel message to Spain, resulting in the foundation of Catholicism in that country. The story goes that he was martyred in Judea in the year 44 and that somehow, perhaps miraculously, his body was transferred back to Spain and was eventually enshrined in the town of Compostela.
Since Spain is not in our family’s travel plans anytime soon, I’ve decided we can recreate our own “camino” using any of the local hikes, beache,s parks, mountains that are so abundant. Maybe we’ll try more than one. To prepare, each child can find a traditional pilgrim’s walking stick. My boys already chose theirs and were quite excited to try them out at the beach recently.
We will pack lightly, just like Jesus told the Apostles, taking enough snacks and water to avoid meltdowns, but nothing burdensome. Goldfish crackers make a thematic and lightweight choice. We will encourage the kids to keep a spirit of prayer as we walk, maybe say a decade of the Rosary every 15 minutes or so. We will also choose an intention for our pilgrimage, maybe for our family, our diocese or for vocations.
The goal of our local “camino” will be to remind ourselves that we are all pilgrims, both individually and as a family. We our making our “way” every day of our lives – through Him, with Him, and in Him.
How will your family make their “way” this summer?
Lazzuri, a mother of six, writes from her home in Nova Scotia.