Day 12: Happy Sunday!!!

I am writing this post from my top bunk in San Juan de Ortega, curled up with an extra blanket, because we are staying in an ice castle tonight.

Ok, it's not an actual ice castle, but it's pretty cold here right now!  Craziness.  

Annnnnd that's all she wrote.  I laid my head down to "rest" for 2.5 seconds, and woke up to find Monday morning outside my window.  Well, here's a quick Monday morning post about Sunday:

On Sunday, we walked 24k to San Juan de Ortega , population 20.  St. Juan is actually buried in the church there!  In the 1100s, this town was very dangerous for pilgrims to pass through because of robbers and other bad guys.  St. Juan founded a monastery here as a refuge for pilgrims and started a religious order to welcome and care for them.  When the state took over the buildings in the 1800s, the religious order left and the church started to fall apart.  Now, they are working on restoring the church and monastery for their original purpose.  Pretty cool pilgrim stop.

I didn't take very many pictures during the day, but I think it was one of the most beautiful days yet.  

We stopped to play on a playground...

And we found ourselves back in wooded and mountainous areas.

Oh, and I served some time in pilgrim jail for my squirt gun crimes--I am becoming more and more notorious by the day!

I didn't take as many pictures because we ended up getting to talk to a lot of pilgrim friends along the way today, some new, some old.  Usually, we meet a handful of pilgrims during the day, but we pass with a hello, and generally walk with a lot of silence.  Times of silence are definitely important, but this day of pilgrim family bonding ended up being awesome!!  I hope that we are friends with these people long after the end of the Camino.  Happy Sunday!

+JMJ+

Day 11: Strolling Along

Today was so nice.

The sky was so blue.

The clouds were so fluffy.

The morning was beautiful.

We found an unlocked Church and got to say good morning to Jesus!

Then we went to His bakery.

We saw pilgrims on horseback!  They do exist! (new dream)

And we found kittens...(note spastic kitten in the background if cute kitten)

and even more kittens...

Thanks to all these exciting events (in which the grace of God certainly had a hand), our pace was a little bit more relaxed today.  I mean, we had to pet allllll the kittens, of course, and stop for bread from the Jesus bakery.

Jesus is so good.  He always knows exactly what we need, and He likes to get creative in providing for all that and more :) Since we weren't running, we had enough energy left at the end of the day to climb an extra mountain!

  You know, just the backyard of our albergue.

The places we stay along the way are called albergues.  Usually, they are a room or a few rooms full of bunk beds.  The facilities vary--sometimes they are new, old, nice and clean, not so nice and clean, private, public.  The one we are staying in now used to be a theatre, until it was converted into an albergue in 1925.  It is run by a Swiss confraternity.  I think it's the coolest one we've stayed in so far.  The kitchen is on the stage!  Iron Chef, anyone?

Ok, have to run to make it to Mass! (in the church attached to our albergue.  So cool.) Util day 12...adios!

+JMJ+

Day 10: Most Wanted Status

There are two things you need to know about today:

1. I got to use my squirt gun, rain free.

2. One of the like 5 words Father Pascal knows in English is "terrorist".

Can you see where this is going?  Basically, my innocent mid-morning sneak attack ended with Father repeating over and over again, "Erin! Terrorist! Terrorist!", followed by instructions to shoot Chris with my squirt gun to wake him up in the morning.  Needless to say, Father is hilarious, my face will be on "Most Wanted Pilgrim" signs along the way tomorrow, and Chris cannot stop laughing.

Today was our tenth day of walking!  Double digits!  We set out around 7am, and we were greeted by a beautiful morning...

and these weird looking pilgrims...

Along the way today, we started seeing kilometer markers, like this:

They marked almost every kilometer.  For me, I'd really rather not know and just walk.  For Chris, these aren't just mile markers--no, they are beaming totems of motivation.  Hence, most of my day looked like this:

Except, Chris was usually even farther ahead.  I've only ever seen him move so quickly at amusement parks when strategizing in which order he should ride roller coasters.  Meanwhile, I was trudging along in his dust, sure that if I tripped and fell, I would just lay there for the rest of the day.  Good thing I managed to stay upright.

  Eventually, we slowed down a bit, I caught back up, and by noon, we were walking into Santo Domingo, the small town where we are staying tonight.  Maybe it was the heat that came early on, maybe it was the pace, maybe I just needed more coffee, and maybe we've been walking for 10 days, but tonight I am going to sleep well! 

Mass tonight was so beautiful!!

And that was just the little chapel.  Check out the bell tower of the cathedral!

Today was a harder one of the days, but beautiful and good.  It is sweet to be with Jesus always.  Father said tonight in his homily that a Christian is someone who is completely enamoured with Jesus, who is caught up in love with His Sacred Heart.

He's right.  Anything else there is to bring Christian has that loving relationship as its source.

"In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins."

 1 John 4:10

Happy Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!  How sweet it is that Love Himself desires us to fall in love with Him!

+JMJ+

Day 9: Rainy Day #1

Of course the day I buy a squirt gun...

It rains.

And all the pilgrims dawned their bullet proof gear.  They may have won this round, but I'll get them next time!  

Today we left Navarrete at 7am and walked until we got to Nájera at 11:30am.  We were walking in the rain almost the whole time, but it wasn't a heavy rain.  Just enough to render my brand new squirt gun ineffective. (I did, however, manage to shoot Father Pascal, and now we are at war!)

Despite the sad fact of my new weapon being outdone by the rain, St. Josemaria and I had a feast day party on my shoulder all day long (confused? See yesterday's post. Still confused? Yep, I'm just kinda weird.)

We walked through a vineyard...

Found a heart shaped rock in the wall of a pilgrim shelter...

And found this funny translation mistake (if it's not a mistake, it's even funnier).

Now we are with all of our American pilgrim friends (and one German) watching the US-Germany soccer match...

Silvia and Roy, a couple in our pilgrim family, made dinner for 6 of us tonight--it was so nice!! They are pretty much wonderful, and not just because they made us a delicious dinner.  They are generous with their time and attention with everyone, thoughtful and observant, and on top of that, they are such a sweet couple.

I am off to find the church and get ready for Mass at 8pm, the best way to celebrate St. Josemaria's feast day.  Thank You, Jesus!  How good is God to give us all the opportunity and grace to become saints! Let's do it!

+JMJ+

Day 8: Logroño

Today we started walking from Viana around 7am, and we arrived in Navarrete around 1:30pm.  Today was a great day for lots of reasons:

It was our one week anniversary of beginning the Camino...

The weather was nice, no rain, and pretty cool...

But the best part (and the reason I danced the first two hours of walking) is that we walked through Logroño today...

What's so great about Logroño?  Why did I dance myself there?  Because of this guy:

St. Josemaria Escriva!!!  St. Josemaria is one of my favorite saints ("my man" as I refer to him).  He was born in Barbastro, Spain, in 1902.  His family moved to Logroño in 1915, when he was 13, almost exactly 100 years ago.  Logroño was a very special place for St. Josemaria, because it was here, at the age of 15, that he discovered his vocation and entered seminary.  What exactly does that mean?  Well, to discover your vocation means to discover God's will for your life.  For St. Josemaria, it happened like this: one cold winter night, he was walking Long the road and noticed footprints of bare feet in the snow.  Full of wonder, he followed these footprints and discovered that they belonged to a discalced Carmelite religious.  He thought, "if someone can walk barefoot in the snow for love of Jesus, what can I do?" 

(Marks the place where St. Josemaria saw the footprints in the snow)

And from that moment, he decided to give his life totally at the service of the will of God as a priest.  He entered the seminary in Logroño in 1918.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1925.  Since he first saw those footprints in Logroño, St. Josemaria felt that God had a special mission for him to carry out.  In 1928, God made him see clearly what this mission was: to call all people, in all states of life to holiness, to be saints, to sanctify their ordinary work by offering everything to God and living in love with Him.  St. Josemaria preached, wrote, worked with the poor and the sick, set up residences for university students, all the while supporting his family.  He founded Opus Dei ("work of God") to carry out this mission.  His life, work, writings, and prayers have helped so many people to encounter God in the simplicity of their daily routine and to know the joy and excitement of offering every moment, every effort, for love of Jesus.  His writings are simple, short, and easy to read (which I love!) and you can find them all here: escrivaworks.org. I offer St. Josemaria to you as friend and heavenly help!  I can tell you he is certainly both for me :) 

And, his feast day is tomorrow!  Woohoo!

Tonight, in Navarrete, we went to Mass in what is my favorite church we have been in so far.  I'll attach a picture, but it will not do the beauty of the church, the wonderful priest, the beautiful Mass, and the truly glorious presence of Our Lord justice.  My heart could have exploded.  I want to come back here!

Ok, it's late, my phone is dying, and I have feast day coffee to make early in the morning!  I'll post this tomorrow because I am internetless now.  Until then...

+JMJ+