The Light of El Camino

THE SO NEEDED «LUZ DEL CAMINO»

Friday 19th June 2020. The year of the punch. At 5 pm, with the traditional blessing and sending off, the Light of the Way will be set in motion in the Collegiate Church of Roncesvalles: a group of pilgrims and hospitaleros, of people from the Way, coordinated by Jesús Ciordia -father of the foolish- and by Mariló López, will take a lighted light from the old medieval hospital for pilgrims to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. There will be 36 days of walking with the singularity that the pilgrimage will be by a relay and in it, between carriers and companions, about200 people will participate.

we need to heal ourselves from a pain that remains incomprehensible and unthinkable. We need to be healed of the loss of friends and family members whom we have not been able to say goodbye to. We need to heal ourselves from the stress of being locked up, isolated. From the anguish of facing a tomorrow as unexpected and unpredictable as the one, we have left now. And we need to be vaccinated against this madness of mistrust and fear that makes us see each of our fellow men as a small-time bomb that can explode at any moment and infect us.

We also need to rearm our personalities. Recover our self-esteem. To balance in the center this bipolar soul that has remained and that pivots between depression and euphoria. Between the sensation of smallness and defeat and the endorphin shot in the conviction that we are already there, that we have survived.

Blessing of the «Luz del Camino» and the backpack in Roncesvalles

And this all we need… the summary is clear: we need Camino. The physical way and the emotional way. To walk and let what is leftover fall away and to walk to find again all that this bug has stolen from us: the goodbyes, the hugs, the smiles and the laughter in the hostel kitchens, the songs in the evening, the lunches and beers in the middle of the walk…

What is the Light of the Path? A little bit of all this. It is the manifestation of an incomprehensible and unthinkable pain. It is the manifestation of grief. Mourning for those who have died, with their names and surnames. Mourning because we have not been able to close with them the normal chapters of life. Mourning for them, who are no longer there and for us who no longer have them.
It is also the vaccine against fear. Recovering physical contact (controlled, yes, but contact) with other people, with hundreds of people along the Way. It is to arm ourselves away from depressions and euphoria. And it is simply to remember that we can do great things, just things, good things, beautiful things and that we do not have to do them alone, that together it is much more beautiful.
The Light of the Way is the homage of the pilgrims and hospitaleros to the victims of the Covid19, it is the way we have to highlight the values of the Way of Saint James to face moments like the ones we are living and it is the way we have to light a light of hope looking to the future.
This is it. No more and no less, the syrup we are going to take until July 24th (and, if you hurry, beyond) those of us who are participating in this pilgrimage by relays in one way or another. A really popular adventure -like our road-, in which carrying the backpack with its light from Roncesvalles to Santiago becomes not only a challenge but also a symbol of what the pilgrim family can do when they set their mind to something. This is what the Way does to us. This is how we are.

The  «Luz del Camino»in  the news 

• Diario de Navarra link
• Navarra TV La Muga link
• Cadena Ser link
• Diario de Burgos link

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