Dear pilgrims of hope,
what should we pack when we go on pilgrimage?
Imagine a pilgrim a thousand years ago on his way to Santiago de Compostela. What would his luggage have been? A pilgrim’s staff, a bundle containing some clothes I guess, a rudimentary map and some money and food for the road.
When I started out to walk the Camino I knew that I had packed too much. The recommendation is not to carry more than 10% of ones body weight. Every item was weighed and contrary to some organising systems, the value of the item was not measured in “does this bring me joy”, but instead by “do I really really need this”.
The difference between want and need becomes clear very quickly when we have to carry the items with the possibility of them creating pain. Shower gel can be replaced with soap, other items are just left behind. One thing I am glad I carried with me all the way, was my little pocket bible. When the baggage got too heavy to carry, I would sit down in the middle of the path and just pull out my pocket bible and start reading the psalms. I guess the same applies to emotional baggage too. When it gets too heavy to carry, we can focus on scripture instead. The psalms can articulate for us our emotions when we are lacking the words. Everything else could be discarded along the way, but the hope I found in my pocket bible was worth every gram I had to carry.
When we despair dear pilgrims, let us lean onto scripture. The one that created every word, can describe best how we feel when we are without words. It is comforting to know that our Lord walked this earth just like us, feeling every emotion just like us. May His joy dwell in us as we continue this long journey, this pilgrimage, to our eternal home.
