Walker,

there is no way,

the road is made

when walking…

(Antonio Machado)

July 25th is approaching, and Spain is bustling with festivities and pilgrimages. In the heart of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela celebrates its patron saint, also the patron saint of Spain, with solemnity and joy.

From Mos (Pontevedra), a stage of the Portuguese Way  —the second most traveled route after the French Way—you can feel the spirit of St. James beat strongly in every stone along the way.

History is intertwined with the present. Saint Isabel of Portugal—known as the “Holy Raina”—made a pilgrimage to Santiago in the 14th century, and her influence was decisive: she promoted hospitals and shelters for pilgrims, consolidating a legacy of hospitality and charity. In the 19th century, in the midst of Europe’s spiritual, cultural, and economic crisis, the Portuguese Way became a path of reunion, generating a network of brotherhood and meaning that remains alive today.

A transformative experience

Today, day after day, thousands of people of all ages, languages, and cultures walk these paths. Some seek answers. Others simply walk. All, without knowing it, are being transformed.

In a fast-paced world that runs, often without knowing where it’s going, disoriented, the Camino proposes something radical: stop, walk, listen…

Walking isn’t just about moving. It’s about returning to oneself. Learning to see things with different eyes. Recognizing the silences, the lights, the shadows.

Walking is praying with your feet!

Anyone who has walked the Camino de Santiago several times knows that it’s not just about the landscape, but about the inner landscape. The Camino teaches us to reconcile ourselves with time, with our own body, with the mystery of life, with our own silence…

He also knows about closeness and solitude, both of which are necessary to make the journey with the pause of inner contemplation.

The guide and the staff

Sometimes the guide leads the way. Other times, he follows. But he never loses sight of the pilgrim.

We walk together as a team, but also in intimacy. Moments, glances, and landscapes are immortalized. Lights and shadows invade the soul and paint a picture visible only to each person.

The help the guide offers becomes that symbolic staff that supports, guides, and balances. It helps us set the pace, cross streams, defend ourselves from the unexpected, and stay on our feet when the ground is slippery.  This is the help we receive on the Camino… and in life.

An inspiring legend: Gaiferos of Mormaltán

The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th-century manuscript preserved in the Cathedral of Santiago, captures the history and spirit of the Jacobean pilgrimage. It reflects the traditions of figures such as Gaiferos de Mormaltán, a symbol of the medieval pilgrim:  faith, sacrifice, and devotion.

The romance of Don Gaiferos as such does not appear literally in the Codex, but it does record the pilgrimage and death of William X of Aquitaine, identified in popular tradition as Gaiferos de Mormaltán.

The story became popular thanks to oral tradition and was recorded by Manuel Murguía in the 19th century.

According to popular romance, Gaiferos arrives exhausted at the Apostle’s tomb… and dies at his feet. Not with sadness, but with a sense of a mission accomplished. Like many, he dies having found what he was looking for.

And you? What are you looking for?

It doesn’t matter what you start with.

No matter what your reason—spiritual, cultural, sporting, personal—the important thing is to dare to begin.

It matters why you break up

Step by step, one discovers oneself.  The body tires, the mind quiets, the heart expands. Every curve poses a challenge; every challenge, an opportunity.

Some find their calling on the Camino. Others, their purpose. Others discover that the ultimate goal wasn’t Santiago, but Heaven. We all learn to let go of weight, both physical and emotional. There’s always something left over in our backpacks. Some convert, others re-convert… We are beings in search.

An inner revolution that becomes possible

Those who have walked the Camino speak loud and clear: it changes lives, guides decisions, awakens a new consciousness. It’s not just steps.  It’s a training for life : patience, gratitude, silence, generosity.

God’s mercy becomes our conduct on the Way:  comforting the sad, sheltering the pilgrim, giving advice to those in need, patiently bearing the faults of others…

A person who has walked more than a hundred times since 1993 shares it with us like this:

“Doing the Camino is a true inner revolution.”

I invite you to hear his testimony in this video:

📹  Watch on YouTube

He has created a non-profit foundation that promotes the spiritual, cultural, and humanitarian dimensions of the Camino de Santiago:

🌐  www.fundacioncb.org

Pack your backpack. Start your Camino.

In times of haste and screens, the Camino offers something unique: external disconnection and internal reconnection. It reconnects us with our “common home,” with others and with ourselves, with God…

Take the Camino. At your own pace. In your own way. But do it.

It doesn’t matter how: on foot, by bike, in a group, alone, walking or riding…

It doesn’t matter how long it takes.

Because the true destination is not a point on the map, but a call in your soul that screams

GET OUT OF YOUR LAND!

BECAUSE THE JOURNEY STARTS NOW!

ULTREIA AND SUSEIA!