2017

 Today the Camino became fun again. 

Josh and I started the day walking together having a great conversation about faith and walking through the sunrise which featured an enormous orange setting full moon. 

After a couple of hours we stumbled on to an oasis in the middle of a field, a donativo (give what you want) feast with plenty of people (and cats) gathered. 

We met up with Tim from Melbourne and Ophelia from Germany whom I'd met a couple of nights before. 

In fact when I wrote on the blog a couple of nights ago about the unlikelihood of Camino families, but never saying never to whatever could emerge, even with the next person to arrive in the albergue, Tim walked in a minute later. 

So we climbed a tower, because it was there, 

then spent the day walking together. 

We stopped for lunch in Astorga, which I usually don't do, and then Ophelia convinced Josh and I to walk one town further than we had planned, and Tim one town less than he had planned to stay in a little hippy vegan albergue called La Boheme which is exactly as it sounds. Warm, friendly, quirky, and a corner of the lounge room full of musical instruments and Beatles song charts which Tim and I are keen to try out after dinner. 

So today, for the first time in awhile I had rather less time just to remember the year 2017. Fortunately, like with sermon writing which I do in blocks rather than a week at a time I actually don't just remember year by year but phase by phase, so I have some of the stories readily in mind. 

2017 was to be my last year in Kincumber. It was a great year where relationships continued strongly and people's engagement in the church continued to grow. Ongoing Spiritual Exercises groups, individual spiritual direction, new Parishioner engagement and Community Dinners all continued in strength. 

Perhaps one of the stand out events of 2017 was sunrise Mass on MacMasters Beach on Easter Sunday, which included some full immersion baptisms in the waves. We'd had a New Year's Day beach Mass also, and Easter seemed the perfect time to greet the risen sun and the Risen Son. 

2017 was also the middle year of my program in Ignatian Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Creighton Uni, Omaha Nebraska, and the year I did the Spiritual Exercises myself. Much of the detail of this is in the earlier posts on this blog which I started while doing the program. 

Ignatius' full Spiritual Exercises can be done as a 30 day intensive retreat, or as I did, daily over 9 months with weekly spiritual direction. Starting in September (after returning from Omaha) was the perfect time to begin, as it aligned quite well with the liturgical season: Jesus' birth in December, his passion in Lent, his resurrection at Easter. 

Much of the SpEx is praying through the gospels to be close to Christ and to share in his mission. To do this, I place myself in the gospel scene, eg, I am the blind man being healed by Jesus and to grow close to Jesus through this experience. I woudl pray with this once scene for an hour at a time. My wonderful spiritual director Anne  would then invite me to pray the passage again, but this time from Jesus' perspective, or as Jesus. What is Jesus thinking, feeling and doing?

By the time I got to Jesus' passion (which is prayed throughout Lent, not just holy week), I was praying it always as Jesus, asking him to share his passion with me and showing me what he wanted me to experience with him. It was at times gruelling as that dangerous prayer was answered, but it paved the way to experience the joy of the resurrection with him also. 

I recalled much of this as I prayed the rosary today, with today, Wednesday, being the glorious mysteries. Having spent so much time immersed in the events of Jesus' life, death and resurrection the SpEx gives me much to work with as I pray through the mysteries on the road. 

A vegan dinner beckons tonight, and a climb up into the mountains (mountains, Gandalf, mountains!) beckons tomorrow.