A Better Model

So last night I stayed in Tosantos, which was even better than Grañon for several reasons. The older man who seemed to be the chief volunteer was difinitely a man of peace. Under his gentle guidance I was able to take his deep, soft-spoken orders to prepare the sauce for the pasta we all had for dinner tonight, which was about an hour´s work. After dinner he recruited me as his translator for those who didn´t speak Spanish, which was a definite stretch of my skills. The prayer service was absolutely wonderful as well because this time there was no question we were praying to Jesus Christ. After the read portion we each took a prayer written by a previous pilgrim in our own language and read it aloud, repeating "Amen" each time. A very cool idea, and it built a sense of fellowship with other pilgrims going at a different pace.
Also had a very interesting conversation with an older South African woman who is really into herbs and mysticism. During the prayer in Grañon she prayed to "the risen Christ," which doesn´t quite satisfy 1 John 4:2, but I wanted to give her another chance. She told me the other afternoon that she is walking in search of the great mysteries of Christianity that "we daren´t even speak of" that were repressed by the politically motivated Catholic church. Personally I think the greatest mysteries are at the center of our doctrine (not repressed), namely the incarnation and resursection of Jesus and his presence in the elements of Communion. When I mentioned this to her yesterday afternoon, she suggested I check out something called anthroposophy, which looks rather too much like Gnosticism or perhaps New Age for my taste. At least now I know how to pray for her.
This morning I slowed my pace to walk with a young woman from New York who has been living in Paris for the past 8 months. Seems to fall into my category of pilgrims that don´t really ever get a job. She remarked on the fact that my prayer for both my Korean friend´s and the Danish lady´s feet both seem to have been effective, but tried to give me credit even after I said "2 points for Jesus!" So I corrected her theology by telling her that I merely ask, and Jesus does the actual healing. After that I told her the vision God has given me, and she seemed impressed, though I noted she never said "God" or "Jesus" or "pray," even when she asked me to "work with" her foot like I did for the others if we stayed in the same place. She also got treated to the story of how my girlfriend and I got together, and a full run-down of my family. I kept hoping she would respond with some of her own personal details, but she kept her cards close to the chest. I guess I still haveabout 4 weeks to ease the details out of her. We´re not staying in the same place, but I expect we´ll run into each other a few more times before we get to Santiago.
Another insight I had yesterday that an experience I had today compounded: some of these churches really need to find better spokespersons than these older, schoolmarm-ish women. Yesterday afternoon we all got to go up to a historic hermitage, but our tour guide was a rather fierce, highly religious woman who had little patience for the English-speaker´s attempts to translate for each other. Women like that are dear to me because I find them quirky but generally harmless, but she seemed to become a subject of mockery for my atheist/agnostic friends (Irish, female Quebecan, French, and Californian) based on the laughter I heard during the walk back to the hostel and while I was helping cook. A similar woman here in Agés responded rather harshly in the negative when I asked on my way out of the church if there would be a mass tonight. These churches need more gentle folks like the hospitalero from last night.
I´m beginning to think I might have to walk through rain soon, since yesterday and today I had some cloud cover. If things turn out like they did last time it´ll be on the Meseta, where I still expect to find the place God has set aside for me. My New York friend from today seemed to think I´m right on in thinking so, which was a small encouragement.
Anyway, it will be nice tonight to sleep on the firm mattresses of this municipal hostel (at which I definitely stayed last time; I remember every detail and little has changed) since the two parish hostels from the past two days had the equivalent of gym mats for our beds. Until next time, God bless!