There are texts that are written to be published immediately and others that need to wait. This had been prepared for a while, but the right time never seemed to come to share it.
Today, Camino de Santiago RTV publishes its particular “Our Father of the Way”, a prayer inspired by many of the experiences that accompany those who travel the Jacobean routes: the help of a stranger, fatigue, generosity, the absence of someone they love, gratitude and that difficult-to-explain feeling that many people take with them after arriving in Santiago.
It is not intended to replace any traditional prayer or establish a new religious formula. It is, simply, a reflection born around the Camino and everything that happens while we walk.
Recognize the Way in others
The text begins by remembering something that pilgrims discover very soon: the Camino is not done only with kilometers.
Sometimes it appears in the person who offers a glass of water, in the person who opens the door of a shelter, in someone who sits down to listen or in the colleague who decides to slow down so as not to leave alone the person who walks slower.
“May we know how to recognize your presence in someone who opens a door for us, offers us a glass of water or stays by our side to listen to us,” says one of its passages.
A simple idea that summarizes a good part of that hospitality that for centuries has accompanied the routes to Compostela.
A table where no one feels strange
The Lord's Prayer of the Camino also talks about sharing.
"Give us today the bread we need and the generosity to share it. Give us a table where no one feels strange and a chair for those who arrive tired."
Those who have made a pilgrimage know that many of the most intense memories are not always in the great monuments. Many times they remain at an improvised dinner, a conversation between strangers or a shared table at the end of a stage.
For a few hours, the Camino brings together people who will probably never meet again, but who at that moment share fatigue, food, stories and dreams.
Wait for those who are left behind
Another of the central messages of the text is related to one of the great lessons that the Camino can offer: understanding that each person has their own rhythm.
"Teach us to ask for help without shame and to offer it without expecting anything. To respect each person's step and wait for those who are left behind."
Walking for several days forces you to accept your own limits, but also to observe those of others. There are those who advance quickly, those who need to stop, those who are carrying an injury and those who simply need to sit down for a few minutes.
Not everyone arrives in Santiago in the same way.
Those who walk even though they are no longer there
The text also dedicates a few words to absences.
“Accompany those who walk in pain, those who seek an answer and those who carry an absence in silence.”
There are many pilgrims who walk the Camino after a loss, an important change in their life or a situation that they need to understand.
Some carry photographs. Others, written names. Others just walk.
The Lord's Prayer of the Camino also remembers these people and asks to take care of “those whom we can no longer hug.”
Arriving in Santiago should not be the end
The last part looks directly towards Compostela.
"And when we arrive in Santiago, may we remember those who helped us get there. May we know how to thank them and take into our lives what we have learned here."
Perhaps that is one of the most interesting questions that any pilgrimage leaves: what happens next.
Because returning home means returning to work, obligations and routine. The challenge is knowing how much of what we learned during the Camino we are able to keep when we stop carrying a backpack.
Patience, care, hospitality, gratitude and the ability to stop when someone needs help.
A text to share
This Our Father of the Camino had been waiting for its moment for some time.
There may never be a perfect time to post certain words. But there may be a person who needs them just when they find them.
That's why we share it today.
For those who are walking. For those who have already arrived. For those who are preparing their first Camino. And also for those who, although they are far from Santiago right now, still carry something of the Camino within them.
Amen.
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