FREE REFRESHMENT — Wayne Emde and Jack Greenhalgh enjoying water and wine offered to pilgrims at Bodegas Irache, a monastery that lies between Estella and Los Arcos.

Since the article in the spring issue of the HighWay about my intended pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, I thought it would be appropriate to let you know what happenedon the trip. Here is a brief summary.

Wayne Emde, my good friend from Vernon, and I made the journey of 800 kms on foot from southern France across the Pyrenees mountains, into the Basque region of Spain and then westward to the ancient and fabled City of Santiago, home of the Shrine of St. James the Apostle. We began our journey on April 22 and arrived on May 26; thirty-five days for an average of about 26 kms each day. It was a strenuous undertaking, crossing snow covered mountain passes, across incredibly beautiful masetas and deep river valleys; through the great medieval cities like Pamplona, Burgos, Astorga and Lyon. It was as if we had stepped back in time: about 500 years into medieval Europe with the Knights Templar, El Cid, the Moors and a splendid and liturgically rich Spanish Catholicism, but as well, into a humble simple life of another era. One's only task became the need to walk all day through sun and rain and fog at 4 kms per hour; to think and to pray, to talk with one's companions and to enjoy the natural beauty of the rugged landscape.

I lost 21 lbs. and wore out a pair of good boots, but I am fit and ready for another one. Most of all, I am profoundly moved by all I encountered along the "camino," a way that has been walked by millions of people since the 10th century. It will take more time for me to process the experience, but I still glow in the spiritual reawakening of this encounter. Holiness exudes from this place. In part, through the generous hospitality shown by simple farmers and vineyard workers, and by the warmth of greeting encountered from "hospitaleros" of the hostels called "alburques," and especially through the friendship and compassion of fellow pilgrims that one meets along the road. Romanesque churches, gothic cathedrals, small monasteries and hermitages, ancient stone bridges, Roman roads and Pilgrim "hospitals" abound all along the way; each one reminding us, in its own way, that everyone of us, no matter what age we live in or where we live or whatever out status in life, we are all pilgrims of the Road to the Cross and new life in Christ.

I wish to thank all those who sponsored me on this journey. Over $10,000 was raised through individual sponsors and all the proceeds have been given to the cathedral development project.

Many Ways to Pray

Part 6 — Praying the Labyrinth

By Christine Muise

LABOUR OF LOVE — Ven. Dirk Pidcock and the Rev. Mark Mealing beginning the construction of a labyrinth in Kaslo.

I had a really difficult time finding a way to quiet my busy mind for even a moment. My attempts at various meditations most often ended in frustration, as I was not very good at finding that inner peace and spiritual connectedness I hungered for. It should not have been a surprise that this was difficult. As an athlete I was most at ease when tumbling and moving. The whole notion of sitting still and contemplating and talking with God was a bit farfetched.

A friend and I had heard about a labyrinth. And on a trip to the West End of Vancouver, we headed to St. Paul's Anglican Church where there is a Chartres Labyrinth painted on the floor in the hall. Many people when first seeing a labyrinth get it confused with a maze. This is not the case. A labyrinth is a single path design that takes one into the centre and then back out again. In the terms of prayer, the path inward is understood as a time of purgation: a journey to release one's worldly and personal burdens. The centre of the path is a place of meeting God: a place of union and centredness where the still quiet voice of God can be received. This is often a difficult task for us, given the perpetual noise of our daily lives. And finally, the path outward is the journey of reintegrating our insights attained from the centre and returning to the world. We take that still quiet voice of God and attempt to live into it each step outward and into our life's journeying.

I had not done a lot of reading or research on labyrinths prior to my first walk. I had just read the brief description of how to walk the labyrinth for first time walkers. I understood that it was a meditative tool accessed in recent years by various faith traditions and that it has been in existence for around 4,000 years. I knew there was no "absolute" correct way to walk it, but that I should try, at the very least, to walk with an openness to the labyrinth's potential as a meditative tool.

It is most often walked at a very slow pace, each movement in the step very intentional. This of course does not mean that it must always be prayed in this manner. I have enjoyed dancing the labyrinth, with leaps and runs and turn. For some people, to get in touch with the sacred presence of God, you must take a step away from your present circumstances. The labyrinth enables you to take steps that move you more fully into yourself.

The first time I walked the labyrinth there were not any magical moments or epiphanie. Instead, it was the beginning of an intentional journey with a particular prayer tool that over time has become the place where I can bring my questions, prayers, concerns, struggles and delights; and where I have allowed myself the "soul space" to hear and discern the urgings and delights of my spirit. It is a tool that creates an environment ripe for transformation, change, new growth and creativity.

When I began walking the labyrinth, I often brought a variety of questions. The critical question at the beginning of journey concerned where I was supposed to be in my life and in the world. This is a difficult question to find answers to if you are not even centred in your own body.

Walking the labyrinth allowed me to reconnect body, psyche, and soul. In reclaiming my whole self, I was able to use my body to pray to God. I was able to stand firm, not only in myself but in the world as well. And I was able to begin to peel the layers of my self-built survival defenses and get to know who I was, and most importantly whose I was — a child of God.

I am blessed in the peace, love, compassion and understanding that I have found for myself and for our fragile world. Is this not what we strive to find in our churches today? That is, to find the transformative energy for our lives, which can give birth to the creativity of our souls and ultimately guide our way home to God.

I commend the labyrinth to anyone who wishes to walk an intentional path that leads to "more than we can ask or imagine." I even found that the creation of a labyrinth itself is, in itself, a spiritual journey ... a meditative and transformative journey with God.