Genesis 12:1-9 & Luke 24:13-35

Alongside walking everyday on the Camino, there was the daily challenge of finding food, which was sometimes quite tricky. Most of my evening meals were in the form of a ‘Pilgrim supper,’ being a vegetarian made my choices at times rather interesting, including a rather unforgettable, but definitely unrepeatable pickled mushroom salad, I did wonder if you should pickle a mushroom, and decided you definitely shouldn’t.

One of my favourite pilgrim suppers, was when I was staying in Villafranca de Montes de Oca, not to be confused of course with Villafranca del Beirzo, another place I happened to stay on my travels.

As I sat down to eat, I found myself on a table with a man from Belgium, who spoke a little bit of English but no Spanish, and a man from Spain, who spoke nothing other than Spanish. As we pondered how we were going to overcome this rather obvious language barrier, we were joined by a young lady from France, who has an Italian boyfriend, and so is able to use her knowledge of Italian to converse in Spanish, and of course had perfect English.

Thus started a very enjoyable meal together, with our wonderful translator.

As we began our deserts, our Spanish friend, thought it would be fun to see if we could work out what we all did for a living, asking simple questions and getting yes, no, responses in return. We started with trying to guess his occupation, it took a while, but as it turned out he was a coroner …

Next it was the turn of the French lady, a professional violinist … and then it was me

As they began to ask me questions, I was becoming more and more aware of the fact that what I do, might actually be rather challenging to them, we were after all walking through a catholic country, and catholic priests are not women.

It took quite some time, and a couple of hints, but finally the penny dropped, ‘are you a priest?’ Yes.

My anxiety, that this would be met was abject horror, was not realised, they were all quite excited to meet a female priest as it turned out, asking lots of questions, before we finally moved on to our friend from Belgium, who maintained medical equipment.

After a lovely meal, we parted, and never saw each other again.

This was one of only a few times when I was asked what I did. The first time, was actually a few days before, when I was chatting to an American couple I often bumped into at my morning coffee stops, we always got chatting and one day the conversation turned to what we did in our normal lives … I said I was a priest.

They were delighted to hear I was a priest, but were curious as to why I wasn’t wearing a dog collar whilst walking, after all, their priest, who had walked the Camino the previous year, and indeed had inspired and encouraged them to do the same, had done so whilst wearing a dog collar which had opened up for her all sorts of conversations along the way. People actively seeking her out for spiritual guidance.

And so I spent several days, pondering the question of to wear a dog collar or not .. that’s a whole other reflection in and of itself.

Perhaps my vocation may have been instantly recognisable had I worn a dog collar, but was that the point of this particular journey.

For me, there was something very special about us all just being fellow pilgrims along the way, coming from all walks of life, but with one shared purpose to get to our destination, whatever that might be. Making connections with one another, allowing conversations to open up and seeing where they might lead.

Last week, I introduced you to Brett, my American, Ex-serviceman friend, for whom walking the Camino was all about the physical challenge and Rennie, walking the Camino to try and make sense of the difficult things happening in her life.

One morning over breakfast, Brett asked me what I did, and then the conversation rather awkwardly and quickly moved on to other things. It wasn’t until a couple of days later, when we found ourselves on a taxi transfer together, that he had obviously decided it was time to find out a little more.

He wanted to know what had made me become a priest and so for the next 30 minutes, I shared my story, and he asked lots of questions about faith.

I quickly realised that there was far more going on, than just the physicality of this walk for Brett, Brett was seeking something spiritual too as he walked.

All too soon, the taxi dropped us off at our starting point for the day, and we went on our way.

A couple of days later, as I was walking into Leon, as he often did, he passed me, I was taking a photo, unsuprisingly, but realising that this would probably be the last time we would meet, as I was having a rest day in Leon and he wasn’t, he had just one final question …

I can’t remember now what the question was, or indeed how I answered it, although I can remember exactly where we were, but I have to pray, that for him, it was at least a step on his journey to knowing Jesus as his Lord and saviour.

Rennie and Karey, found out what I did over supper one night, we shared a common past, in that we had all been nurses at one point, they had both retired, and of course, my path had changed, but we had a lot in common with each other.

Again it wasn’t until a few days later, when we were sharing breakfast together, that Rennie took me to one side to find out more, and so again I found myself sharing my story, and answering her questions about where is God in all the pain of this world … challenging stuff over the first coffee of the day.

As I mentioned last week, Rennie was not a Christian, but did attend the pilgrim masses with Karey, and did find them comforting.

Again, I don’t know, how any of what I said that morning landed, whether it opened up a door in her heart to encountering Jesus for herself or not.

But I continue to pray for both Brett and Rennie, and for the many others that walked the Camino in search of answers, that they did encounter Jesus, and with the disciples on the road to Emmaus exclaimed ‘did our hearts not burn within us.’

As Jesus walked alongside those disciples on the way to Emmaus, he was not immediately recognisable to them, but he met them where they were, he connected with them.

Without my ‘dog collar’ it was not immediately apparent to others that I may have been a priest, it was only after spending time with people, building a connection, that they might have asked more. And having made that connection, having built that relationship, they were not afraid to find out more, and presented an opportunity for me, in my own small way to open up the scriptures to them.

But of course, this is not just the work of priests, this is the work of each and every one of us. All of us are called to go and make disciples of all nations, we are all called to share our faith with others.

And we do that best, when we simply walk beside others, physically sometimes, but more often than not metaphorically.

When we are alongside others, connecting to them, building relationships then opportunities arise and we are able to share with others our love of God and open the scriptures to them.

So that their hearts may burn within them.

Todays card inside your service sheet, is a picture I was about to take when I met with Brett for that final time walking into Leon, I took it after we had finished our conversation, he can just about be seen walking into the distance.

Questions to ponder this coming week …

Who is it that you are walking alongside today?

Who is on your heart?

Who do you pray will encounter Jesus for themselves?

I want to encourage you to pray for opportunities to share your faith with them this week.

As I close, let me use the second verse of the hymn we have just sung as our prayer.

Our hearts are filled with thankfulness, to Him who walks beside, who floods our weaknesses with strength and causes fears to fly; whose every promise is enough for every step we take, sustaining us with arms of love, and crowning us with grace.

Amen