One thing that seems very important to me on the Camino de Santiago is that we must have patience with the pilgrim so that he can experience the encounter with prayer from a true and inner process, not in the way that we might like it to be.
The Camino is primarily a personal experience. There are as many Caminos as there are people. It is a personal experience because we each leave with what we are and have and journey with it. We each set out with our own unanswered questions, hopes, energy, and ability, with faith and problems and hope to find something to deal with our own situation.
No one brings the same thing, no one hopes for the same thing, and although we may not find what we are looking for, we each walk our own road.
Prayer works over the long-term. And there will be a moment when neither the pilgrim nor ourselves will worry about controlling the prayer, nor will we fall into the trap of feeling like it is a chore.
There will come a moment in which the pilgrims, like us, will know that the Lord is coming out to meet us.
Prayer is an encounter and, therefore, the presence of God is an act of faith…a unique relationship. It implies mediation: learning to hear the Word, opening our feelings and engaging in communication with Someone we do not see, but the relationship is direct experience, a spiritual perception with God. This is why prayer can never be reduced to a psychological matter nor to a spiritual blueprint.
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