Throughout our time of pilgrimage we experience many blessings and consolations as we make our way across Spain.  Here are a few that the pilgrims have sent my way:

• Met a woman and visited with her for a while. She said she had been feeling lonely and our conversation was just what she needed. She asked my name when I told her my uncommon first name she started to cry. Earlier this year she had lost her son. He had my same first name. We hugged. She later joined us for Sunday Mass.
• Father let me keep serving after my performance last Sunday
• Found a perfectly folded red handkerchief on the road. It seemed important so I picked it up and put it in my bag. Later the next day I was doing laundry and it fell out of my bag and on to the floor. The woman next to me exclaimed that I had found it. She had had been devastated that she had lost her late father’s handkerchief who had died earlier that year. She was walking her Camino in memory of him.
• Started out this morning ready to take the taxi. My son’s feet were much worse than mine and I figured that he would be ready to quit soon after beginning. We went step after step, mile after mile. He didn’t quit, so neither did I. We made it the whole way today.
  
  - editor’s note. I caught this dad midday repairing and bandaging up his foot’s son for the next part of the journey. It was inspirational to see him take such good care of his son.
• I was having an emotional day due to physical exhaustion, the death of my sister days before the trip, and a father sick with cancer back home. I stayed after mass one day in Los Arcos and prayed and cried after everyone left. I did not know that Father Chad was in the back of the church and when I finished crying I saw Father Chad in the back of the church.
  He saw me and asked if I needed anything. I said yes, but that I didn’t know what I needed. He offered to pray over me. As he touched my shoulder and prayed I felt a sadness leave my mind and a comfort enter my body. He then reminded me that our Holy Mother Mary is always watching.
  He pointed up to Mary high on the alter and also showed me a picture he took of her on his phone. Her sweet face spoke to me. He reminded me that she is always there silently watching us and guiding us.
  Since that moment I have felt a comfort being reminded that Mary is there watching over me at all times, through the good and the bad.
• One of the most rememberable and inspiring parts of the Camino for me so far isn't even the walking portion, it has been the private Masses we have been able to hold. Primarily, the Mass in the 12th century chapel built by the Knights Templar in Puente la Reina. The church was very simple on the inside, but you could feel the history. Two days later it was a very different setting in a gorgeous church in Los Arcos. I found it very inspiring to see 15+ people not from out group (both Catholic and non-Catholic) join our private Mass. I felt the Holy Spirit during these Masses in a way that I have not in years. - Jeff E.
• The experience that is special to me is the day I carried the cross.  I wanted to carry the cross the whole way myself for a very special intention.   At first I thought I would struggle mightily but as I went the cross I carried got lighter and lighter.   It was the easiest walk of the Camino for me. 
• I have been able to walk with his father and grow together as we have lots of time for conversation and the reflection of our relationship.
• The churches we have visited and celebrated mass in are historic and beautiful, yet the Eucharist predates every single one and is the reason that those who came before us has tried to build a fitting, yet insufficient setting. The Mass is the most historic and beautiful!
• Walking with brother-in-Christ provides an opportunity to truly get to know him.