Day 27 of Walking

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all your prayers no one got sunburned today as it rained again. Oh well, we´re saving on the sunscreen.

Today was a fairly short day, only 28 km (which is about 17 miles). We decided that the publisher of our guide put the maps in upside down as it said there would be downhills today but we went UP a lot of hills. We can tell we´re getting in shape as we can now pray WHILE walking uphill.

We did have a pleasant surprise today. As we were walking into the small town of Boente, an elderly priest in a cassock was standing in the doorway of his church. His name was Fr. Andres. He shook our hands and invited us inside. Then he began singing "Immaculate Mary" in Spanish so we chimed right in in English. He seemed a bit surprised. After that song ended, he began singing "Salve Regina" and we chimed in in Latin. How wonderful that no matter our native tongue we were able to sing together of our Blessed Mother in Latin! Afterwards he pointed out all the statues in his church and named them for us. You could tell that he was proud of his church. Here is a short video of us singing together.

Since we have a fast connection today we thought we´d post another video for you. This is of our friends Manfred (in black) and Siegfried (in orange) chanting after Vespers last week. They are from Germany and have beautiful voices. This video was shot in Rabanal del Camino last Thursday when they celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi. The chapel belongs to the Benedictine Monasterio San Salvador del Monte Irago. We hope you enjoy it. Their example has encouraged us to sing "Immaculate Mary" after Mass a couple of times now, and the locals have responded favorably. (One lady even turned the BVM´s lights on for us.)

We will get to go to Mass at 8 pm again tonight, which is such a great blessing. We joked about receiving "viaticum," which is the Latin word for the last Eucharist the dying person receives. It means "food for the journey." Thankfully we´re all in good health, but we need this food for our pilgrimage journey, so it seemed appropriate.

We uploaded a few more photos for Days 18 & 19, so you may want to check them out. Two more days of walking. We hope to arrive in Santiago on Saturday by 11 am or so. If possible we´ll post again tomorrow. Keep those prayers coming, and know that we pray for you daily.

Los peregrinos.