The grateful pilgrim writes:

We arrived in Santiago de Compostela yesterday around noon. The walk seemed to end quickly--one minute we were gazing raptly down on the city from Monte de Gozo, the next minute we were striding into the vast square in front of Santiago cathedral and Carlos was embracing his wife Ana. And then, right after that, we presented our pilgrim´s passports--stamped in churches and pilgrims´hostels in every stop along the way from St. Jean Pied-de-Port, on the French side of the Pyrenees, to Arco do Pino, thirty-one days of stamps!--on the second floor of a church office and in turn received our Compostela, the official certicate of completion of the walk.

I was happy to have finally arrived, yes; but I also felt a little confused and melancholy, too, knowing that I´d come to the end of something important in my life, but not feeling quite sure of what it was, because, at least at the moment, it seemed still beyond my grasp.

We went to a pilgrims´mass today in Santiago Cathedral. It was packed--I saw Jan, the young Czech, and Ilson, the Brazilian, and Antonio, the lawyer from Saragossa, all met along the Camino. An American bishop from Tyler, Texas, officiated. I was finally able to say, Here I am. I´ve arrived. Thank you for my life and the people I´ve known and loved.

At the end of the service, they lit incense in a giant silver censer, which was attached to a thick rope from the cathedral ceiling. Then they swung the censer back and forth across the nave in an ever-widening arc. The censer is so massy that of course I worried that it would break loose and crash to the floor like some ecclestical Sputnik, but the censer swung safely in its giddy, astonishing, finally joyous arc.
- David Beaty

Photo: Carlos (left) and David