El Camino de Santiago 2007: Day 14 – Santiago de Compostela

It was still dark outside when we left Arca O Pino at 6:45 a.m. The path we had to travel was through the forest so it was very difficult to see where we were going. I just hoped that we wouldn’t take the wrong turn because we were not able to clearly see the arrows.

When we arrived at the first stop in Monte de Gozo and I stayed behind because I had to look for a certain priest named father Jose to deliver a special document from a friend of mine in Toronto. I told Steffan and Axel I will just meet them at the Cathedral in Compostela and they continued on the path.

I searched for the priest but he was not there. By that time it was already 11:13 a.m. and so I had to rushed to get to Compostela because the pilgrim mass would begin at 12:00 p.m. and I wanted to make it on time. With God’s help, I walked 5 km with my heavy backpack in 45 minutes. I arrived at the Cathedral just on time and it was packed with pilgrims and tourists. I quickly found a spot on the side and placed my heavy bag on the floor.

A nun step forward and began to sing beautifully in Latin. The song she sung was “Holy God we Praise thy Name” and immediately upon hearing the soft melody of her voice something powerful stirred up inside me and ignited my soul. In my mind I saw flashes of the all the wonderful people I encountered, the genuine conversations I had, the warm smiles of strangers and pilgrims along the road, and everything began to surface all at once including the hardship and pain I endured along the way. It was exceedingly intense for I have just reached the culminating point of my journey. I tried incredibly hard to fight it but I could not. I was overwhelmed with emotion that tears began to gently stream from my eyes as I fixated my gaze on the altar. At that precise moment I was given a taste of supernatural joy and I realized the necessary suffering on the journey served to bring me closer to God.