Camino 2017: Walking in the Footsteps of Millions in Runners

There’s something special about getting up before dawn each morning, finding your boots (or runners – we’ll get to that later), and heading off with fellow pilgrims in a gentle procession across the Spanish countryside. This is the daily rhythm of those who walk the Camino de Santiago, as we walk from horizon to horizon to the resting place of St James the Apostle.

This is the fifth year that the MSC Vocations team have organised the pilgrimage on the Way. It is the sort of experience that attracts people from a variety of backgrounds. Each day, we’re out walking with the sun rising behind us. We stop for breakfast after a couple of hours, and then take a café con leche mid-morning. There’s no great rush. In fact, when you’re walking about 25km each day, you have to go gently.

 

“On the Way, you take time – for yourself and for others.”

This is perhaps the greatest challenge of the Camino, that of slowing down. Our world today is fast-paced and constantly moving. Being under pressure is seen as a virtue for some strange reason. On the Way, you take time – for yourself and for others. You speak with absolute strangers. People come from all over the world, drawn by something they find difficult to put into words. One of our group this year hit it on the head when he said that we were walking in the footsteps of millions of people, along pilgrim pathways that stretch back over a thousand years and that will continue into the future.

While it’s a reflective, meditative experience, it’s also good fun. When we arrived into these old towns, we would take a siesta and spend most of the day exploring, before gathering for a shared meal in the evening. We met a navy chaplain who keeps bees, a part-time Mr and Mrs Santa Claus who spend their summers caring for pilgrims, and plenty of people from South Korea, who couldn’t speak English but who were ace at sign language.

 

A small aside for future pilgrims – while runners look great, they’re not really ideal footwear for a walk like this. One statement from someone in this year’s group summed it up beautifully. Following a torrential rain shower, she told me, in what has to be the most positive interpretation of an uncomfortable situation ever, “Fr. Alan, my soaked trainers make it much easier to walk on my blistered feet!”

Buen Camino,
Fr. Alan

If you’d like to know more about our Camino trips, you can contact Fr. Alan at camino@mscmissions.ie, or call +353 (0) 86 785 7955 (Ireland) or +44 (0) 75 2676 4236 (UK).

On the Camino, we began each day with a moment of reflection. This was one of a number of pieces from the poet Mary Oliver, titled “Invitation”, which we used to inspire us for the day ahead:

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

Vocations Road Trips and Pilgrim Pathways

This autumn, as part of our exciting new vocations programme in Ireland for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart ( MSC ), we invite you to go on a journey of faith. It’s an opportunity to take a step back from the business and rush of your world and listen for that still, small voice of God. Where is God inviting you?

We all have a calling. For some it’s to married or single life and if that’s for you then that’s wonderful. For others though there is another possibility, that of religious life and priesthood. Maybe it’s been an idea at the back of your mind for a while or perhaps it’s something more recent. Whatever the case it hasn’t gone away. The possibility that you may have a vocation as a priest or a brother keeps on coming back to you in times of quietness and prayer. It’s not about certainty, but about openness to the invitation of God. (more…)

Missionary Blog – Faith behind bars

What does it mean to be a Missionary of the Sacred Heart? Who are we and what do we do? How are we different from the diocesan priests and members of other religious congregations? It’s a difficult question to answer, but perhaps the best I can do is to show you. As part of our vocations blog we’ll follow four members of the Chevalier family, ministering in radically different parts of the world, but united in a common MSC mission: That the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere known and loved.

Fr. John Jennings is an MSC missionary from Cork, Ireland working in one of the most marginalised barrios in Caracas, Venezuela. In addition to parish work John ministers as a part time chaplain in some of the country’s largest prisons. (more…)

MSC Volunteering – All good things …

All good things come to an end.

It is hard to believe we are nearing the end of our stay at Holy Family Care Centre. It has been the most enriching experience. There has been much laughter, a few tears and alot of reflection over the past few months. As well as enjoying our surroundings here we have had the pleasure of enjoying the stunning scenery of ‘Gods Window’, Pilgrims Rest & many more scenic spots.  It was lovely to get out as a group and share some quality time together. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends, yet finding it difficult to deal with saying goodbye when the time comes, but like everything in this world it will never be as hard as it seems at the time. We have really got to know all the kids and workers here at Holy Family over the past months. We can recognise the voices calling out for us at our gate, the different cries of the crèche children and the different laughs that echo around the centre. We opened our hearts fully and really connected with each and every one. We have learned more from them than they have from us and boy o boy can these kids teach you a thing or two. (more…)

World Youth Day 2013 Faith and Celebration

Following World Youth Day in Rio 2013 some of the young people with the MSC Vocations team reflect on the week’s highlights.

Kieran Torbuck

One of my favourite experiences of the World Youth Day (WYD) so far had to be the visit to the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Despite the wind and cold, spirits were high as pilgrims from the world over united in song and chants, sharing photos and gifts. This was our first real experience of the WYD atmosphere and I’m pleased to say that it only grew bigger throughout the week as we made new friends.

The Opening Ceremony was another highlight for me, since although we were divided for our group it was easy to meet other groups and everyone was happy to mix and invite us in. For me, it is this feeling of togetherness, unity and celebration that has made WYD such a fantastic experience. (more…)

Pope Francis wants a mess after WYD 2013

We all suspected something different was happening when the newly elected Pope first knelt down and asked for the people’s prayers before he gave his first blessing. It seems however that Pope Francis has exceeded those expectations and as his papacy continues he challenges the young people of the world at World Youth Day to be agents of the Holy Spirit. When asked about his hopes for World Youth Day Pope Francis replied:

“What is it that I expect as a consequence of World Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses! […] I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!” (more…)

Fr. Alan meets Francis in World Youth Day

Okay, so the title is a little misleading, but the event itself is spectacular! MSC Vocations is over in Rio for World Youth Day 2013. The weather is perfect! We’re right next to Copacabana Beach! Pope Francis is en route! The atmosphere is AMAZING! Over the week you can follow our blog to keep up to date with all that’s happening in Brazil for the largest youth gathering on the planet!

Day 1 Next Stop Rio (more…)

Walking the Way – Camino de Santiago

How to describe our first few days on the Camino de Santiago. Well it rained. Then it rained some more and then for good measure it kept on raining. Being from Ireland there’s very little I haven’t seen when it comes to precipitation, but I saw every type possible over those first few days. I felt like Forrest Gump in Vietnam: “One day it started raining, and it didn’t quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin’ rain… and big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night…”

However our spirits were undimmed, even if our clothing was more than slightly damp. We had a great group of people on the Way. All told we started with seven, but the Camino, being the Camino that number soon grew. It’s a pilgrimage that seems to attract a certain type of person, who is looking for something, even though they’d struggle to say what it was. There are easier ways to spend a week, but the beauty of the countryside, the camaraderie of the pilgrims and the sense of solitude you carry with you make it an unforgettable journey. (more…)

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

A Novena is a very special time of reflection. It is a time of intense personal prayer and petition. It is also a time of communal prayer with many hundreds of others who join with us, in person at one of the centres where the novena is being prayed and celebrated, or remotely across Ireland and England with people following the novena in their own homes. There will be community Novena celebrations in Myross Woods, Ballyvaloo and in Sacred Heart Parish, Western Road.

During a Novena we not only pray for our own needs, and the needs of those close to us, we also pray in communion with all those others who are making the novena. We join with those who are far away in many different parts of this country and abroad. It is an opportunity to continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life as well. It is an area of prayer that has been overlooked in recent years, but it is an essential part of vocations promotion.

As part of this prayer drive we have sent over 20,000 vocations prayer cards to benefactors of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. The idea is that we can create a climate of prayer that once again celebrates the baptismal call of all people and encouages those who might be considering whether to become a sister, brother or a priest. In Africa they say, ‘People are people through people.’ It is through our relationships with God, others and ourselves that we realise who we are. Let us pray today for that grace to fulfill our own vocation, while supporting others to do the same.

You can join in the Novena through the Novena prayer:

 

O Divine Jesus, who said,
“Ask and you shall receive”,
I kneel at your feet.
From whom shall I ask if not from you,
whose heart is the source of all blessings.With a lively faith in you,        I come to ask ( pause and mention petition here )                                  I admit I am most unworth of your favours, Jesus,
but this is not a reason for me to be discouraged.
You are the God of mercies
and You will not refuse a contrite heart.
Look with pity on me, I beg you,
and your compassionate Heart will find in my weakness
a motive for granting my request. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, pray for us.

World Youth Day at Brightlights Festival

A Catholic youth festival! In England! Surely such a thing is a contradiction in terms. It’ll probably be dull. There’ll be Mass on all day. Who’d want to go? It’s a pretty typical response from some people when they hear about the Brightlights Youth Festival – long, boring and preachy. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. (more…)

Vocations Ireland Summer Seminar

Yesterday was all about engagement. It’s more than just a buzz word. It’s about looking at how we as a Church in general and as vocations directors in particular outreach to young people. Sixty vocations directors from a wide variety of religious congregations gathered in the Emmaus Centre in Dublin to share, brainstorm and realise new and exciting ways of making contact with people considering a call to religious life and the priesthood. (more…)

exploreAway with Vocations Ireland

For those who are considering the possibility of a vocation to priesthood or religious life this coming Sunday something special is happening. As part of Vocations Ireland’s exciting new exploreAway programme for 2013 we are holding a taster afternoon for those who want to find out more about exploreAway, with no strings attached. (more…)