Cathedral Experience - Santiago

And now here I am sitting in the cathedral. We have arrived early to get a good seat as we heard that it will be crowded and with standing room only. This is so important to us that we are here 90 minutes before the mass is to start. I am near the front in the centre facing the magnificent alter and as I look up, I can see the great high arch of the church that was built so long ago. The beautiful silver chalice that is the botefumeiro hangs suspended above the alter on thick ropes. This will be filled with incense and pulled up by 8 monks and swung as in olden times to wash the congregation with the pleasant fumes that will drown out the bad odours of travellers who had not been able to wash for all the days of their travelling.
As I look forward towards the elaborate alter that is gold plated and filled with carvings and statues, the magnificence is impressive as it rises to the ceiling. My eyes are drawn to the jewel crusted statue of the apostle that is the center of the alter area. There is an ornate stairway that takes you up behind him and you can see people hugging him from behind which is the tradition. This is a deeply sacred place and one of the most precious locations on earth with the remains of James encased and celebrated here. There are many people wandering around looking and greeting each other. Some pilgrims have come straight to the church and carry their back packs on their back so the authenticity of the journey is very present to those of us who have just arrived in Santiago.
The feeling is one of arrival and not completion for me somehow and rather like a beginning of something new in my life for me. I am touched by the warmth of friendship of so many people as we greet each other, some I cannot even share the same language with, but the warmth is deep anyways. These are people that we have shared meals with, walked together with, drank wine along the way or just shared our foot remedy solutions and sympathy when the going was tough for some.
I think to myself how can I possibly put into context what this has meant to me and what it means now to sit here in this place so far from home and my known life. The wonder of simply walking, following the yellow arrows for hundreds of kms and days on end, and the spiritual magnificence of being immersed in the energy of God and the universe, the silence of the starry nights and dawn dark mornings - the sounds of the distant church bells ringing in the hours in ancient villages and the simplicity of rural life, animals in the pastures, bells chiming their presence, vegetables ready to harvest and the glorious flowering geraniums hanging from pots everywhere - a riot of color wherever we went.
I am not Catholic, nor really religious, but I am deeply moved just to sit here and watch the ancient traditions and symbols and relics that surround me. There is something particularly poignant about the continuity of life as we see how the solidity of these thing survive over centuries.
Soon a small nun comes into the sanctuary and goes up to the microphone. She is here to teach the congregation the latin chants for the service so we all know how to sing them and so we practice for a good 15 minutes together.
At the appointed hour, the bells ring and a procession of about 50 priests come from the side and into the church and they process into the alter, seating themselves around the high table. It is very impressive. The service starts with a welcome and reading out the starting points of the pilgrims who have arrived yesterday and the countries that they are from and so we are touched to hear Canada read aloud at our turn. While the service is conducted in Spanish and latin, it is a wonderful and colorful celebration of love and life. It is filled with music from the great pipe organ and the beautiful soprano voice of the nun who sings the chants from the front of the church. The place is packed with pilgrims and some tourists, but it s mostly pilgrims who we see around us. There is a communion service, but before that the passing of the peace as we turn to greet each other and then people file slowly up for the communion. It is very moving and very emotional for some reason and many peope around us are crying by this point.
Near the end of the service , we see that they are getting ready to raise the botefumeiro and we are thrilled as they do not do this every day. It is our luck once again.
8 priests take the ropes which are carefully designed to raise this heavy chalice which has been lit withincense up into the air, not just straight up, but in a motion that is designed to have it swinging in a high arch above the people in such a fashion that we are all amazed at the magnificence of this ancient tradition and cannot do more than just stare in awe at the whole process. All suring this time, the organi mucsi is magnificent and the nun sings her heart out, so that the whole thing seems heavenly somehow. All we can do is to stare at this incredible spectacle with our arms around each other. It is truly a highlight of the whole journey. The chalice is swung for quite a few minutes so that people can really be drowned in the incense which wafts over us and to the very back of the church. Pilgrims of the past must have smelled very bad indeed.
When it is all over and the congregation is blessed, the priests file out and we too go slowly out of the church to find our friends.
I am left with a feeling of a new beginning, not really like a born again religious kind of thing - but more like the good fortune to have seen a light towards an interesting and personally meaningful future. I have found new friends in people and places I never expected to and I have found a place of peace for myself which is what I was searching for.
I cannot imagine leaving tomorrow and getting onto an airplane to come home to my life as it was when I left it. It will be different for me I know and I have much to think about as to what I have acquired and learned along the Way of St James.
I knew in my heart that this would be a very deep and soulful journey for me, however I had no idea what it would be like in reality and now I see that my future can be quite different that I had expected it to be.
There is some peace in knowing how much there is to access through the sources that I have seen along my journey and many opportunities for richness that I will continue to explore.
To those of you who have followed me along the journey for the past 5 weeks, I thank you for your encouragement and support and for those of you waiting for me at home, I look forward to seeing you soon.
With Love..................Maggee