Day 8, evening, most spiritual moment yet on trip...

As noted, I spent the evening in Granon, which is a tiny town with a beautiful church with a striking, gilded altar (I guess the Incas and a lot of other South Americans were the providers of much of the gilding, not that they were consulted!)...As the mass ended, the priest called pilgrims up to the front of the church---there were about a half dozen of us--and said a prayer for our safety, then delivered a blessing. I had thought this was only the custom in Roncesvalles, but in fact it seems to be the custom at many churches along the pilgrim route, and one feels the community somehow takes the pilgrimage seriously, and indeed believes in praying to support the pilgrims. The prayer of blessing itself is standard (I´ll enter it in some other day´s blog), but then at the end of the prayer formula the priest added something very moving (for me, at leats). He said something like, "I know that you are coming here each of you for your own reasons. you are just at the beginning of this journey. Please continue with courage. If you are looking for peace, you will find peace. If you are looking for answers, you will find answers. If you are looking for God, God will find you." Perfect. Not: you will find God; Rather: God will find you.
Then, after dinner, it was the custom at this pilgrim refuge to have a voluntary prayer service in that same church. About 15 people showed up (of 35 who were staying in this refuge). It was a short service, and people read psalms or offered intentions in their own languages. Of those I knew, the little group included Hungary, South Africa, Spain, France, Argentina, Germany, and no doubt one or two others. So, it was very moving in this medieval choir loft to hear people praying in their own langagues. And it also gives me some sense of the spirituality of the journey--I go to mass daily, but I was (at first) surprised to see that only one or two pilgrims attend mass. But, at some level, most who are on the trek are there for religious or spiritual reasons, as you learn...Well, so much for the spiritual. I´ll try to come up with some bawdy post for tomorrow to keep everyting in balance!