Months ago, in the Cathedral of Laon, there was a little exhibition explaining the history and significance of pilgrimage to visitors. They described the pilgrim staff as keeping pilgrims “steady in the way, and in the faith”. In some ways, I’ve come to disagree. I think that for me, the staff has rather been a physical metaphor for my faith: in times of difficulty and challenge, I lean on it, and am supported; at times, I slip up, and it gives me a good whack in the leg; I always carry it with me, and if I forget it I will go back to find it. I now no longer need a staff, but I will continue to lean on my faith.
I’ve never stopped learning along the road. Perhaps most significantly, I have found a closeness to God in Beauty, in Nature, in Music, in exhaustion, and also when in deep need of forgiveness.
There were few words on my mind as I arrived in the Vatican City, and most of them were simply “Alleluia!”; sung to the French theme that has appropriately become the anthem for this final stretch of the Via Francigena, the French road to Rome.
[I will post a final time by Sunday 14th of July]