Seven years ago the Jesuits launched the Ignatian reception service for Apertas pilgrims in Compostela, and with it the help and accompaniment of those who finished the Camino, thanks to the work of their volunteers. Some, like Rodrigo Sanz from Valladolid, belong to the Jesuit order, and others, like Coruña’s Iria Gayoso, linked to one of his pastoral groups in Galicia. Both repeat the experience this year at the Pilgrim’s Office and speak wonders about it, about how much it has given them on the different occasions they have experienced it and how it has changed them on a personal level.
Also of what it means, because the Ignatian welcome is not only receiving the pilgrims who reach their goal after completing the Jacobean Route, it is also “training, personal and community prayer, accompaniment and much experience of the mission in community”.
The program takes place from June 15 to August 15, and every two weeks different groups rotate. Although in the years of the pandemic it was not carried out and the volunteers helped only on specific days, this Xacobeo has brought them back to the Pilgrim’s Office throughout the summer, for Rodrigo, for the fourth year. “The first time I came sent by my superiors,” he says. I loved the experience and I wanted to repeat it every summer”.
He comments that the first time he walks “a little lost. Our mission is to welcome pilgrims, give them a conversation, help them with their doubts… and the experience is very rewarding. It also teaches you many useful things for day-to-day life, such as relating to other people, having more patience…”.
Regarding what volunteering at the Pilgrim’s Office brings her on a personal level, she agrees on many things with her colleague Iria, who is working there for the third year this year. She studies medicine in Santiago and collaborates with Jesuit pastoral groups. “The first time I was offered to participate in the Apertas work camp, I didn’t feel like it very much”, she admits, “because I’m already living in Compostela for the rest of the academic year and it’s hard for me. But on the other hand, it also seemed like a good opportunity to get to know what the city is like in summer, and my vision of it has changed”.
He says that “it changes completely from winter to summer. During the course, he crushes me, I don’t like it, and in the summer I fall in love. Santiago has given me everything, both academically and spiritually.”
He also acknowledges how surprising the experience was for him, “because despite the fact that those of us who volunteer live in a spirituality and are more accustomed to welcoming, I am very struck by how the rest of the workers and pilgrims experience it.”
“We must not forget that they simply come for a role, but they take away and give us much more. They leave very calm, very comforted. It also surprises me how they come from walking many kilometers and how they open up to you, even if they don’t know you at all; They tell you about their experiences on the Camino, what they have lived through, their reasons… As a person, that is a great growth”.
Like Rodrigo, Iria is enriched in “how to speak and treat people. I just graduated in Medicine and deep down it has a lot to do with one of the tasks of a health worker, that of listening”, adding that “sometimes listening is healthier than any medicine, and that task of listening without expecting anything in return It’s not paid for.”
The two also agree on the trait that unites all pilgrims, “the people who start the Camino are not the same as those who arrive, because the Route changes them”, and they add that “they are also patient and welcoming with us”, and the origin of why
“Their common link is wanting to get out of their comfort zone, their routine”, says Rodrigo, “although they have different motivations such as spirituality, experience…, but I think they end up with many more points in common than they had at the beginning. begin. The Camino also unites in a very deep, emotional way”.
Iria adds another idea to this shared experience of welcoming and welcomed, how different the volunteers are “something that also enriches us”.
And among the questions they are asked the most, they highlight “how to follow the Camino a Fisterra, the times of the masses, if there will be botafumeiro in religious ceremonies, where to eat… and they are also curious about our experience at the Office, how it is our job, and what has led us to do volunteering”.
They say the pandemic has made work difficult. “Everything has been computerized, which helps the administrative part to be faster, but it has also imposed a distance with a screen, a mask… it removes communication, and makes the relationship colder.”
Although the good experience has led them to want to repeat from the first time they participated in the work camp, they say that word of mouth and the pastoral network have made many friends and colleagues join it, and that there may be shifts of up to ten people volunteering throughout the summer. “It is an experience to repeat, without a doubt”, they insist, and encourage everyone to try it, “because we are welcoming and we are also welcomed, and it is wonderful”.
In addition, every day a space and a time of personal prayer are offered to deepen the lived experience and prepare to welcome those who make the Way. The volunteer collaborates and animates the two prayers that are offered to all the pilgrims in the city: at 4:30 p.m. in the Chapel of the Pilgrim’s Office, in the Taizé style, and at 10:00 p.m. in the Church of San Agustín, in the style of the Ignatian exam.
Ignatian welcome volunteer for the pilgrims who finish the Jacobean Route