‘I felt that God was holding me in his arms’

Deacon John McShea takes a selfie during his nearly 500-mile journey on the Camino in 2023. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

As he walked nearly 500 miles along the Camino, Deacon John McShea continually experienced moments when he felt that God was looking out for him.

After one long day on the road, McShea faced an evening when his reservation at a hostel had been canceled. Not knowing where he would rest and sleep, he approached an old church building, desperately hoping he would be welcomed there.

“The Hospital San Nicholas was full, but they made room for me,” recalls McShea, noting that it was “a 1,000-year-old church building with no electricity and no Wi-Fi that was run by an Italian confraternity.”

“I was welcomed and fed dinner. Afterward, we prayed and sang together. I felt that God was holding me in his arms.”

He had the same feeling on another day during his journey from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5 in 2023.

“Every day, I visited churches and prayed,” says the deacon, who serves at St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis. “Several towns had pilgrim Masses in the evenings. One hot Sunday, I was walking through a small town and heard out-of-tune, clanging church bells. I followed the commotion and asked, ‘Es misa ahora?’ (‘Is Mass now?’) The answer was Si, so I dropped my backpack and trekking poles in the back. I was blessed.”

All his experiences were tied to the prayer he made every day: “Lord, fill me with your love and light so that they will say, ‘He is with God, let us walk with him.’ ”

That prayer also led to two defining moments when he reached the shrine of St. James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

“On the Camino, you need your passport to check into the albergues [hostels] and you also need to present a ‘credential,’ which is a passport that gets stamped at the albergues, churches and cafes,” McShea notes. “These stamps prove that you walked the Camino, and you are awarded a certificate of completion at the pilgrim office in Santiago.

“When the volunteer at the pilgrimage office presented me with my certificate, I cried with relief and joy for having completed the 800-kilometer journey.”

His relief and joy turned to awe and inspiration when he soon stowed his backpack and entered the Cathedral de Compostela.

“I had been told that they would probably not swing the giant botafumeiro—a giant, incense thurible that is swung from the ceiling of the cathedral with long ropes. I arrived about 45 minutes early for the afternoon Mass, expecting to be able to spend some time in quiet prayer. However, the cathedral was packed. Even the standing room was filled.

“I looked across the cathedral and saw a pillar, so I wove my way through the crowd and found myself directly in front of the sanctuary. Mass was beautiful, and afterward they swung the botafumeiro, filling the giant cathedral with incense!

“It was a blessing.” †

 

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