Camino pilgrims hope God will provide—and he does

Teresa Venatta, right, and her daughter, Liz Venatta Potter, hiked 275 miles on the Camino, a journey filled with unexpected graces. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

(Editor’s note: A record 499,239 pilgrims from all over the world walked the historic Camino pilgrimage in northern Spain in 2024. The Criterion has invited people from the archdiocese who have made all or part of that pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, to share how that experience has influenced their life and their faith.)
 

Second in an occasional series

Teresa Venatta embraces two fundamental beliefs about life, starting with this one:

God will provide.

Here’s her second belief: When God gives her the opportunity, she needs to provide for others.

These two beliefs are tied to her Camino experience.

“Ever since seeing the movie, The Way, starring Martin Sheen in 2011, I felt an immediate attraction to the Camino de Santiago [“The Way of St. James”] that I could not explain,” Venatta recalls.

“I was in my early 50’s, and in this busy season of life, I had responsibilities with work, immediate family and my aging mother and mother-in-law. I wasn’t in a ‘life position’ to even entertain a pilgrimage, so I held this attraction in my heart.”

During those years, Venatta helped with the care of her mother-in-law, Betty Welsh, until her death in 2014. She also helped care for her mother, Mary Anita Jansen, until her death in 2016.

Their deaths filled her with sadness. After a time, her mother’s passing also led to a different feeling for Venatta.

“I felt her ‘permission’ and even ‘encouragement’ to explore the possibility of a Camino further,” says Venatta, a member of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis.

So, in the summer of 2016, Venatta made plans to walk the Camino with one of her daughters, Liz Venatta Potter.

They set aside three weeks to hike 275 miles in Spain, first from Leon to the Cathedral of St. James in Santiago, and then onward to two other destinations in Spain that are featured in the movie, Finisterre and Muxia.

“We carried everything with us,” Venatta recalls. “We had not pre-booked our albergues [pilgrims’ hostels], and relied on God, our guidebook and each other to map out our days and nights. I felt my parent’s presence along the journey within the freedom and rhythm of walking.

“There was also a freedom in the daily uncertainty of what the path would be like and not knowing where we would be staying at night.”

In that daily uncertainty, mother and daughter saw God providing for them in a range of “unexpected graces,” from their bonds with other pilgrims during the day to the kindness of the managers of the albergues who welcomed them in the evening.

“There was a beauty in the simplicity of waking, walking, praying along the path, finding a place to lay our heads, washing our clothes for the next day and falling asleep with a satisfying exhaustion.

“So, my primary memory of my Camino is how God provided daily for us. Sometimes in unexpected ways and often within missteps and on rugged paths.

“We traveled with an openness to each day. Not having every detail known or planned gave me a deeper awareness of God’s faithful presence in all of life. We simply needed to take each step in trust and God provided. I can still feel this pilgrim awareness to this day.”

A moment of transformation in the rain

For 10 straight days and 65 miles, Eran McCarty walked the Camino with a dreary, constant companion most people would dislike.

“I walked the last 104 kilometers of the Camino in May of 2024,” McCarty recalls. “There were many transformative moments along ‘The Way,’ but I think the one thing that threaded its way throughout my journey was water. You see, it rained every day of our walk.”

Still, McCarty viewed that disheartening reality as an opportunity to embrace one of the main goals she had for her journey—to move closer to God.

“Thank God for good rain gear and waterproof boots!” McCarty says before sharing a deeper outpouring of her appreciation for his presence during her journey.

“Walking along in the mud and rain, I tried to see the lesson the Holy Spirit was showing me,” says McCarty, a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Fortville. “Water, being washed clean, baptism. Without liquid water, there would be no life. Quenching thirst of the land and of my spirit.

“After days of walking in the rain, it became like an old friend.”

That feeling continues for her.

“Every time I walk in the rain, I have to smile as it reminds me of the journey I made to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.” †