Blisters, Brokenness and Bonding
By Therese Fink Meyerhoff
It began with an invitation.
“You should come next year,” Fr. Hung Pham, SJ, said during a phone conversation shortly after his return from walking the Ignatian Camino in the summer of 2024.
I had thought about walking a Camino over the years but had never gotten as far as actually planning a trip. Most people, when they hear mention of walking “the Camino,” think of the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), the network of routes covering hundreds of miles across Europe, all leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. That is not the Camino my colleague Hung was referring to.
Instead, I was being invited to walk in the footsteps of St Ignatius Loyola on the Camino Ignaciano or Ignatian Camino. The Ignatian Camino is a relatively new opportunity for pilgrims, especially compared to the ancient Camino de Santiago. It was mapped about ten years ago by a Spanish Jesuit, Fr. José Luis Iriberri, who continues to guide pilgrims over the nearly 400-mile route connecting places of significance in the life of St. Ignatius Loyola. It begins in his birthplace of Azpeitia, home to Loyola Castle, and ends in the Cave of St. Ignatius in Manresa. Our trip included three days in Rome, where Ignatius spent the last decades of his life as the first superior general of the Society of Jesus – a special blessing during the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Many pilgrims take 30 days to walk the entire Ignatian Camino. Our itinerary spanned 14 days, so we took some shortcuts, namely riding a bus between locales. Our group of two guides and 15 pilgrims walked a total of around 160 miles – up and down mountains, across bucolic countrysides, through sleepy small towns and along crowded, urban streets.
We began most walks in silence, with a theme to contemplate provided by Fr. Pham. We ended each day with Mass and dinner together. And in between, we got to know one another as we shared the challenges of the journey and the stories of our lives. Strangers became friends, and friends became family.
A pilgrimage is more than a hike in the countryside. The Camino Ignaciano is an opportunity to live simply and connect in a new way with saints who inspire us like St. Ignatius, St. Peter Claver and St. Francis Xavier. In a world with a constant onslaught of sound, images and news, a pilgrimage offers the rarest of gifts – space and time for prayer and deep reflection. I cherished my silent walks.
The Camino was challenging. But when the path was steep and rocky, the day was hot, and my ankles creaky, I learned to trust in myself and God’s loving care in a whole new way. The invitation to walk the Ignatian Camino may have come by way of my friend, but I think it may have originated with God.
Therese Fink Meyerhoff is provincial assistant for communications in the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province.
Let this be your invitation to walk the Ignatian Camino. Father Hung Pham, SJ, will lead another group of pilgrims next year, June 15-28, 2026. Stops include Loyola, Verdú, Montserrat, Manresa, Barcelona, La Storta and Rome. For information, visit www.SpaceOfEncounter.com or contact Lan Nguyen at chieulannguyen@gmail.com.
Read on for more reflections from my fellow pilgrims.
Azpeitia
Choosing Conversion
I took a 10-day Ignatian Spirituality course about 15 years ago. The course covered prayer, spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises, but I learned nothing about St. Ignatius, because he was never mentioned.
I have come to learn so much about his life after joining the 14-day Ignatian pilgrimage in June 2025. I was so touched and got very emotional when I saw and felt his presence by visiting significant places in his life.
One location that has remained on my mind since the Ignatian pilgrimage is the Chapel of Conversion at Loyola Castle, the room where St. Ignatius recovered from the cannonball wound that changed his life. It had a great impact on me: ever since, I have been questioning and pondering when and how I would be converted in a similar way. “Why have I not been converted yet? Must there be a significant event in my life for the conversion?”
I have come to realize that I don’t need to wait. I can choose to change by doing small things at a time. One of the first things that I remember from my class is to set up a quiet and comfortable place in the home. I already have a nice place in my backyard, and I am going to set up a corner in my bedroom so I can read the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, learning his methods of meditation, prayers and contemplative practices. I believe that these actions will help me not only to deepen my relationship with God but also improve and change my life.
My conversion will take time, but if I keep working at it daily for the years to come, I am absolutely positive that I will be walking closer to God and be converted.
— Helen Ledinh
Montserrat
Camino Ignaciano on my 72nd Birthday
I write about this journey not just as someone who walked the Camino Ignaciano on my 72nd birthday, but as someone who was accompanied – by the path, by the people and by the stories woven into every stone and sunrise along the way.
I set out on this pilgrimage thinking I was on a journey to reach Manresa. But somewhere between the blisters, the laughter and the conversations with strangers who became friends, I realized that the real destination was within myself.
The Camino is more than a trail; it’s a teacher. It taught me patience when the days stretched long, humility when the mountains rose high, and gratitude in the smallest acts of kindness – a shared orange, a bandaged toe, a simple “Buen Camino.”
There were moments of deep solitude, when the only sound was my breath and the crunch of gravel beneath my boots. And then there were vibrant moments: sitting around tables in Montserrat, breaking bread with people from every corner of the world, each with a reason for walking, each carrying something heavy, each seeking something light.
I walked through ancient villages, alongside golden fields, under cathedral bells. I cried when I arrived at the cathedral at Montserrat – not just from exhaustion, but from knowing I had shed parts of myself and gathered others I didn’t know I needed.
If you are thinking of walking the Camino, do it – not to escape, but to arrive. Not just at a place, but at a version of yourself that is quieter, stronger and more alive.
Gracias, Camino. You changed me. My 72nd birthday party was simple, but it gave me a new vision for my life.
— John Tran
Manresa
Finding Grace During a Sleepless Night
I found strength in the quiet at the Cave of Manresa.
After long hours of walking and the lack of sleep due to moving from place to place, my body was aching. My back hurt, my feet had blisters, and my mind was blown from walking more than 15 miles on the fourth day of our Camino. When our group stayed in the retreat house at Manresa, I was hoping to have long hours of sleep to recuperate what I’d lost. Instead, that night was memorable.
I tried to close my eyes and sleep but just could not drop off. I was anxious about the next busy day. Around 3 a.m., I got up to go out of my room and walk in the hallway. Step by step up the stairwell I went, feeling a sweetness, like that of a gentle mother – loving, tender and peaceful. It felt like home, but one I’d never been in – like a princess finds in a beautiful castle!
There is strength in quietness and the divine spirit breathing in me. I found myself joyful, energetic, uplifted.
I walked for 30 minutes before returning to my room, but for some reason, I felt called to go out again. I kept walking along the hallway and up and down the stairway. I paused to regard the beautiful artwork, including many depictions of St. Ignatius Loyola and of Mother Mary.
In this moment, I understood why many saints willingly sacrifice – suffering and living only for God. Because they tasted love and grace from God.
I found me, in love with peace. My mind was happy, my body uplifted in this moment of tranquility.
I stayed up until 6 a.m., when I found the laundry room to wash my dirty clothes. My mind had been washed by the Holy Spirit. Now I wanted my clothes to be washed as clean and fresh, so I could start a new happy day of my pilgrimage with this group.
My sleepless night was an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
— CeCe Pham
Rome – The Rooms of St. Ignatius
Lessons Learned on The Way
Growing up Catholic has accustomed me to weird relics and wild saints, but nothing could have prepared me for the wonders we encountered on the Ignatian Camino. Walking thousands of steps every day and starting each day with a period of silence allowed me to connect both physically and spiritually with this path of such historical significance. The connections we made with each other and with the saints that walked the path before us was so tangible and so much more powerful than the counterfeit sense of connection that I typically get from social media.
As pilgrims, we became companions to the companions of Christ led by Fr. Hung Pham and his volunteer assistant Lan Chieu Nguyen. Even though there was a 50-year age gap from the oldest to the youngest of us, we were all able to relate to each other as fellow pilgrims following the life of St. Ignatius from his birthplace in Loyola to his tomb in Rome.
Mass was celebrated every day in these impactful places where chapels have been built to preserve the memory of the life of this man who gave up his worldly aspirations to follow Jesus. On the Camino, I learned how to see Jesus without over complicating things because the walk simplified life to the basic movements of taking one step at a time, eating, drinking and sleeping. I learned that prayer can be a simple cry for help or word of gratitude. The walk taught us to treasure the things in life that we often take for granted, like air conditioning, ice and a private bed space.
One of the most memorable Masses was in the rooms of St. Ignatius, next door to the Church of the Gesù, when we did a foot-washing ritual reminiscent of how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Washing each other’s sore and tired feet was a truly humbling experience. Growing in humility takes a lifetime, and the Camino was a trip of a lifetime with lessons learned from the life of St. Ignatius that I pray, through his intercession, I will treasure forever.
— Tiffany Tran
Learn more about the Camino Ignaciano at caminoignaciano.org/en/. Or check out Fr. José Luis Iriberri’s books, On the Ignatian Way: A Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and The Official Guide to the Camino Ignaciano.
Featured photo: Pilgrims’ days begin early to beat the heat of the Spanish summer. At top, they depart Verdú, birthplace of St. Peter Claver.
