The Pilgrim Trail

THE PILGRIM TRAIL

"The pilgrim route is the best way, but the most narrow. The road is, in fact, narrow that leads man to life, and the road is wide and spacious that leads to death. The pilgrim route is for the righteous: lack of vices, mortification of the body, restitution of virtues, remission of sins, penitence of the penitent, journey of the just, love of the saints, faith in the resurrection and remuneration of the blessed, distancing of the infernal, propitiation of the heavens. It reduces fat foods, it checks gluttony of the stomach, it tames lust, it suppresses carnal desires, which militate against the soul. It purifies the spirit, it motivates man toward contemplation, it humbles the lofty, it beatifies the humble. It loves poverty; it hates the inventory that avarice keeps but that generosity loves when one dispenses it to the needy. It rewards those abstaining and working well, it does not free those sinning and avaricious on it [the road]." ("The 'Veneranda dies' Sermon,"  The Miracles of St. James. Translations from the Liber Sancti Jacobi, edited and translated by Thomas F. Coffey, Linda Kay Davidson & Maryjane Dunn).