Good morning District 27. Today is the Feast of St. James. “James ‘the Greater,’ [was the] brother of the Apostle John, [and] according to a tradition, thought to have preached in Spain after Pentecost [50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus]. Since the Middle Ages, pilgrims have made their way, on foot, to the apostle’s shrine at Santiago de Compostela. ‘The Way to Santiago has been sometimes considered as an example of the Church’s pilgrimage on it journey towards the heavenly city. It is a path of prayer and penance, of charity and solidarity – a stretch of the path of life where faith, becoming history among mankind, also converts culture into something Christian’ (Saint John Paul II). In art, James often bears the attributes of the pilgrim: the hat, staff, gourd, and scallop shell” (1).
Posted today are two articles that were published about my pilgrimage experience as I walked the Camino of Santiago (The Way of St. James). One of the articles was published in the October 2012 Edition of the West River Catholic and the other article was published on the front page of the Bennett County Booster on February 27, 2013. These articles provide additional insight as to “Who is Anthony Kathol?”
I have also enclosed a photo of the scallop shell I carried on my backpack as I traversed across the beautiful countryside of Spain. It serves as a reminder of the pilgrims who performed the penitential act of walking the Way to Saint James on their knees protected with the scallop shell. Finally, I am sharing a photo of me standing in front of the Cathedral Holy Doors on the day I arrived in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Walking the Camino of Santiago was a life-changing experience I will never forget. It has been 12 years since I walked the Camino. I was at a major crossroads in my life. I had retired from my job after 21 years of public service and I needed to find a sense of purpose and direction in my life since my work was what defined me. Every day as I walked on the Camino, it was a great opportunity for reflection and prayer. Many tears were shed. The article published in the West River Catholic says, “I learned that I must trust in the Lord and not be afraid to whatever he calls me to do as I continue on the journey in my own life.” Upon reading this article 12 years later, I find myself once again in a vulnerable position in my life where I cannot be afraid to answer the call to public service as a state senator. As many of you who have been following my Facebook blog from the start know, my involvement in this senate race is a calling from Above. The Lord has assured me he has my back. Every day throughout this campaign I find him continuing to lead me. I just have to put my faith and trust in him and get out of the way. In essence, that is what life is about - complete surrender of my own will to do His will. That is not easy when one wants to have complete control of the outcome. I quickly learned that while walking the Camino, I could not have written a better “script” as to my pilgrimage experience. As written in the West River Catholic, “…It is difficult for me to describe the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects that the Camino had on me personally.” I felt like I was in a dream for two months while on pilgrimage in Spain (and Portugal). Not realizing the significance of today’s date at the time, I had booked my return flight on the twenty-fifth of July - a week after I had reached the Cathedral of St. James to see the Crypt where the relics of St. James lie. As my flight departed from Madrid, the plane flew over Santiago de Compostela, and from above I looked out the window and I could see through the clear blue sky below me the Cathedral of Saint James before the plane pierced through the clouds and flew across the Atlantic Ocean back to the United States.
Every year on the Feast of Saint James, I think of my time on the Camino. The Camino calls you. The Camino was never on my radar screen. I had no desire to go to Spain, but after watching the movie “The Way,” I was on "My Way" within eight weeks of watching that movie. It was no coincidence that a fellow parishioner had given me that movie. It was Divine Providence that God used this person as his instrument to be the catalyst that propelled me to go on this pilgrimage trip, which I had never heard of before until I had watched the movie. That is how God reveals himself. Likewise, God continues to use me now as his instrument to speak truth boldly without hesitation in a post-modern world that has lost "its way." If elected your state senator, I will speak truth boldly in the senate chamber without hesitation because, like on my Way to Saint James, God has my back. God bless.
Source:
1) Magnificat. (July 2024). Feast of Saint James. Volume 26, No. 5, p. 346.
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