Thoughts on the way from Konstanz to Märstetten
Old pilgrim song:
“So we march through Switzerland,
who welcome us,
and give us their food,
they make us comfortable and cover us warm,
They show us the roads.”
Diary:
The old pilgrim's song comes back to me as I cross the Swiss border in Konstanz into Kreuzlingen. While I once enjoyed a pork knuckle meal with a quarter liter of Weissherbst beer in a cozy student restaurant in Germany and briefly tried my luck at the casino, I'm now foregoing that and instead heading to the former monastery church in Kreuzlingen. Around 40 stages of the Swiss Way of St. James lie ahead of me. And the question will always accompany me: "Are you really going this long way, pilgrim James? Or are you giving up?"
Food for thought
"Many, even thousands, have already walked this path before me. The many pilgrim feet, the sweat of the pilgrims, and their prayers along the way have left their spiritual mark on the path. Old place names such as Jakobshöhe, chapels and churches along the way with statues of St. James, monasteries that have sheltered pilgrims, and even inns that were once pilgrim hostels bear witness to this."
"Recognize the thread of hope in your very own biography, that inner strength that inexorably animates you despite many difficulties. Recognize the thread of faith in your particular path through life, that divine source that will never dry up within you despite arduous periods of thirst."
Pierre Stutz