The Camino field of stars

I’ve been in lots of churches since I started walking the Camino, but until a couple nights ago not when a service was going on.

After checking into an albergue run by kind but strict nuns (the kind with which one does not mess) I saw there was a nightly mass and blessing of the pilgrims at the church of Santa Maria.

As far as I could make out, the words of the mass were almost identical to the Episcopal service. After, pilgrims were invited to come forward to receive a prayer and blessing from the priest and the leading sister.

We were then given a little star made of colored paper to remind us of the light in darkness.
At the end, the nuns sang a hymn to Mary, the Virgin of the Camino, accompanied by guitar.

The word Compostela in the Camino is believed to be derived from “field of stars.” I hadn’t seen too many this trip, mostly because we have to be in bed by 10 lest we turn into albergue pumpkins. But in the darkness before dawn I looked out the window above my albergue bed and saw some brilliant stars.

I was reminded that Dante ended each section of his Divine Comedy with the word “stars.”
Inferno: “and we stood once more beneath the stars”

Purgatory: “eager now to rise, ready for the stars”

Paradise “like a wheel in perfect balance turning, I felt my mind and my desires impelled by the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”