{"id":87155,"date":"2016-04-24T09:57:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T16:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/on-a-human-scale\/"},"modified":"2016-08-18T15:18:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T22:18:58","slug":"on-a-human-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/on-a-human-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"On a Human Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>fter Rabanal, we crested the Cordillera Cant\u00e1brica at Cruz de Ferro. Traditionally, one leaves a stone at the foot of the cross there. This is the accompanying prayer: <\/p>\n

\n

Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, one day weigh the balance in favor of my good deed when the deeds of my life are judged. Amen. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Beyond the simple prayer and the stone, of course, everyone has something else to lay down there as well. Something we’ve been holding onto.<\/p>\n

Sin. Attachment to sin. Bad habits or attitudes. <\/p>\n

Or something else entirely: grief, emotional or mental baggage, memories of slights or offenses that you must let go.<\/p>\n

After this is a dangerous and harrowing descent down the mountainside. <\/p>\n

 \"\"<\/a> 
\nT<\/span>his, we did over two days, bringing us finally into the beautiful valley of El Bierzo.<\/p>\n

There’s poetry in that, I think. <\/p>\n

 \"\"<\/a> 
\nAs we passed through many tiny villages over the past few days, I was struck by the very human scale in which they are constructed.<\/p>\n

The streets tend to be narrow, perhaps 20 or 30 feet wide, and tall, with the houses close in.<\/p>\n

The central plaza or main street holds a church, a bar\/caf\u00e9, perhaps a restaurant, a grocery, and a shop or two.<\/p>\n

Everything is within walking distance. Everything is on a human-sized scale.<\/p>\n

 \"\"<\/a> 
\nI can’t help thinking that this is the way humans are meant to live together in community.<\/p>\n

(Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Rabanal, we crested the Cordillera Cant\u00e1brica at Cruz de Ferro. Traditionally, one leaves a stone at the foot of the cross there. This is the accompanying prayer:  Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, one day weigh the balance in favor of my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-mFJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48802,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/put-down-your-stone\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":0},"title":"Put Down Your Stone","author":"Thom","date":"02 March 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At the highest point of the Camino in Spain, upon the plateau of Monte Irago, is a cross. This cross, called Cruz de Ferro (literally, \u201ciron cross\u201d) is a tall oak post with a small iron cross attached to the top. All around the cross is a large pile of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cruz de Ferro","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/cruz-de-ferro-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":107753,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-gathering-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":1},"title":"The Gathering, 2023","author":"Thom","date":"19 April 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"years ago, Francine and I took our Hospitalero training at the annual Gathering of American Pilgrims on the Camino in South Lake Tahoe. It was quite the adventure, what with a blizzard, driving down a mountain in the snow, and finally the beginning of the Plague. When we got back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2023-04-15-17.08.28-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2023-04-15-17.08.28-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2023-04-15-17.08.28-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2023-04-15-17.08.28-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2023-04-15-17.08.28-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":83991,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-cruz-de-ferro\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":2},"title":"One Year Ago: Cruz de Ferro","author":"Thom","date":"22 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"(from my journal) Molinaseca 22 April 2013 Saying Goodbye to our Hospitaleros at Refugio Gaucelmo in Rabanal Too tired to think properly. Spectacular climb to Cruz de Ferro, Francine, Mark, and I. Saw some peregrinos there we had prviously met in Rabanal. Saw a forest fire in the hills \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saying Goodbye to our Hospitaleros at Refugio Gaucelmo in Rabanal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9039840200_0ac669336f_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9039840200_0ac669336f_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9039840200_0ac669336f_b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9039840200_0ac669336f_b.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61980,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/cruz-de-ferro\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":3},"title":"Cruz de Ferro","author":"Thom","date":"28 April 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"22 April 2013 One of the great traditions of the modern Camino is to leave a stone at Cruz de Ferro, an iron cross marking (more or less) the highest spot on the Camino route in Spain. This, we did today. In an earlier entry, I talked about my stone,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2282,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/a-catechesis-on-silence\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":4},"title":"A Catechesis on Silence","author":"Thom","date":"12 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On the old calendar, today is the feast of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 - 604). In addition to the above, Saint Gregory was also a Benedictine abbot prior to his election as Pope. So it is in the monastic spirit that today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Meditations"","block_context":{"text":"Meditations","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/meditations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pope-saint-gregory-the-great-1-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":106930,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/discernment-on-the-camino-primitivo\/","url_meta":{"origin":87155,"position":5},"title":"Discernment on the Camino Primitivo","author":"Thom","date":"07 June 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"all now finally back from our Camino. Those of you who have been following along over on our Camino blog know that - in addition to the physical and mental challenges - the Camino is a powerful tool for discernment. I'll get back to what we were discerning later, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2020 - the end of Holy Rosary"","block_context":{"text":"2020 - the end of Holy Rosary","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/2020-the-end-of-holy-rosary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Santa-Mari%CC%81a-La-Real-de-Obona.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Santa-Mari%CC%81a-La-Real-de-Obona.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Santa-Mari%CC%81a-La-Real-de-Obona.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Santa-Mari%CC%81a-La-Real-de-Obona.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87156,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87155\/revisions\/87156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}