{"id":19977,"date":"2026-04-01T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=19977"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:10:46","slug":"via-lemovicensis-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/via-lemovicensis-blessings\/","title":{"rendered":"Via Lemovicensis: Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">T<\/span>his morning, I received my pilgrim blessing from my pastor at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saintpats.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Saint Patrick<\/a>, the Very Rev. David Mulholland. The last time he gave me this blessing, I was accompanied by my beautiful bride. Although she no longer walks the earth, I very much feel like she is walking with me on this pilgrimage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will carry with me the pilgrim shell she carried on her last few Caminos. Rather than being emblazoned with the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cross_of_Saint_James\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cross of Saint James<\/a>, it carries the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.franciscanmedia.org\/ask-a-franciscan\/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-tau-cross\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Franciscan Tau<\/a> cross. It represents a journey never completed this side of heaven<span id='easy-footnote-1-19977' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/via-lemovicensis-blessings\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-19977' title='&lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.franciscanmedia.org\/ask-a-franciscan\/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-tau-cross\/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot;&gt;Source&lt;\/a&gt;.'><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. I always thought that she carried this as a sort of pun on our names, but of course, she had a devotion to Saint Francis of Assisi, her name saint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-10.48.55-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps not so coincidentally, today&#8217;s reading from the Holy Rule is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chapter 50: <em>Of Brethren Who Work a Long Distance from the Oratory or Are on a Journey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brethren who are at work too far away, and cannot come to the oratory at the appointed time, and the Abbot hath assured himself that such is the case \u2013 let them perform the Work of God in the fear of God and on bended knees where they are working. In like manner let those who are sent on a journey not permit the appointed hours to pass by; but let them say the office by themselves as best they can, and not neglect to fulfil the obligation of divine service.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19987\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-01-09.32.14-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-primary-color\">&#8220;Shoulder this rucksack&#8230;&#8221;<\/mark><\/em> (photo by Meg Hannan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, I received my pilgrim blessing from my pastor at Saint Patrick, the Very Rev. David Mulholland. The last time he gave me this blessing, I was accompanied by my beautiful bride. Although she no longer walks the earth, I very much feel like she is walking with me on this pilgrimage. I will carry with me the pilgrim [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ruminations","category-via-lemovicensis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19977"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19993,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19977\/revisions\/19993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}