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Our pilgrimages · On foot · 2018

Meritxell 2018

“Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow”

Dates
On foot
300 km
Days
12
Stages
12
Silhouettes of pilgrims on a rocky summit at daybreak, with golden clouds in the valleys.

The route

On foot

The stops

  1. Parish of Sant Mateu (Barcelona)23 July
  2. Caldes de Montbui23 July
  3. Moià24 July
  4. Olost25 July
  5. Alpens26 July
  6. Ripoll27 July
  7. Rialb (Queralbs)28 July
  8. Núria29 July
  9. Puigmal30 July
  10. Osséja30 July
The other 5 stops
  1. Les Bouillouses31 July
  2. Pic Carlit1 August
  3. Col de Puymorens1 August
  4. Soldeu2 August
  5. Shrine of Meritxell3 August

Meritxell 2018, always one step further

Twelve days and 300 kilometres on foot from Barcelona to Our Lady of Meritxell, with the Puigmal and the Carlit as the queen stages and a new outlook halfway up.

In 2018, a group of 35 young people made a pilgrimage on foot from Barcelona to the shrine of Our Lady of Meritxell, in Andorra: 300 kilometres between 23 July and 3 August. Throughout the twelve days, it was the figure of the Holy Father who wrote to them, encouraging them always to go one step further.

The route

The route set out from Sant Mateu and climbed through Caldes de Montbui, Moià, Ripoll and Núria to the Pyrenees, and from there, over the Puigmal, Osséja and the Carlit, on to Soldeu and Meritxell. As the presentation of the pilgrimage said, they weren’t easy stages, not because of the kilometres but because of how steep some of them were. They got up at four in the morning, and in three days they climbed the Puigmal and the Carlit, with more than 900 metres of ascent.

Halfway up the Carlit

Laura, who was 21, clearly remembers those stages. Halfway up the Carlit she stopped on a rock with a friend: “I can’t go on!”. Pilgrims kept overtaking them and encouraging them, but they didn’t move, until the last one came up and said to them: “Have you seen what a beautiful view it is? It’s wonderful to see what God has made for us!”. Those words made her lift her head, look at the landscape and think: “If God created this for me, can’t I keep climbing for Him?”. And she carried on walking, with a different outlook.

Along the way, the support of the others was fundamental: the songs, the banter and the jokes made the way more enjoyable, and the conversations with the companions they met along the way taught a great deal. Between effort and austerity, Laura discovered something simple there: “Giving yourself to others and no longer thinking about yourself is living a full life”.

The arrival

Reaching the shrine of Meritxell was an incredible feeling. Despite sore feet and legs, the carefree, happy and fraternal atmosphere made it a pilgrimage the group would remember with affection and joy. Laura sums it up with a sentence that holds for any pilgrimage: “God does everything in his own time”.

Photos

How they lived it

  • “If God created this for me, can’t I keep climbing for Him?”

    But, little by little, with every step, Jesus and Mary were touching my heart and made me see that all that effort, that capacity for sacrifice, that sobriety for God and for others was worth it, and that this really was true happiness. Giving yourself to others and no longer thinking about yourself is living a full life.

    Read it in full

    […]

    I clearly remember the eighth, ninth and tenth stages of the way. They were the hardest stages: in three days we climbed the Puigmal and the Carlit. Personally, climbing two mountains in three days with a height gain of more than 900 m isn’t really my thing, so halfway up the Carlit I stopped and said: I can’t go on! I spent a good while stopped on a rock with a friend, wondering how we would manage. Pilgrims kept overtaking us and encouraging us to keep going, but we stayed put. Until the last one came up to us and said: “Have you seen what beautiful views? It’s wonderful to see what God has done for us!” Those words made me lift my head, look at the landscape and think: If God created this for me, can’t I keep climbing for Him? And that’s what I did: I kept walking with a different outlook.

    Finally, after several days on the way, we reached the shrine of Meritxell. The feeling of having arrived was incredible, and I realised it had been worth coming. I had been able to swim against the tide, to step out of the worldliness of life and to value more what God has created and done for me.

    God does everything in his own time.

    Laura

The chronicles

What we wrote along the way and afterwards, chronicle by chronicle.

  1. God does everything in his own time6 April · Laura C.