Testimonial from pilgrim Arlette Franz of Lausanne

[Rosina Lila]

                          Translation.

       "I left Switzerland on December 1, 2002, planning to arrive in
Santiago de Compostela in three months.  But my guide, the guide of all of us,
planned differently.
       In the beginning I walked stages of 25 kilometers,  later 30 and 35
kms. segments and at the end the stages were between 45 and 65 kilometers.  I am
60 years old and derived pleasure from the strength that allowed me to
increase the segments that I walked.
       I arrived in Santiago the 26th of January, 2003, that is 8 weeks
(Sunday to Sunday) from the date of my departure. God decided on 57 days.  I made
my pilgrimage without money. I knocked on doors for food and a place to sleep.
Fifty families, married or single, allowed me into their homes and gave me a
place to sleep. I always found effective harmony in those homes.  As for food,
 I sat at the dining table with my hosts or ate as I was walking.
       Thinking of Christmas I feared that I would find "no room at the inn",
but I was received by a family that included three generations and shared
their Christmas meal and their warmth;  this happened in Montpellier.
       I circumnavigated through Arles because I wanted to traverse
Protestant France.  I was born a Protestant and my father was a minister.  My father
named me Arlette after Arles.  I was a social worker until three years ago.  In
the year 2000 I converted.
       I suffered, I cried, I got angry....but I was always given the
infinite grace of finding food and a place to sleep. Everything can happen for those
who loveGod.
       I trusted....and neither telephoned or wrote my family or friends. The
people that I met wanting to write to my daughters or to my sister or to my
brother so that my people in Switzerland could follow my progress on a map.
       My story is immense and doubtless it will become the subject of a
book. Is a love story.  Thank you My Lord for this extraordinary adventure based
on my faith for the past three years."

The day of her arrival pilgrim Arlette offered the following g prayer at the
Pilgrims' Mass:
                                     Translation

       "Father,
Help the pilgrims that walk in this world. Have mercy on us when we become
lost or waste out time in other priorities over You.
       Helps us in our confusion, our night and our loss of hope. Take us in
your arms when the camino is hard and the tears blind us. Give us the strength
needed to overcome the difficulties we find.  Guide us, Father, in our
pilgrimage.
       Father, thank you for the food that you make available to us. Thank
you for the multiple beauties of creation.  Thank you for those others that you
place in our camino, we find you in every one if we wish it. Thank you Father
for all your blessings. Amen".

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