Walking the Camino de Santiago with Intent and Intentions

Last year, I walked the Camino de Santiago, specifically the Camino Frances, with my siblings and close friends. This was a journey that left a deep and lasting mark on my heart so much so that when I returned home, I immediately booked my second Camino for Summer 2025. However this time, things would be a bit different. My husband and two of our four children would be along for the journey. We would be doing the Portuguese route known as the Camino Portuguese. In addition, I added a visit to Fatima prior to starting the Camino. It has been my husband’s dream to visit the site so my thoughts were go big or go home!
 
Last year, before setting out on my Camino pilgrimage, I gathered a small book of prayer intentions. These came from personal friends and members of the Many Hail Mary’s At a Time online community, a spiritual family I hold close to my heart. My one piece of suggested advice was to ask big that way when the prayer was answered, they knew it could have only been because of God.
 
I carried those intentions with me throughout the Camino, each one a quiet companion on the journey. When I reached Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the Camino, I placed the book beneath the relics of St. James at the Cathedral, offering every intention at his feet.
 
In January of this year, as I prepared for this pilgrimage to Fatima and the Camino Portuguese, I felt called to do the same. I began collecting intentions once again, starting with a single notebook. The same piece of advice was given: ask big.
 
As the months passed, the prayers poured in. By the time I was getting ready to leave, I had two books completely filled with intentions. In fact, the books were overflowing with handwritten prayers, names, and sealed envelopes entrusted to me with deep faith. Some requested their intentions remain unopened, and I honored that sacred trust by attaching them securely to the books.
 
Along with the two books filled with written intentions, I also carried a third book. This book was filled with the names of those who had submitted prayers, as well as individuals my husband and I were lifting up in prayer. The plan was to leave the first two books at the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, the sacred site where Our Lady appeared to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco in 1917. The third book, holding all those cherished names, would be carried to the end of the Camino and left beneath the relics of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, a final offering of love, hope and intercession.
 
My husband and I were deeply moved by the outpouring of intentions. The intentions came not only from those nearby, but also from across the world, including Croatia, Australia, and the Philippines. As I gathered each intention, one word kept rising in my heart: hope. It reminded me of a quote I love from Pope Benedict XVI: “One who has hope lives differently.” Carrying these intentions has shown me just how powerfully hope lives in the hearts of those who believe.
 
The beautiful mystery of prayer and offering petitions involves a few essential things. First, hope—the belief that your prayer will be heard. Second, trust—a quiet confidence that God will respond, though perhaps not in the way we expect. And third, surrender—the willingness to place your request in God’s hands and let go. Once we offer our prayer, it becomes His business, not ours.
 
One thing is certain with prayer: the answer comes according to His will, not our own. Our part is simply to ask with faith, and that’s exactly what each person did when they entrusted me with their intentions.
 
As I am writing this, I’m sitting near the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, quietly reflecting and savoring the grace and beauty woven into every moment of this journey. Just the day before, my husband and I placed the two books of intentions by Our Lady at the Chapel of Apparitions. It was a surreal moment, one that filled us with deep peace and quiet joy. In that offering, we knew we had placed everything in Mary’s loving hands, entrusting her to carry each intention to the heart of her Son and to intercede for us.
 
Now, we continue on to the Camino, carrying the third book of names to its final resting place beneath the relics of St. James. After that, we will return home with hearts full, spirits lifted and a renewed sense of just how powerfully hope and prayer move through the lives of those who believe.
 
In the end, this pilgrimage was never just about the places visited or the miles walked. It was about carrying the intentions, burdens and hopes of others with reverence and love. It was about letting Mary and the saints intercede, and about surrendering all we cannot carry alone into God’s faithful hands.
 
May this be an invitation to all of us: to walk with faith, to carry one another in prayer and to never stop hoping. “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13