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A life-changing journey
Photo courtesy of Maggie Cech
A life-changing journey
GU alumna Maggie Cech on the Camino trail in Spain where she traveled 166 miles.
Posted: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 6:25 pm | Updated: 7:13 pm, Wed Oct 1, 2014.
Vanessa Ingram
Enriching the mind, body and spirit through spiritual enlightenment is a very familiar concept for students at GU that is enhanced by campus retreats and humanistic studies.
GU alum Maggie Cech (2011) took the GU mission even further with her ambitious post-graduate journey on the Camino de Santiago (way of St. James), a 500-mile Catholic pilgrimage where people from all over the world come together to embark on an epic quest.
To put this feat of discipline and faith into perspective, the state of Washington is 360 miles across.
For Cech, the journey did not start with the Camino pilgrimage. After graduating, she taught in Mexico for two years, but found that it did not make her happy.
Even though she enjoyed the community and experience, Cech described a feeling of unhappiness with her career “I wasn’t following my heart, and the teaching job that I had became more draining than life-giving.” she said.
Everything changed when Cech was invited on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage by a fellow GU alum.
Though Cech only completed one-third of the Camino de Santiago (166 miles), she said the two weeks that she spent on that pilgrimage changed her life forever.
“The Camino is a metaphor for life. There are so many people from various walks of life that come on this journey traveling to the same destination while trying to meet various goals I will never forget that experience,” Cech said.
She also described how the pilgrimage allowed her to be free from the material world,
“During the trek, all superficial things are stripped away and we are just left with ourselves. Then we can really get down to what is in our hearts,” she said.
Sometime after the Camino trek, Cech saw a documentary about the pilgrimage, “Walking the Camino: Six ways to Santiago,” in theaters and decided to volunteer for the film and even met with the director, Lydia Smith.
Smith was impressed with Cech’s passion and hired her as the outreach coordinator for the documentary.
“My decision to hire Maggie largely came from how passionate she was (and is) about the Camino,” Smith said.
For Cech, all of this change happened quickly and was a bit overwhelming, but she believes that all the hardship was worth it.
“This past year has been a year of trials for me, but when I was hired for the documentary, I realized that this was the path God made for me,” she said.
Cech became emotional when she began to describe the impact that GU had on her. “It’s so hard to put into words how GU impacted me spiritually,” she said. Cech describes her time at GU as a huge contribution to the spiritual awakening that she experienced while on the Camino pilgrimage.
While attending GU, Cech was a participant in many spiritual retreats and pilgrimages that university ministry and GU offered. After participating in and leading a freshman retreat, Cech felt spiritually awakened and became very involved in the university’s mission of spirituality and enriching the whole person.
“I loved the Jesuits. They were just amazing and they really focused on educating the mind, body and spirit and living as men and women for others,” she said.
She also said that the closeness of the community at GU really helped her embark on her own spiritual path and have faith in where it took her.
“One of my favorite things about GU was the student community and the atmosphere at Mass. We all knew and loved and supported each other,” she said.
Cech will host a Q-and-A on the Camino de Santiago at REI Spokane on Oct. 13 from 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Maggie Cech
A life-changing journey
GU alumna Maggie Cech on the Camino trail in Spain where she traveled 166 miles.
Posted: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 6:25 pm | Updated: 7:13 pm, Wed Oct 1, 2014.
Vanessa Ingram
Enriching the mind, body and spirit through spiritual enlightenment is a very familiar concept for students at GU that is enhanced by campus retreats and humanistic studies.
GU alum Maggie Cech (2011) took the GU mission even further with her ambitious post-graduate journey on the Camino de Santiago (way of St. James), a 500-mile Catholic pilgrimage where people from all over the world come together to embark on an epic quest.
To put this feat of discipline and faith into perspective, the state of Washington is 360 miles across.
For Cech, the journey did not start with the Camino pilgrimage. After graduating, she taught in Mexico for two years, but found that it did not make her happy.
Even though she enjoyed the community and experience, Cech described a feeling of unhappiness with her career “I wasn’t following my heart, and the teaching job that I had became more draining than life-giving.” she said.
Everything changed when Cech was invited on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage by a fellow GU alum.
Though Cech only completed one-third of the Camino de Santiago (166 miles), she said the two weeks that she spent on that pilgrimage changed her life forever.
“The Camino is a metaphor for life. There are so many people from various walks of life that come on this journey traveling to the same destination while trying to meet various goals I will never forget that experience,” Cech said.
She also described how the pilgrimage allowed her to be free from the material world,
“During the trek, all superficial things are stripped away and we are just left with ourselves. Then we can really get down to what is in our hearts,” she said.
Sometime after the Camino trek, Cech saw a documentary about the pilgrimage, “Walking the Camino: Six ways to Santiago,” in theaters and decided to volunteer for the film and even met with the director, Lydia Smith.
Smith was impressed with Cech’s passion and hired her as the outreach coordinator for the documentary.
“My decision to hire Maggie largely came from how passionate she was (and is) about the Camino,” Smith said.
For Cech, all of this change happened quickly and was a bit overwhelming, but she believes that all the hardship was worth it.
“This past year has been a year of trials for me, but when I was hired for the documentary, I realized that this was the path God made for me,” she said.
Cech became emotional when she began to describe the impact that GU had on her. “It’s so hard to put into words how GU impacted me spiritually,” she said. Cech describes her time at GU as a huge contribution to the spiritual awakening that she experienced while on the Camino pilgrimage.
While attending GU, Cech was a participant in many spiritual retreats and pilgrimages that university ministry and GU offered. After participating in and leading a freshman retreat, Cech felt spiritually awakened and became very involved in the university’s mission of spirituality and enriching the whole person.
“I loved the Jesuits. They were just amazing and they really focused on educating the mind, body and spirit and living as men and women for others,” she said.
She also said that the closeness of the community at GU really helped her embark on her own spiritual path and have faith in where it took her.
“One of my favorite things about GU was the student community and the atmosphere at Mass. We all knew and loved and supported each other,” she said.
Cech will host a Q-and-A on the Camino de Santiago at REI Spokane on Oct. 13 from 7 - 8:30 p.m.
