After our previous night’s conversation in Lugo, Alberto had started to call us angels. He had also been calling us messengers, instruments, channels, “delivery guys”… all of which I resisted in equal measure because I didn’t want to be boxed into a label. But the word angel evoked outright rejection: An angel was perfect. I certainly wasn't! I had flaws, fears, and many things I was still working through. And I told him it was arrogant to believe we were.

I wasn’t ready to consider then that he was only using a symbol to describe my willingness to let Love extend through me, no matter how I was judging my own readiness or worthiness of that task. It was precisely those judgments that needed to be healed.

The many symbols and experiences of that day’s walk to Giovecca form the foundation for today’s episode.

A Course in Miracles is always bringing us back to one simple yet profound recognition:

Our only error is believing we are something other than what God created.

The correction has already been made.

We need but accept it, release the false identity we have mistaken for our true Self, and remember the eternal innocence, wholeness and Love that never changed.

“I remain as God created me.” (W-139.11:3)

Join us as we go beyond symbols and explore what it means to become willing—not perfect, not worthy by our own standards – but willing to let Love lead.

With love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

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You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every week.

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To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

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We arrive in Lugo and are looking for a place to sleep, when a car screeches to a halt ahead of us and a young man comes running towards us.

“I saw you walking and had to stop,” he enthuses. “Please, let me buy you dinner.”

We think it’s because of the signs on our backpacks or the newspaper article; but no. He has backpacked all over the world, and always appreciated it when people stopped to help him. He wants to do the same.

Our new friend Giordano opens his home to us, offers us his food, his clothes, his keys… and on this January 5, the eve of the coming of the Wise Men, invites us to stay an extra day to rest. A great gift indeed!

With his friend Gabriella, we have an unforgettable conversation about Life and death, about those we have loved and lost, about dreams, signs and the Light. We share the understanding that has comforted us for years:

We are not our bodies, and only Love awaits us beyond what we call death.

Our understanding has continued to expand over the years and, in this episode, we invite you to walk with us as we contemplate the following question:

If God is perfect Love, perfect Peace, perfect Joy and eternal Life with NO OPPOSITE, then how can death exist?

It is a big question.

And with the loving guidance of the Inner Teacher and the wisdom of A Course in Miracles, we take a step together and follow the Light to answer it.

May these words bring comfort and bless all who listen.

With love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

✨💛✨

You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Subscribe, Like and Share!

✨💛✨

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

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It is our first brush with the media, and I am both excited and nervous.

We are in Cotignola, and a young journalist stops us to ask about our signs and the purpose of our walk. I keep the message neutral, speaking about how this walk was our contribution to peace and that each of us can do something for peace, no matter how small it may appear.

I watch with horror Alberto speaking about this pilgrimage being a spiritual journey, and that we are being guided and protected by God.

Back then, I imagined myself working for the United Nations or some NGO dedicated to peace, and imagined all talk of spirituality jeopardizing my future plans. I wanted to be taken seriously and not dismissed as a religious or spiritual zealot.

I was afraid to let the True Self be revealed through me, the Self that knows only to extend Its Joy, Its Peace, Its Love because that is Its true nature. It cannot do anything else.

How ironic that twenty-five years later, I am doing exactly that!

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Offered, as always, with love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

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You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Subscribe, Like and Share!

✨💛✨

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

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#WalkingForPeace #innerjourney #spiritualjourney #spiritualpodcast #WalkForPeace #pilgrimage #caminodesantiago #camino #peace #rometojerusalem #ACIM #acourseinmiracles #monydojeiji #albertoagraso #podcast #spirituality #light

On today’s episode, we tell the story of Father Daniel, a priest who was killed in Peru and whose picture we are entrusted to carry to Jerusalem with us.

But it seems that Daniel has other ideas for this pilgrimage. Through very clear signs, he directs us to his birthplace – and resting place – in Faenza, thirty kilometres in the opposite direction from where we are going.

This story is not in our memoir, but it is one that gives us an opportunity to explore the ideas of love and sacrifice, and to offer an interpretation through A Course in Miracles that brings peace to our hearts and returns the mind to the awareness of the Real Self:

The Self that belongs to God;

The Self that is untouched by loss and eternally bound to Love.

May these words bless all who listen.

With love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

✨💛✨

You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Follow, Like and Share!

✨💛✨

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

✨💛✨

#WalkingForPeace #innerjourney #spiritualjourney #spiritualpodcast #WalkForPeace #pilgrimage #caminodesantiago #camino #peace #rometojerusalem #ACIM #acourseinmiracles #monydojeiji #albertoagraso #podcast #spirituality #light #knowthyself

From a manger one night to a warm bed the next. Our pilgrim life was a study in extremes.

Our new friend's name was Lucio - truly an angel - with whom we shared a heart connection. We would meet many such people along the way who would witness over and again to the Care that was walking with us.

A Course in Miracles invites us to not to be attached to symbols and the meaning we want to give them, but to give all encounters, forms and symbols to our Inner Teacher (to the Holy Spirit) and let Him use them to take us beyond all symbols to what it eternally present:

Love.

And in recognizing Love in another, we are remembering it in ourselves.

Offered, as always, with love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

✨💛✨

You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Subscribe, Like and Share!

✨💛✨

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

✨💛✨

#WalkingForPeace #innerjourney #spiritualjourney #spiritualpodcast #WalkForPeace #pilgrimage #caminodesantiago #camino #peace #rometojerusalem #ACIM #acourseinmiracles #monydojeiji #albertoagraso #podcast #spirituality #light #angels

New Year’s Day, 2002.

We have been turned away by priests twice in one night. There are no open hostels. Even the local police won’t take us in!

It is now 10:30 at night, and we are exhausted, cold, hungry and walking on a fast, slippery road to a town eight kilometres away, with no idea where we will sleep.

And then, in the darkness, we see a sign:

LA PIADINA.

Alberto would later tell me it sounded to him like the Spanish word “piedad” which means pity, mercy or compassion.

We cross the road without thinking, our feet crunching through the ice and snow. There are several buildings, all locked up. Alongside one building, however, a long corridor leads us to a dark, open space. Tall brick walls encase us, sheltering us from the cold. Looking around, we find a wooden ramp, hay, large towels and a trough for feeding animals.

A manger.

Even in the retelling of this story twenty five years later, we still feel the stillness, the holiness of that moment, the safety, and the Presence that was making Itself known.

At the same time, through the loving lens of A Course in Miracles, we acknowledge the many fears and judgments we were projecting, especially upon priests. We recognize we were seeing ourselves as separate from our brothers, interpreting as real all that was happening to us, believing we were at the mercy of situations and people rather than experiencing in convincing forms the effects of our beliefs.

We were doing the best we could.

And the Inner Teacher (Holy Spirit) was using every rejection, every fear, every judgment and disappointment to teach us that our true safety lies not in the world;

But in remembering the Presence that has never left us.

Perhaps this is why the night remains so vivid after all these years.

Not only was it holy because something extraordinary happened.

It was holy because, for a moment, we recognized what had been there all along:

The holiness of Who We Truly Are.

Offered, as always, with love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

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You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Subscribe, Like and Share!

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To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

✨💛✨

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We are continuing north, keeping the beautiful Adriatic to our right. We pass many beach towns and realize with concern that many of their services are closed for the winter. Even the churches are closed, with one priest serving several communities.

One such priest is sympathetic to our needs, but advises us to walk to the next town where he assures us they will have accommodations. He sends us off with panettone and wine, and the promise to keep the church door open, in case we need it.

We are grateful he does, because the priest in the next town refuses our request for help.

Exhausted and feeling the sting of rejection, we sit at a park bench, trying to gather our emotions and keep our spirits high.

As if in a dream, a young man on a moped swerves in our direction, and stops to ask for a light. Alberto gives him our only lighter and, responding to my dismay, assures me that he was giving him Light and when we give from the heart, Life gives us back double.

But something more is happening on this seemingly dark night, as we make our way back to the open church and finally lay our heads down to sleep in a confessional booth.

A streetlight flickers, goes out, and comes back on just as I pass.

The next morning, my penlight falls apart, but it still works after I put it together.

A restaurant owner calls us into his establishment to offer us food, warmth, encouragement and the reminder that what we are doing is important. A light on the path.

And then, as we are about to leave, he gifts us something to remember him by:

Two lighters!

Through the lens of A Course in Miracles, we now understand that Light – just like Love – never goes out. Light IS.

In our discouragement, we lament the darkness and judge its coldness and cruelty.

But the Light is always there. It never abandons us.

Like the recent solar eclipse, the moon appears disproportionately large, so large that it seems to cover the light of the sun and make everything appear dark.

But what appears to disappear is only an appearance!

As we become willing to return our awareness to the Light and allow the apparent shadows to simply pass, we begin to witness to the Light's ever-present power, majesty and love.

We do not create this Light, nor can we destroy it. We certainly do not need to earn it, protect it or be worthy of it.

It is God’s greatest gift to His Beloved Creation (us!), given wholly, fully, completely.

All we need do is accept It, and allow It to shine, uninterrupted, blessing all.

With love and gratitude,

Mony and Alberto

P.S. The photos in this video are of us along the Adriatic coastline, between Rimini and Ravenna.

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You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Subscribe, Like and Share!

✨💛✨

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

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Money. Our first big argument.

We are only three weeks walking together – strangers really still – and yet touching on one of the most intimate and delicate topics.

Alberto wants us to accept the money that people, in loving support of our pilgrimage, are offering.

I vehemently resist, citing many outer reasons, all of which are threatening to unveil my many inner fears:

Not wanting to be perceived as poor.

Not knowing how to receive without feeling indebted, obligated to pay back.

Not willing to release the image of the independent, self-sufficient woman I believed myself to be.

Pride. Arrogance. And so much more.

In the affluent town where we spend the night, on tables in a cold room with yellow running water, we contend with how to resolve this issue.

Looking at this experience now through the lens of A Course in Miracles, we understand that this is yet another opportunity to undo all of the fears and beliefs we have about scarcity, lack, and safety; the meaning we have attached to symbols like money; and, ultimately, the release of the identity we have accepted as who we are:

What God created (His Son, our True Self) is already abundant, whole and complete… just like Him.

What we believe we are (bodies, separate from one another and from God, limited in so many ways) is a mistake we have made, and that awaits correction.

Accepting our True Identity is all we are being asked to do.

May these words serve our shared journey Home.

Offered, as always, with love,

Mony and Alberto

* * *

P.S. You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, searching for my name or the Walking for Peace Podcast.

A new episode every Sunday.

Follow, Like and Share!

* * *

To purchase our WALKING series books, in English or Spanish, in all popular formats, please visit the Amazon site in your country:

WALKING FOR PEACE, AN INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/09kS3w6u

WALKING ALONE, A PILGRIM’S GUIDE TO THE INNER JOURNEY https://a.co/d/00PBr55O

WALKING A COURSE IN MIRACLES, A PILGRIM’S SPIRITUAL COMPANION https://a.co/d/0gCyZD7h

* * *

#walkingforpeace #innerjourney #walkforpeace #monydojeiji #albertoagarso #pilgrimage #caminodesantiago #camino #peace #rometojerusalem #acim #acourseinmiracles #podcast #spirituality #spiritualpodcast #money #abundance