ChristLife VOL 145 21 August 2025 - Nathan Ahearne, Canberra Marists
Jennifer Cluff, Bill Bennett and Genevieve Jacobs AM.
The recent evening of dialogue at Marist College Canberra left an indelible mark on our collective understanding of hope, transformation, and personal journey. Bill Bennett, acclaimed filmmaker and author, shared his profound experiences walking the Camino de Santiago, offering our community a powerful narrative of personal growth and spiritual discovery.
The Camino - spiritual and personal exploration
Bill Bennett’s first Camino in 2013 marked a pivotal moment of transformation, which he described as “an 800-kilometer cathedral”, a metaphorical space of spiritual and personal exploration. His initial approach was meticulously planned, but the Camino had other lessons in store. Initially a successful film director with a Type-A personality, Bennett described himself as someone who was “very special” and didn’t want to interact with other pilgrims. Jennifer, Bill’s wife, humorously recalled, “He said to anybody who would listen he didn’t want to meet people... he didn’t want them interrupting his experience.”
The journey quickly challenged Bennett’s preconceptions. He shared a powerful moment of humility when he was “passed by grandmothers” and people using walking frames, forcing him to abandon his initial competitive approach to the pilgrimage. “I was passed by people in Zimmer frames. I mean, talk about humility.”
You’re going to meet an angel
By the end of the Camino, Bill had come to following realisation: “When you walk the Camino, at some point you’re going to meet an angel. That angel might take many forms. But here’s the thing: you can be that angel without even realizing it - the angel that changes someone else’s life.”
The transformative power of the Camino
The presenters emphasized the importance of letting go of preconceived notions. When asked about the Camino’s transformative power, Bennett explained his belief in a spiritual imprint: “If you walk with spiritual intent, that carries through your body and places a spiritual imprint on that path. With pilgrims walking for 1200 years, you have an accumulation of spiritual imprint.” Bill explained that his approach to intuition and spiritual growth can be summarized in five steps: Stop. Listen. Ask. Trust. Follow.
Journey to understand intuition
Bennett also shared a transformative experience that began years before the Camino, when a mysterious ‘voice’ saved his life in New Orleans, telling him to stop his car at a set of lights and narrowly missed a collision with a truck. This incident sparked an eight-year journey to understand intuition, ultimately leading to his documentary “PGS: Intuition is Your Personal Guidance System.” Bill described four types of intuition: Survival Intuition, Cognitive Intuition, Mystical Intuition, and Proxy Intuition.
A perspective on hope
Jennifer offered a particularly moving perspective on hope: “It is pulling us into the future. It is what has driven science, what drives community, what drives nations, it’s the hope of something better.”
Marist College Canberra Principal, Matthew Hutchison, with Jennifer Cluff, Bill Bennett and Genevieve Jacobs AM.
The potential for transformation
The 2025 Evening of Dialogue concluded with a powerful message of hope, personal growth, and the potential for transformation that exists within each individual’s journey. The evening’s message resonates deeply with our educational mission as Marists. As our headmaster, Matthew Hutchison, eloquently stated: “Education, when done well, is a sacred journey of transformation.”
How can you be an “angel” for someone in your community this week?
You can watch a recording of An Evening of Dialogue.
Nathan Ahearne
Canberra Marists Local Group
Marist College Canberra