On Monday, we had a feast day here (the patron of El Ejido, so a very local feast) and my community went for an outing together. We passed this: I giggled for miles. Erh, kilometros. I'm still a little giggly about it. I don't know that they can be seen well in the photo below, but there are also tepees and storefronts. This area was used as a filming location for "spaghetti westerns," including also some scenes from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I'm not sure what else. It is in many ways like the southwest of the United States...and yet it is so far away. *Giggles* Across the highway was a medieval Arabic (Arabian? Not sure the right word) castle... we couldn't find a way up via car (I think we could have hiked, but that wasn't on the agenda). Our destination took us past "mini-hollywood" to a town called Sorbas, population 2,400. It's just a sweet little pueblo in the mountains of Spain, surrounded by o...
I had the great fortune to be in Granada over the past few days, where there is a great tradition of processions for Holy Week. They are beautiful, and solemn, and totally different. They begin with groups of penitents who wear pointed hats of different colors (each group, called a confradia, has their own colors and traditions). They have women wearing mantillas, children handing out holy cards and candies to the children watching, and other groups of penitents carrying crosses. Then, the highlight is the paso (I think that's what it's called) carrying the statue of Christ with his cross, followed by another one carrying the statue of Mary. We went to two, one immediately after the other. The first was called Via Crucis and the second Esperanza (for Our Lady of Hope). Granada was filled with tourists for the occasion. From Via Crucis.... The statue is carried by about 40 men underneath stepping in unison. I love how it moves. And the s...
I'm leading and preaching for mid-day prayer today, and I've chosen to use the first reading for the Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, rather than tackle either of the mass readings today. But really, I'm just talking about the saint himself. Enjoy. Reading: Wisdom 7:7-10, 15-16 The passage from Wisdom an appropriate introduction to the life of St. Robert Bellarmine, whom the church celebrates today. Bellarmine was a Jesuit and Cardinal who lived in the late 16 th and early 17 th century. He was born shortly after Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, and the Council of Trent began when he was a child, ending during his philosophy studies in Rome. His entire theological career was marked by the decisions made by the Council and by the theology of reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli. In fact, his writings reveal that he read and knew their th...
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Love, Helen