Just a Reminder...

Barca just took the Triple Crown.

How glorious it was to see all the gloomy faces during my day of layover in Madrid following the 2-0 win by FC Barcelona over Manchester United in the European Championships.

Pentecost Weekend in Fatima and Santarem

I am spending Pentecost weekend in the cities of Fatima and Santarem. I took the day to visit the Church of the Holy Miracle today in Santarem. The Blessed Sacrament still bears resemblance of true blood and flesh. Amazing!

The votive candle area at the Shrine of Fatima is abhorrent. I brought five candles with me for various prayer intentions and individuals and by the time my fifth one was lit, atleast two were consumed by the forced fire below the candles. Compared to the two other Marian shrines I have visited on this extended pilgrimmage, i.e. Montserrat and Lourdes, Fatima´s is a shame and potentially dangerous to little children and slower moving people. I digress.

Fatima is beautiful though quite hot. Both Fatima and Madrid have been around 30 degrees Celsius, quite the change from 24 to 26 at midday while on the Camino Frances post-city of Leon.

Pray for me as I pray for you and send any prayer requests (openly or just say, ¨Please pray for my request¨) in the next day, as I will check my email once again tomorrow now that I know where to access a computer.

The people in Portugal are definitely different from Spain. They seem a little more aloof, but are very helpful when you are unsure of what to do. I am pleased by the lack of piercings around the mouth/cheek area as so many Spaniard teens and twentysomethings find in vogue. I hope this is not something catching on in the last 6 weeks I have been away from the States. Oremus!

Brief comments on Hispano-Mozarabic Mass and Lauds

The image shown here is the city of Toledo. The Christians are waging the Reconquista as the Moors face them. This is from the Mozarabic chapel in the Cathedral. The quality is not great but I thought I would take the photo (none allowed in the cathedral) to have something to remember the chapel by since the book I bought from the cathedral does not include much for the chapel by way of pictures.

I have compiled a small list of comments and observations from Lauds and mass this morning in the Mozarabic Chapel of the Toledo Cathedral. The office and mass were both beautiful in spite of the lack of ornamentation and other liturgical items one might expect at a mass. About a dozen canons celebrated lauds and immediately after one of theirs was celebrant. A few times in the mass a canon came up to assist the priest with things much like a subdeacon or altar boy would do in the US. The mass was celebrated in a beautiful chapel with a metal gate in back where the divine office could be celebrated. The mass was celebrated versus populum. Only three laymen attended, myself included. Two of us were obvious neophytes to the liturgy.

Observations:

The vestment looked similar to a Roman vestment but equally wide in front unlike ¨fiddleback¨ chasubles. I could not tell if the stole was a band like Roman rite priests or more like the Byzantine stole. An inch or so protruded from the bottom of the chasuble and looked like a Byzantine stole without fringe embroidering.

The priest at the words of institution did not lift up the chalice or host. Near the end of the mass he lifted the gifts saying Sancta Sanctis, similar to the Byzantine Rite according to St. John Chrysostom.

Each time the priest broke the host in the fraction rite he said one word in Latin. I could not pick up what he was saying but he divided the host into about 8 pieces.

The credo follows the words of consecration.

At the end of mass there is nothing like the ¨Ite, missa est¨ or sign of the cross. The priest kissed the altar and went back to the sacristy.

After each part of the priest praying a line in the Pater Noster the canons, acting as a schola, said ¨Amen.¨

The sign of peace was placed before the Canon of the Mass and sanctus.

After they priests in Lauds finished a psalm they would say the Gloria Patri but at the end of the naming of the Holy Trinity they say, ¨et en saecula, Amen¨ instead of the Sicut erat...saecula saeculorum, Amen.

I enjoyed the mass a lot and wished it was a Sunday mass or other more festive celebration to see it in a more authentic High mass form, but was grateful to attend with little difficulty. I hope to attend tomorrow before I jump on the train back to Madrid at 1230pm tomorrow. Toledo is at the end of the train line. Lisbon is the only station in Portugal, so I will have to go to Lisbon prior to Fatima only to return after the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Some Random Photos from the Camino and after

Photos, from top to bottom:

View of the Alcazar in Toledo, Spain. What a great city!

Looking out on the Atlantic Ocean at the ¨End of the World,¨ Fisterre.

The world´s largest censer, Botafumiero, on a tear in the Cathedral of St. James at the daily pilgrim´s mass.

Happy pilgrims posing at the Cathedral of St. James (Joseph with Dong Wook, Jacquelini, Maria, and Jonathan).

The Cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela.
Pulpo from Ezequiel Cafe, the best place to get it in Melide. How I love Pulpo!

View of Samos Monastery

Posing as I descent the mountain at O´Cebreiro, the first city in Galicia on the Camino Frances.

Currently in Toledo

I jumped on a train last night and went overnight to Madrid and jumped on a 30 minute train to Toledo. It was just too hard to pass up a chance to see the primate church of Spain. Almost 10 minutes after getting off the train I got asked by the local police to show them my passport. HAHA. I do look suspicious with a huge bag on my back and a hiking stick. Oh well.

Tomorrow I am excited about going back into the cathedral for two reasons: first, since I am going for mass, I don´t have to pay 7 euro to enter. Also, the mass will be celebrated according to the Hispano-Mozarabic rite. Huzzah! I did not bring my cord to transfer photos but know of a few places where I can send photos so that is a good thing. Will do so tomorrow, as God wills.

I have not checked out the bus and train schedules to get to Portugal but I am thinking Oporto may be a bust. I am pretty close to Salamanca and Avila and I might jump to one of them for a day. Toledo is large enough, so the idea of spending a few days in Madrid after a half week in Barca at the beginning is too much for me. Lisbon is the last of my ¨big¨ cities to visit. As long as I get to the Santarem-Fatima area by Friday night/Saturday morning all is well.

It is siesta time here, so little is open. I think I am going to take a walk around the walled city and find a decent coffee and view.

A lot of things since Castrojeriz

So a lot of things have occurred since I last posted about Castrojeriz. I passed through Leon, over the steepest (though not longest) hill of the trip, O Cebreiro, entered Galicia, visited a 10th century Mozarabic Church off the Camino in Ponferrada, made it to Sarria, survived the epidemic also known as Spainairds who get the same Compostella certificate for their 100km vacation as other pilgrims do for 400, 800, 1800 km walks, and arrived in Santiago to pay homage to St. James on Saturday. Deo Gratias! My feet and body are in pretty good shape.
Tomorrow I will head off with a few of the people I´ve walked with over the past month to Finisterre, what was once known as the End of the World before European explorers screwed it all up and proved something existed between Portugal/Spain and India, the Americas. After that, I am not sure what I am going to do besides return to Santiago. You meet so many people you walk with and have a beer here, a cafe con leche there, that you lose track of time and all the bookstores are closed on Sunday. So, I will have to come back to Santiago on Monday evening/Tuesday morning. In any event, I was going to have to leave from Santiago for anywhere since it is the hub in Galicia (Northwest Spain) to get to anywhere. I am thinking about a two to four day diversion to Toledo via bus or train through Madrid. After Barcelona, I want to avoid the other big city and go see beautiful and diverse Toledo. Others have affirmed my course to pass through Oporto prior to Fatima and Lisbon in Portugal because of the good time the place is following a long walk. I will figure it all out by tomorrow. As time permits I will get more photos posted of the trip and eventually create a Picasa site or something similar for photo sharing. Most of the Chat and Internet cafes I find along the Camino do not allow for much USB plug-ins, and though this one does, it is somehow disabled. So, I am without a computer.

In the town of Castrojeriz

I took this photo from the old Roman Castle on the hilltop beside the city of Castroceriz. The castle is from the time of Julius Caesar. The meseta (plateau) was a very open plain with a bunch of rock piles and green grass to walk through. Some people find this unnerving since there is nothing to ¨look at.¨ I find this a perfect place of prayer and imagine if Jesus lived in Spain he´d flock to these lonely places to pray. Santiago, Pray for Us!

BARCA, BARCA, BARCA!

Last night there was all kinds of hollering going on outside the Albergue I stayed at in Burgos. If you are not a soccer fan what I am about to say will go past you. El Clasico: Barcelona FC 6, Real Madrid FC 2. Barca, Barca, Barca!

A lot of random photos from the first ten days, sorry

From the bottom up (sorry, I am new to this blogging and on a cafe computer)

1. Heading into the city of Larrasoaña via an incredible bridge.

2. Exterior of Cathedral in Pamplona.

3. Climbing the Alto de Perdon after Cizur Menor, where many wind turbines cover the ridgeline.

4. Typical, beautiful, scenery along the Camino. Taken from the walk after Cizur Menor.

5. If God did not create this, how did it turn out so well?

6. The last of the Basque country prior to heading into the Autonomous region of Rioja (my winemaking kingdom).

7. It is hard to see but the photo says ¨VIRTUAL BAPTISM.¨ This, along with the Confess your sins thing I noted in another post, is in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. I am astonished at such treatment of Sacramental Graces-and in a Cathedral to draw revenue!!!

8. ¨Dew and rain, bless the LORD.¨

9. Another reason the blisters and sore joints and feet are not so bad...

Who turns down free wine?

On the way from Ciraqui to Los Arcos I ran across a monastery on the Camino Frances named Irache that gives free wine to all the pilgrims who come to their tap. Who´d pass up wine from MONKS, from SPAIN, when it is FREE???

It´s a long way to the top if you´re going to Roncevaux

Okay, it´s a bad parody to an AC/DC song, but the climb was really steep. I am glad to not have another climb this rigorous until O Cebreiro in about two weeks. Thanks for the prayers to all who made it manageable. When I got to Pamplona two days later I sent back home 4kg of stuff, which made the trip a lot easier thereafter. Just a few random photos from day one from St. Jean Pied de Port (in France) to Roncevalles in Spain (Roncevaux in French).

Burgos Photos

Just a few photos of the Catedral and other pics in Burgos.

Way too far today, but in Burgos for Sunday

I intended to take two known breaks for a full day along the Camino Frances, a 776km walk. The first is in Burgos, 490km from Santiago. The second is Leon, about 310km from Santiago. Initially I planned on stopping with Marcus, the 20 year old German guy I have been doing a lot of walking with the past 5 days to a town about 12km/6.5 mi. from the Burgos Cathedral. He took a wrong turn-I let him, since I really wanted to be here in Burgos for Sunday mass. The day was killer: I felt like my feet were swelling to death but we are less than 200 meters from the Cathedral at the 3 Euro (4 Dollar) albergue for pilgrims that a lot of people don´t know about. The showers were great and we ate a pretty cheap dinner off of the menu selections. Over here in Europe you can get the menu instead of la carta but its usually not near as good. I would normally splurge after arriving here but did not want to seem like I was outdoing our going out. It has been good to walk with Marcus but I am glad to be on my own starting Monday after I get a day in of being a tourist.

As of today, I have finished 12 days/stages in my 33 day book to get to Santiago in 10 days. That puts me in a good position to really follow the book and take it easy now that I am alone or to go fast when I have a planned stop for a significant amount of time (in Camino time that is enough time to start to cramp up from stopping walking, but for the sake of posterity I will call this 1 hour).

Santiago, Pray for Us!

Almost went to jail

So I am walking along the Camino and come to the Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada. I want to go in and see it. Only thing is I have to go through this Church and ¨Sacrament¨ amusement park to get through. I figure, no big deal. Then I see the ¨Virtual Baptism¨ and ¨Confess your Sins¨ machine. I was about two seconds from running through all of the crap in what once was the cathedral cloister to find the Blessed Sacrament, empty the altars of their relics, and continue down the Camino. I did not do this but I have the photos to prove all of this.
Trying to find the Blessed Sacrament was impossible so I left. No wonder the Spainiards have 0.9 kids per family and no vocations to the priesthood...

Most of the machines we have do not allow USB plug-ins. All of the photos, it seems, will have to wait for Burgos, only 2 days away, or another suitable place if I don´t squeeze in time in a chat cafe.

Rain or grey is the theme right now. I don´t mind it since it keeps the body temp down as you walk. I laugh at the people huddled under ponchos in a drizzle. Drones.

My left knee is perpetually sore around the patella. The top of both of my feet to the immediate front of my ankle´s outer side on my legs are in bad shape. Only by going 5km per hour with 30 pounds on my back does it feel any better.

Last night I stayed in the Albergue (pilgrim refuge) located in the parish of St. John the Baptist in Gronon, Rioja Province. The albergue is in the bell tower, so we all prepared the meal, went to mass (very powerful reminder to all the people here that the Camino is a Catholic and Religious pilgrimage: Thank you, Padre!), and slept on the floor. It was cool and I felt like I was in that scene from Saving Private Ryan when they stayed for a while in the French church.

A few days ago I talked to a very weird religion-free Italian hermit. Thats all I will say: weird.

My list of wine tasting, all from Pais Basque, Navarra, and Rioja regions is coming along. On average I am walking 26-30 kilometers a day over rolling c0untryside. That´s 17-18 miles in Standard US notation.

I am off to pack my bag for the trip tomorrow before lights out and it becomes disrespectful to make any real noise.

Pray for me as I am praying for you!

Santiago (St. James the Apostle), pray for us!

currently in Cizur menor

I made it over the Pyrennes mountains from St. Jean to Roncevalles and spent the night in a 100 bed albergue, or refuge for pilgrims. The 25 kilometers was a climb of almost 1 mile, or 1.5 kilometers. It gets cold up there! The place I stayed was an old hospital for the 13th century Augustinian canons that live there. The following day I pushed onto Larrasoana for a total of 48 to 50 kilometers of 800 complete. Today I passed through Pamplona, the city where the running of the bulls occurs in June-July, not sure. I stopped in the cathedral to visit the diocesan museum, church, and cloister. The church is a beautiful Romanesque one that is now heavily overladen with Gothic accretions.

The city I am in today is called Cizur Menor, the one just beyond Pamplona. The albergue is a famous one, the Roncal Family one. If I could gain access to a port to upload pictures I´d do so but I am finding most places wont allow it. Along the way Ive met a lot of very nice people and have walked with a few South Korean guys along the way. Tonight we are making spaghetti with meat sauce since this albergue has a kitchen. It´s a lot nicer than most, which is evident by their future wing of a very impressive place already. Not bad for only 8 euros!

Tomorrow I am walking over the Alto de Perdon, where there are some wind powered fans and a cool display of figures making pilgrimage that one can pose with. A little after the hill, the Camino Frances meets up with the one for those who started in Arles or beyond, the Camino Aragonese.

Leaving Lourdes tomorrow for St Jean Pied de Port

I am off to St Jean tomorrow and will begin the Camino Frances on the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, the 23rd of April. Pray for me as I pray for you.

Blessing at Montserrat, onward to France

Today I needed sleep because of my time-tables being out of whack from travel. I had the opportunity to go to confession today and made it to the vigil mass for Divine Mercy Sunday last night, so I am doing well to heed Our Lord´s command to St. Faustina for receiving the mercy of God. In tangible ways this is happening. First, confession. That´s a great sign of God´s mercy. The penance included a recitation of the Salve Regina, which brought my mind back to the gift from Mary: Jesus ( God the Father´s Mercy). The confessor directed me to the porter and he to a Fr. Josemaria, once a pilgrim. He told me not to worry about getting around in the EU and that the routes into France are quite accessible from Barca. Receiving his prayer of blessing as I head back to Barca to catch a train or bus, I am filled with a great sense of peace that I didn´t have yesterday. This still hasn´t answered how I leave out of Lisbon Portugal with a Spain entry stamp, but I have time to work that one out while walking. Through grace way say As St. Faustina did: Jesus, I trust in you.



An interesting note is that Fr. Josemaria knew of St. Vincent Archabbey. I am sure I butchered Archabbey in Spanish when I asked him for a blessing as I get a few steps closer to beginning the Camino but he quickly said Sant Vincent and smiled.



May God have Mercy on us all!

Sagrada Familia church

This church in Barcelona and under construction for over 100 years, inspired by Gaudi, makes the infamous cathedrals in California look tame. Don´t let the exterior fool you a bit: the interior is just plain rotten. Archbishop Bugnini is dancing in his grave because of churches like this.

Divine Mercy Sunday at Montserrat

I am spending the Vigil and morning of Divine Mercy Sunday at Montserrat. The statue of Our Lady of Montserrat is beautiful and has the right arm of Jesus holding the orb exposed to the public to touch. There are a lot of tourists here and they act like total tourists when you give them nice gift shops, some wacky electric acoustic guitar concert outside the Basilica, and opportunities to chatter like drones. Either way, I have made it a good first stop after Barcelona to pray. My body is still not accustomed to the general time and eating time changes which is why I am up on the lone computer available at 4am.

Once I get access and time to sit at an internet cafe I will post more photos of the pilgrimage.

Las Ramblas in Barcelona

This is another view of the inspiration behind National Harbor´s American Way, Las Ramblas, on a weekday.

Santiago Matamoros

A Great Image of St. James as a Crusader from the Placa de Sant Jaume.

Fly tomorrow to get to Barca

Tomorrow I fly to Barca and will start the Camino Frances about a week to ten days later. Pray for me as I pray for you. Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum!

New Update

The co-patron of this blog, St. Gregory the Great, now has a new image. May St. Peter's Basilica forgive me, but I cropped an image of St. Gregory's altar. The story behind the painting captivated me more than all the other artwork in the Basilica. So, I have my co-patron in an image dear to me.

Here is the story: ...Some ambassadors [were} coming to Rome for relics, Gregory took a linen cloth which had been applied to the body of a saint, and enclosing it in a box gave it to them. While on their journey home they were curious to see the contents of the box; and finding nothing within it but the cloth, returned to St. Gregory complaining that he had deceived them. On this he took the cloth, laid it on the altar, prayed, pricked it with a knife, the cloth shed blood, and the astonished ambassadors reverently took back the box.

I often reflect on all the third class relics anyone can acquire and make them think it is just another hyped prayer card or booklet. With the eyes of faith, may we see as the doubters did on the day they returned to St. Gregory the Great for an explanation.

Decision to make the Camino Frances

Well, I bought tickets to and from Iberia to make the Camino Frances, or Way of St. James Pilgrimmage. My point of origin will be St. Jean Pied de Port, a small town along the France-Spain border. The trek to Compostela will be around 775km. I am looking forward to that time to be a period of renewal and greater focus on entry into the novitiate at St. Vincent Archabbey this July. Other fun stops along the way will be arriving in Barcelona, perhaps Monserrat and a day or two in Toulouse or other places along the way to my Camino start-point. Lourdes and Fatima will be also definite stops in my trip immediately before and shortly after completing the Camino. I'm excited to see how things turn out and what diferences I will see in spiritual growth during the 50 or so day trip.