A Fun Walk

Hello, everyone.  Yesterday we took part on a large community walk. The La Lomita walk is an annual event of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Mission, Texas.  It is a Palm Sunday event, complete with donkeys and palm fronds.

They begin at the parish church and walk the 7 km (about 4 miles) from there to one of yhe oldest chapels in the area, La Lomita. 

Preparing to leave

The leading edge of the procession. 

The donkeys go along, but they get to ride. It's pretty warm in the afternoon at this season.

At the end of the walk.

While it's billed as a walk, accommodation is made for people who aren't able to walk. Strollers, bikes, golf carts, and even a contingent of autos participate. We enjoyed our afternoon walk with everyone. 

During the 12 days of Christmas, a look at the Christmas Day wreath

Hello, everyone.  As we all know, Christmas Day was the 25th of December.  The Octave of Christmas, a whole week of official rejoicing, ended on the first of January.  The 12 days, however, go on through the 6th of the month, culminating on Three Kings' Day. In many places around the world, the remembrance of the visiting wise men was, and in some places remains, the day for giving gifts.

At Christmas, the season of Advent, with its purple and pink candles,  is over. Our decorators found a lovely statue to place in the wreath for the festive season. 

On the home front, half-completed Christmas crafts are still being worked on. When the current one is finished, I'll post a picture.

Happy New Year to all y'all!

San Antonio Missions, the fourth one

Hello, everyone.  This is the final post in the San Antonio Missions set. 

Mission Concepciòn de la Purisima, a church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is also a working parish. At the time the church was built the mission fathers were into the alignment of buildings,  beyond the basic rule that churches face the east. (This is based both on the theological teaching that Jesus is the Light of the world and an ancient tradition that He will return from that direction.) This church has a beautiful alignment of windows that results in a sunbeam landing directly on certain images once a year. The volunteer that was there when we visited had made a cell phone video of the most famous sunbeam which he showed to us. It was beautiful! 

The sunbeam illuminates this painting, lingering on the image as it transits, in an amazing way. There is also at least one other alignment in this church, which illuminates another holy image which is to the left. The church is cruciform, that is, shaped like a cross, and in the second illumination the sunbeam crosses the church directly above the crossing of the arms of the cross.

The parish has a banner of the current jubilee year. I think that Mission Concepciòn is one of the (many) regional churches that make a Jubilee pilgrimage accessible even to people who can't visit Rome. The stylistic contrast between the old stone buildings and the modernistic (Tyvek?) sign is interesting. 

This mission is in the middle of a neighborhood of the city, not too far from a golf course and many businesses, and using a map app is recommended to find it. 

San Antonio Missions, the third one.

Hello, everyone. It's been busy around the home place, and I forgot to post anything for a few days.

The third of the San Antonio Missions, going from south to north, is Mission San Jose. 

As you have surely noticed by now, these sites are fairly spread-out and even if one drives a car instead of walking between them, the visiting will give a healthy walk all by itself.

Mission San Jose has a more involved history than the first two. Its full name was actually San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo. 

approaching the front. 

After the Franciscan fathers founded the mission, it later was operated by members of a different order. They did some repairs, and made their own typical arches as they did so. In this photo some of both shapes are visible.

The vee shaped one at the back was one of the refurbished arches. 

This covered entrance has a large collection of opuntia pads, also called nopales, which being left to themselves have sprouted. There was no indication of why they spread out the pads like that. They seem to have been there for some months.

This carved cross is at the top of the front of the church.  Below it are some lovely carvings of saints, restored, and a wooden door with geometrical carvings, also restored. 

The retablo of the church. As y'all can see, the local parish is keeping it in use and pretty.

There is a museum in one of the buildings which has photos and explains the history of various restorations and visitors over the decades.

With a little judicious cropping, I am getting better at keeping the photos upright. Fray Antonio was depicted in the typical habit of a Franciscan missionary, with his walking stick and hooded cape. I think someone enlarged, and maybe added color, an old painting. It's hard to tell if the object in his hand is one of the "ladder" type of rosaries. These are still around, though less common than the single strand form. 

 There is a souvenir shop in the Park Service visitor center, and helpful people at the desk.

San Antonio Missions, The Second One

Hello, everyone. The weather around the home place has been its usual August self: hot, sunny, and dry. There might have been a few drops, but not enough to be an actual watering. And we planted fall seeds this week, in hopes that something will come from them.

But returning to the missions, after our visit to San Francisco de Espada, we drove back along the city streets to San Juan. 

Sadly, the Blogger app refuses to let this view of the surviving aqueduct display right-side-up.

Also at the aqueduct are some of the old terraces. The bottom of this little set of terraces has the river bank. The river flows under the aqueduct. These are on the way from San Francisco to San Juan, so we stopped to see them, too.

The missionary fathers built a church, as usual, 

The interior of San Juan Mission. The large figures at the side are carried in processions.

They also set up the Stations of the Cross outside so everyone who wanted to could participate in the devotion.

The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is buried in the tomb. As y'all can see, the later walkway was poured going around the stone markers.

San Antonio Missions historic sites (edited to remove fox photo as that was already posted)

Hello,  everyone.  I was out of town for a few days, but now have returned home. I saw some interesting things on this road trip.

Mission S. Francisco de Espada, near the Loop 1604 south portion, was the first of the mission churches we visited.

The mission front garden (there is a community of believers that come to pray and someone looks after the landscaping near the church building) was surprisingly colorful for August. In addition to the sunflowers in bloom, they had some beautyberry shrubs with berries. (The purple things) I didn't know beautyberry would grow so far south! I think San Antonio is in about zone 8b in the USDA growing zones map. Now I wonder if beautyberry would consent to grow in 9b, about 7 F degrees warmer on the winter cold days, I guess.

The front of the church. The reddish flowers on the left are poinciana, which is gorgeous in bloom but a freeze will at least knock it to the ground. They might be growing it on hope, and expecting the plants to return from the roots if the temp gets down to slightly below freezing.

Memories from Córdoba

Hello, everyone.  It's been an adjustment getting used to being at home. While moving photos from phone to computer, I came across some photos that y'all might find interesting. 

The ancient mill just downstream of the Roman bridge

View from the guard tower of the Alcázar. 

(Paused to crop photos in hope they won't be sideways)

Procession of Our Lady of Rocio, the wagon with the image, in Córdoba. 

When we left Sevilla in 2023, about the same time of year, we encountered a procession from a nearby village near Italica, for the same feast.

Part of the Cathedral structure from the years before the Moorish conquest of the area in the 8th century 

 Birds in the Cathedral courtyard. They were noisy but I couldn't tell if they were nesting or talking to another bird inside

One of the windows of the Cathedral, from the Moorish period, from the outside

See how much light the translucent pieces allow in. (Glass? Thinly sliced agate? I don't know.)

In the hot and dry climate of Córdoba, this is how they irrigate the many citrus trees in the Cathedral courtyard. From the Moorish period, I  think.

More of the irrigation setup.

This watering setup was very interesting.