Israel pilgrimage, fourteenth in series, and Christmas greetings (updated for spelling)

Hello, everyone.

This is the third post for the day we walked the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. It will complete the day with a brief remembrance of the chapel of Golgotha, which is also inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

As you enter the church, if you look to the right immediately, you see some very steep steps. These are the steps of Golgotha. It's a really steep little peak--granted there may have been a little more dirt over the rocks back then. Still, a tough climb up at the last from someone who had been beaten, dragged across the city three times, and then had to drag/carry a cross to the outside of the city. I almost wonder whether they had to do the nailing a little below the peak as there appears to be not much flat space for the executioners to work in at the top.

Inside the door of the chapel is another, very crowded, line.

The line. Also an overview of some of the beautiful and edifying mosaics on the ceiling and walls. (The birds alongside the cross are souls ascending into Heaven.) This is the Latin chapel, the actual place the Cross stood is in the Orthodox chapel which is out of sight around the corner on the left.

Detail of the mosaic: the Bark (ship) of Peter on the left, a symbol of the Church; the Eucharistic pelican on the right. The pelican here is a theological, poetic pelican. She feeds her young with her own blood by piercing her breast. It is a very ancient analogy of the Eucharist.

A detail of the Sorrowful Mother, viewing her Son. Even the executioner is sad.

Another image of Mary as Sorrowful Mother. Besides the candles and the crucifix (it's an altar) you can also see some of the devotional gifts that have been offered to the honor of the mother of Our Lord. This time she's portrayed with the sword prophesied by Simeon when He was presented in the Temple as an infant. ("Your heart, too, will be pierced by a sword, that the thoughts of many may be revealed," I think it goes. It's in the Gospel of Luke.)


And speaking of the Gospel of Luke, today is Christmas Eve, AKA the Vigil of Christmas.



The tree has a bow because the fake trees are too delicate to accept a star. Trying to strengthen it never really worked, so I capitulated.






The angel was a light cover from a tree light strand that had a whole flock of angels. It came with a little clip, which holds it nicely atop the stable.


I hope for all y'all to have a blessed and merry Christmas and a happy new year. Feliz navidad, y prospero año y felicidad!

Israel pilgrimage, twelvth in series

Hello, everyone.

One minor note, the last post was a separate day from the prior one--the photo file dates corrected my memory. Oops!

The next day was quite busy, so the earliest visit of the day will have its own post.

We visited the church of the Nativity of Mary. As most of the holy sites, the actual architecture of the shrine is fairly new. (You may go back to the discussion of Gethsemane for a look at the kind of build-destruction-rebuild history that is common in the Holy Land. Not to mention the names, ahem, of any particular group that is all about destroying shrines that are older than their things. Ahem.)

Inside the upper church. (In background, another group at prayer.)

There is a staircase down into the grotto. The shrine custodians have helpfully placed a sign at the steps.

One of the images of the birth of Our Lady. St. Anna, top left, wiping her face after the labor is completed. St. Joachim, bottom, stewing outside and hoping all goes well for his aged wife.

This was the first time on this pilgrimage that I saw some handwork that I could photograph. (Much of the time the altar cloths were either not easily photographed or looked like they'd been done by machine embroidery.)

It looks like herringbone stitch filling on the lily and chain stitch for the monogram outline. This monogram would be the A-M for Ave Maria. The A legs are included in the M legs I think. The point on top, though, while it could be the echo of the lily, seems to me to certainly be the point of the A. The lily covers over all of the center parts of the monogram.

This looks like chain stitch used as filling for the IHS (Iesus Salvador Hominum, Jesus Savior of Mankind) and also for the cruciform outlines.

 This is not embroidery but a mosaic. I liked the way the fish and loaves and basket are made here. (The fish and loaves, being a reference to the miraculous feeding of the multitude, are a Eucharistic symbol.)

This is seen from a difficult angle. It appears to be a painted image on fabric, with pearls added, below the A-M monogram with a crown above, these either in couched-down metallic braid or actual braided goldwork stitching. The crown has a couple of gems added, too. A lovely image of the infant Mary.

This book on the pillow is likely the Gospels but it's not easy for me to tell. The image in the metalwork is of the Cross with Jesus crucified, and Mary and St John at the feet of the Cross. The pillow here matches one in a photo I didn't include, of a crown in a niche like the Infant Mary image above. This photo is included because of the lovely lace hanging from the altar. It might be hand crocheted, or might not, but it's lovely.

The story of the birth of the Virgin Mary isn't actually in the Gospel. It's in the contemporaneous works that are now lumped under the title of Apocrypha. It's a lovely story, which I heard once on a Great Courses set we listened to, but I don't recall it well enough to recap it here. I do remember that St. Anne and St. Joachim are the parents of the Blessed Virgin.

Israel pilgrimage, fifth in series

Hello, everyone.

The second day of our visiting in the land of Israel will be divided into multiple posts, as like the first day of visiting it was full of many places.

The day began at the Church of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor.  This is a smallish mountain, but it sticks up from the surrounding valley with steep slopes. We had to change from our bus to smaller vans to go up. (Three or four vans actually) The road up is full of hairpin switchback turns. There exists a walking lane, but if one walked up there and back down it would probably be the entire day's activity.

 After passing the ruins and some garden spaces, the gate of the church is before you.

Inside the door is a holy water font. The holy water fonts were generally stocked with holy water in the Holy Land.

The apse has a mosaic of the Transfiguration, which is also the fourth Luminous Mystery of the rosary. (The Luminous ones are the new set added by St. Pope John Paul II.)

Our  pastor offered Mass in a side chapel. The crucifix was constructed of many pieces of wood.

View from the patio outside the church, giving an idea of how far up the mountain is from its surroundings.

St. Michael's Basilica, Madrid

Hello, everyone.
Today we walked around and found Mass at what, for Madrid, is almost the crack of dawn: 10:30 in the morning. We were at the Basilica of St. Michael, which is also the nunciature (Vatican embassy basically) to Spain.
I took a photo of the altar a few minutes before Mass began.

The large painting shows St. Michael holding his banner as Satan falls down into the eternal trash burn. His banner has the Latin for "who is like unto God" written on it. Assorted other angels are in the area but St. Michael is the clear focus. Unseen here is a rear access passage that allowed the priest to go behind the altar and open the Tabernacle door during Mass to get out the ciborium.

The old altar, higher up and holding the Tabernacle, has 6 large candlesticks. The lower altar, which was the one used, has 6 lighter-weight candlesticks and a crucifix. I couldn't tell from my seat but this crucifix reminded me of the many old stone Camino markers that are a crucifix on one side and a figure of the Pieta or Mary praying on the other. The altar crucifix faced the priest and it looked like a figure of Mary praying might be on the part that faced the congregation.
The Tabernacle had a lace veil that just covered the front. (The actual door was on the back side.) The veil was translucent white with maybe flowers.
The altar has an altar rail, too. Using it made distributing Holy Communion go very fast, as everyone knew or instantly figured out what to do.
As we're winding down for a few days there may be fewer posts for a day or three.

Projects in process

Hello, everyone.

There was mention of things in progress a couple of weeks or so ago, and then no information appeared. Today there is a moment to catch up on them.

The rosary in progress. Using up the purple wire!

 This is the purple-ish rosary that's being worked on right now. It's a maybe whether the purple wire will last out the strand, actually. It might end up with a segment of green wire toward the end.

A trivet pad. 

This trivet was started as a way to check out round quilting with the walking foot. I used a variegated thread spool that was around--still plenty on that actually--and it really seems to have worked out well. Only needs a binding now.

Happy Easter

Hello, everyone.

A painting for today:

"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back--it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee...."  Matthew 16: 1-7

Besides the blazingly obvious, that this is from the account in the Gospel of Matthew of the discovery that the Lord had risen, another thing occurs to me. Did y'all notice that *every* Mary has a surname or other descriptor to tell the reader which Mary we are talking about now? That says to me that Mary was one of those bog-standard names that appeared in so many families that you couldn't walk without tripping over a gal named Mary. Mary of Magdala is not Mary of Bethany (sister of Lazarus?) is not Mary the wife of Cleophas is not Mary the mother of Jesus. And that's just the Marys that I can roll off the top of my head.

Sometimes when I read spiritual meditations or Bible commentaries it seems like the writer has it in their head that there are only maybe 2 ladies named Mary in the entire Holy Land of Jesus' time. But it is there in the text, if one reads with attention, that there are LOTS of Marys. Also there appear to be lots of men named Jesus--why else does Jesus have a surname?--and lots of James and Jude and Simon as well. Possibly other given names in the Gospels give evidence that their holders had fairly common names. Having advanced the thought, I will leave it to the interested readers to explore for themselves.

This painting of the Resurrection of Christ was in a Portuguese church, but without digging a lot into the things from a couple of years back I can't remember which one. It was after Coimbra, I think. And certainly before Tui in Spain.

Skirt finished; next stash project is begun

Hello, everyone.

As you see in the title, the gray skirt is finished.

The fabric is a batiste, so it's a little bit see-through. Thus the light blue lining that went behind it.

Most recent photo of the project:

The skirt is hemmed. 

 On the skirt order of work: the hems were added to the fashion fabric and the lining before the circle of the garment was closed. Then the lining was joined to the waist and the invisible zipper was added. After that, the bottom part of the seam was closed up and the edges of the lining around the zipper were hand-stitched down. and at the end a hook and eye were added above the zipper, to keep from having too much stress on the teensy, tiny plastic teeth of the zip.

Bias tape pinned to the armhole

 As with the skirt project, I'm trying to remember to do steps that involve closed circles before the circles are closed. (The neck edge didn't happen that way. But I think it's worked out okay.)

Back neck pleats for shaping

The traced pattern on this top (Burda magazine July, 2015, number 113/114/115) was bagging out terribly all over, and the neck was very high in front. Higher than my neck has ever been! Even the tracing was uncomfortable. So I lowered the center front by possibly 3/4", and also added tiny pleats to help control the fullness of the bust. Then, the back being all over the place, too, and the armholes looking weird, added larger pleats to the back of the neck. When sewing those pleats, I decided to treat them a little bit like "action pleats" and add matching pleats to the waistline area. The space in between the sewn pleat may be pressed into shape, but it will be able to open when I reach forward. (We'll see how that works out. This particular top is in part a wearable prototype for future garments.)

The fabric is a stash piece of linen with woven-in stripes and tiny flanges at the bottom edge of each stripe. It feel thick to the hand, but it's very easy to sew.

On another subject, since the rosary hasn't gotten any new beads for a few days and the finish may be delayed, a progress photo. The center is ready to be added. The wire is 22 gauge black-coated copper wire. I'm hoping that the wraps will be a little bit more delicate and less attention-grabbing than the 20 gauge wire wraps always are.

Pendent of the aqua rosary in progress

I'm ba-a-ack!

Hello, everyone.

As it says in the title, I'm back again.

I discovered a lovely walking trail in Memphis, Tennessee. (For any non-US readers, Tennessee is a state in the US. Famous cities in Tennessee are Nashville and Memphis.) It is very popular, both with pedestrians (walking and running) and bicycle riders. It goes under freeway lanes and past pretty subdivisions full of well-loved homes.

Entrance point into the greenway. 

Trumpet vine flowers in a tree on the greenway.

St. Louis Catholic Church in Memphis, TN. Baldachin is beautiful!

Bom Jesus isn't the only thing in Braga

Hello, everyone.

We took a bonus day at Barcelos, because it's near the famous site of Bom Jesus Chapel in Braga. When the sun peeped over the horizon this morning we tried to sleep in. We made it to about 7 before getting up.

The bus to Brava stops right at the square in Barcelos, and we just jumped on, paid the driver, and relaxed for the hour drive. We arrived in Brava at 9 and discovered the town square festooned with banners and other decorations. "Oh, that's right, the whole country is having a weeks-long party for St. John's day." Then we heard a strong marching cadence strike up. (Very heavy on the bass drums!) Boom! (Pause) Boom! (Pause) Boom! (Pause) and the drum corps was off and going. We had arrived just before the Marchas de Sao Joao.

I think there were at least 7 drum groups and bands, plus giant puppets and another 8 or more folkloric groups. All wending their way through tiny stone medieval streets in the town center. A number of the drum groups revved up and got going again from time to time during the day, too.

We had heard the (smaller) parade the day before yesterday in Vila do Conde.

DH went outside and snapped this in Vila do Conde while I was washing socks.

This morning in Braga:

After the parade finished, we caught the city bus out to Bom Jesus which is at the very edge of Braga on a hill. The stone work and sculptures are amazing.

This was the half-way point, after the Way of the Cross themed works and before the allegorical works. At the very top is a chapel and a garden and a gift shop. 

Miami, with more about Gesu church

Hello, everyone.

We arrived in Miami for the whole point of the exercise: graduation for DD1 and baptism for GS1.

There was a short stroll in the South Beach area, where we viewed one of the new fashion "things": open lace used as pants over a swimsuit. This is laughably called a "coverup" although there isn't anything covered. (It will look okay if your swimsuit doesn't match so much that you look like you went out in just undies and the open lace. The first one we saw, the lace pants completely matched the color of the girl's two piece swimsuit. She looked like she was strolling the streets in bra, panties, and the lace pants. No top other than her swimsuit. Not a good look, in my opinion. No, I didn't take photos of people, they didn't  go out with the idea that they'd be all over the interwebs in whatever I saw them in.)

Sea-grape as I've never seen it before. (At South Padre Island, this plant is usually a small to medium sized shrub.)

Really yummy calves' liver, just before we snarfed the last bit up!

We ate lunch at a lovely Turkish restaurant called Babylon. The liver is to die for! They also had lovely hummus, eggplant, and so on. If you go to South Beach, you should definitely eat there.

The baptism was my second time to visit Gesu Church. (Y'all may remember my posts from a couple of months back, when I went to help out with GS1's arrival.) With DH on hand to help take pictures, and the kind explanations of the priest about the teaching scheme of the art, I have more to show you about Gesu.

Tympanum (?) mural showing things connected to the parish: St. Phillipine Duchenne, nun on left side, a missionary to the Indians, St. Francesca Cabrini, nun on right side, founder of hospitals and teacher of many immigrants to the US, military members representing the Army training camps during the world wars, representative Indians and farmers--and at the far right, the actual neighbors of the parish church when it was built, all joining the angels in adoration

Rose window in the choir loft. Musical angels surround the central figure of Mary. During the era of Gothic cathedral building, the rose window was a representation of the beauty of Heaven. 

The new Christian being presented to the Blessed Mother by his parents and godparents. (The family said a prayer at the statue, similar to the way many marrying couples greet the Virgin at the end of their wedding ceremony.) Above the altar, in the apse, many symbolic paintings around the edge. One is of a Eucharistic pelican.

View of the sanctuary area and the baptismal font. The font base has lovely ceramic statues of saints. Large statues in front, from left: St. Therese of the Child Jesus (the Little Flower), Mary, St. Ignatius (?), Jesus displaying His Sacred Heart, St. Francis Borgia whom I am not familiar with. Attentive readers will note that, like St. Paul's in Mission, Gesu has a painting of the Divine Mercy image of Jesus. 

Windows on the right depicting moments from the life of Christ. The windows on the left depict moments from the life of Mary. (I didn't get a good photo of them.) This picture also shows the elaborate, edifying Stations of the Cross in the church nave.

 In the March Miami post(s) there are a few more pictures of the church, showing the Last Supper carving below the Tabernacle and other items.

Crucifixes and a monastery

Hello, everyone.

I looked at the crucifix in my parish church the other day and realized that, since we toured the monastery Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, I look at them differently.

How many crosses can you find on the monastery building?

Crucifixes are not all identical, you see. Some have three nails, and some have four. (Depends on how the feet are placed.) Some depict Christ alive, and looking up to heaven, beseeching His Father for mercy on us. Some depict Him alive, and looking at His mother, Mary.

Crucifix in Pamplona, Spain

Crucifix in Leon, Spain. Blessed Virgin on left,
St. John on right, both dressed in
clothing approximating the Middle Ages style of dress.

Crucifix in Cathedral of Pamplona, Spain

Crucifix in Pamplona, Spain--Christ looking up to heaven--centerpiece of an elaborate retablo.
Crucifix is an integral part of the painting behind it.

Crucifix in St. Paul's Church  in Mission, Texas. (Photo by Shane James Photography)
Note there are 4 nails, and Christ is looking at His mother. The figure on our right is the apostle St. John.
Clothing approximates ancient clothing styles of the 1st century.

Some depict Him after His death, with slumped head and sagging body.

This leaves aside the “Christ Triumphant” variety, showing Him with royal robes (and crown?) suspended in front of the Cross.

These differences were pointed out to us on the tour of the monastery. The tour guide was very informative. (Tour is in Spanish only, but it’s very worth it to go!) She not only told us about the beautiful artworks hanging on the walls, but also the various frescoes, which dated to before the building was donated for a monastery, and showed us one of the very first Nativities in Spain. She also told us about the difference between Mexican depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Spanish ones.

The guide also told us a little bit about the cloistered nuns that live in the convent. They have opened major areas of their house to the public for tours, which supports their living and allows many people to be edified by the art, even though it inconveniences their life to be staying out of the way of the tours. This monastery is very old. Many ladies who came here were from noble families, already educated at home, and a large proportion of the abbesses of Spain were sisters who had begun their religious life in this monastery.

This is one of the few exhibitions we saw in Spain which was really serious about the no-cameras rule. Thus we didn't take any photos of the tapestries, paintings, carvings, and frescoes inside the building. (It's simply courteous to abide by their rules!)