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. 

Leon to Murias de Rechivaldo

Hello, everyone. We're mostly caught up on postings now.

Yesterday we left our hostal room in Leon about 0645 and headed on down the road to Hospital de Orbigo. This day's walking involved a decision on paths: should we take the more traditional path or should we take the newer, more scenic, route. The newer route is longer and goes through fewer villages with facilities. We decided to stay with the traditional route. As is, our Strava track shows about 32 km for the day. (Others who started in Leon and went the scenic way walked farther.) 

The day was quite chilly to start out and never got much warmer. We stayed in the parish albergue at Hospital de Orbigo, where the people were nice. The sleeping there is divided into dorms, with the bathroom and shower setup in a separate room. All of which open onto the fresh air garden with paved path. The folks had set up safety lighting along the path. Every time anyone left their dorm to visit the WC/Duchas room during the night, the path spotlights turned on. One was by the window of our dorm. Oh, well. These things happen. 

The weather held cold all night and into departure time the next morning. We got our packs loaded, gathered our poles and shoes from the entry area and finished our leaving prep. We got to San Justo de la Vega at around 0900 and had tea and tortilla for breakfast. (This egg and potato frittata like dish is really great for breakfast. ) Then we headed the ladt 4 km into Astorga.

We visited an open church, Sta. Marta the patroness of Astorga, where we were able to have a quiet moment with the Blessed Sacrament, and then visited the Cathedral museum. This has been reorganized in the 11 years since we were last there. It was interesting. We concluded the day in Maria's de Rechivaldo.

Having a drink of water with the bronze pilgrim in S Justo de la Vega

The water spigot here is potable.

Sta. Marta

Sta. Marta

This sign reassured us that we were on the right path. 

Nájera to Santo Domingo de Calzados

Hello, everyone.  I didn't post yesterday,  so this post covers yesterday's walk.

We walked from Nájera to Santo Domingo. This Santo Domingo, by the way, is not the guy started the Dominican order. He was, however,  that Domingo's tocayo: his mom had asked the well known holy man to pray for her to have a son. When the son arrived the following year, she named him after the famous patron of the pilgrim travelers and founder of towns. And holy monk. He is one of the "engineer saints" of the Camino.

We did about 23 km on a glorious day. 

This was a really delicious tortilla, with bacon and cheese on top.

View of Santo Domingo from the trail. (DH the nearest pilgrim in photo)

Merry Christmas!

Hello, everyone. I just realized that the Christmas season has been so busy that I hadn't posted in a while. Sorry about that!

This is our Flight Into Egypt ornament. That actually took place a good some months after the birth of Jesus, but the photo came out better than the glass Holy Family ornament.

We're expecting a traditional South Texas Christmas, enjoying the official food of the season: tamales! We shouldn't even need jackets for going to Christmas Mass as the cool air of these few days is supposed to slide on out.

I wish for all y'all a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year.🎄🪅

Pilgrims' Mass at the Cathedral (edited for spelling)

Hello, everyone.  Yesterday,  after my post, we went to the 1930 Pilgrims' Mass. We should have gone into the church earlier...like a whole hour early. But we were only about 25 or 30 minutes early. So we were Standing Room Only. (Have the Cathedral people cut down on the available seating? I think I remember more seats than there are now...) I was going to put up a photo of the Altar area from the place we were standing, but the Blogger app keeps turning it sideways...

My Spanish isn't super, but Mass was still very edifying. I was so grateful to be there and to have completed our pilgrimage. 

This is kind of wonky, but we were standing under the pipes of the great organ. As y'all can see, the Botafumeiro is out of action. I saw a post on the Camino Forum that they had brought it back after the renovation but a bit of hardware fell off and it's back in the shop until they craft a new replacement piece--remember that these ancient things predate standardized parts, you can't run down to Ace Hardware to get a new 6x25 screw to put into it--and the rumor on the Camino Forum runs toward months before it flies again.

Nonetheless I was purely grateful to have completed our pilgrimage. The distance certificate says 1,007 km. (Over our two seasons of progress!)