Easter Ceremonies at Santa Fe

1. Entrance to Church 2. Side View of Choir 3. Part of the Foyer

We went to a Church on the other side of Santa Fe for all the Easter Ceremonies: Santa Maria de la Paz. It is the newest Church in town and very large and well designed. The outside of course is finished in adobe style, which you must be used to now from my blog. The priest, Fr Adam Ortize, is only 41 years old, tall and nice looking (Spanish colouring) and he is enthusiastic and very capable. He can sing, and speak well, and obviously has the place humming. He has a Deacon who assists him at all the Services and an elderly priest, Fr Jim Wolf (who says Mass here occasionally) who also assists a bit. We had very 'high' Liturgies, which were very well done. The foot washing was beautiful on Thursday evening with 12 people from Parish groups sitting in a semicircle around the Altar facing outwards. The priest came around, assisted by the Deacon, and washed the feet of each personally, taking a good time over the operation and kissing their feet. Afterwards I saw a couple of the ladies whose feet had been washed, wiping away tears back in their places. It was very moving to watch also.

The Procession to the Altar of repose at the end of Mass, moved to a new Chapel (the size of an ordinary Church) recently built right beside the main Church area, in the same building. It was a bit crowded when the entire congregation circled the inside of the church and then went out through the Foyer into the next door Chapel. The choir (over 30 people with instruments, organ, piano and a variety of solo singers) had obviously practised a great deal and they did an excellent job. We didn't use books much because they mostly led the congregation with music which had a refrain you could pick up easily and join in.

On Good Friday, about 70 young people (15-16 years old) in the Confirmation Class presented the Passion in Mime form. They were all dressed in black tights or similar and moved quietly and quickly into their positions as needed. 'Jesus' was mimed by a slight young girl with beautiful brown rippling long hair and a strong but lovely face. 'He' wore different colours - a yellos sash/ a red cloak sometimes to symbolise suffering or love. Small groups of the young people appeared in different areas of the very large sanctuary/central area to mime the different parts, while a young girl read the whole passion from the lectern. It was extremely effective. There is a huge wooden Cross behind the Altar area and the young people placed a bare cross before this and led 'Jesus' before it. Then the 'soldiers' lifted 'his' arms and draped the girl's hands from behind over the cross beam while she stood in front of it. One of the 'soldiers' hammered each nail point loudly three times in the silence. The lights were dimmed so the 'Jesus' figure became a silhouette and it was very very effective. There was a very dramatic 'thunder storm' with lightning high on the rear wall and lights flashing along the ceiling pluse rolls of thunder, at the moment of Jesus' death! Taking the body down and carrying it away was also quite powerful. All the young people (mostly Hispanic and Spanish-looking) were involved, even if they were just the lines at the back of each side who marched up and down with loud tramping in the dark when the scenes changed to another place.

After the Gospel we had the General Intercessions, kneeling for each of the 11 or so, then standing while the priest intoned the prayers. This was a bit hard on my dodgy knees, but luckily I was able to lever myself up and down on the back of a seat!

Last night, the Easter Vigil, was quite magnificent. We got there at 8 pm. It started at 8.30 pm. We left a bit after 11.10 pm.!!!!!!! When we went outside to light the Paschal Fire, it was

F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G! (See the photo of myself

in the courtyard at Sangre earlier in the day!)

It had been snowing lightly on and off all day and there was a keen breeze. But everyone snuggled up and survived. A young woman near me had been to Australia - 'Where' I asked. 'I went to Sydney then up to Cairn.' 'Did you like Cairns?" 'The humidity was terrible'! If you knew how dry the air is here you would understand why anyone going to Cairns from here would find it humid.

After we survived quite a lengthy fire-lighting, we all went (quickly!) into a dimly lit church then all the lights were turned out before the procession of the Celebrant and servers with the Paschal Candle started. As the priest held up the Candle and said "Christ our Light" all the candles in the Church were lit (we were all given small candles in holders as we entered the foyer before Mass) and then the Exultet (in praise of Christ's Resurrection symbolised by the candle) was sung in the light of about 1000 candles. That was great. Next a 'ghostly' image of the risen Jesus was projected onto the back wall - you can see it in picture 3 below. In the photo it looks a bit like a Christmas angel!

We had been invited to bring bells to ring during the Gloria on both Holy Thursday and Easter Vigil and that followed, so we (including myself and several others from here), and many others who had brought bells, rang them furiously during the Gloria refrain .

As Mass progressed time came for the Baptism of RCIA candidates - there were 4, I think. They were supposed to go down the steps in the Baptism Pool (see photo 2 below) but the water pump had broken down so they bent over the more traditional Font and were nearly drowned with jugs of water!

There were also Confirmations of all adults who hadn't yet received this Sacrament (about 30) and some children even made their First Communion. It all took a long time and my fervour waned a little at times because, of course, the people were all strangers to me! But it was very well done - everything in top liturgical style

2. Baptism Pool ready 3. Scene during Mass


1. Processional Cross decorated for Easter
When singers from the choir took on leading the Congregation during all the ceremonies, they stood on a stand like a pulpit over near the choir and raised their arms (like a priest does at Mass) when they wanted us to join in and kept them held up the whole time. (Can't imagine that happening at St Peter's!). It was very dramatic. We had a couple of "Alleluia, Gloria" type songs last night with a good rhythm and everybody clapped, including the priest who swayed from side to side with his long red stole waving back and forth! The lead singers kept their hands raised to heaven in a sort of curve and swayed from side to side too. You would have thought you were in a Pentecostal Church. We staggered home about 11.30 pm and no one here stayed long over supper.
On Sunday at 10 am we had a lovely Mass ourselves in our Chapel here and I played for that. Everyone here sings with enthusiasm and as a group they are all very musical, so the liturgies are always very helpful.
I could tell you many more things, but you can see it has been a different, and wonderful experience, of Easter here. I hope you had a happy Easter. God bless! Rita

Pilgrimage to El Santuario, Chimayo, Good Friday

1. Bernadette ahead of me 2) A spectacular rock formation 3) The final hill into Chimayo

Dear All, We had a very different experience for the morning of Good Friday, 2007. We joined the thousands of pilgrims making the trek along the Highway, off at Nambe, and along he road to Chimayo which has the pilgrimage centre of El Santuario (the Lourdes of America), which I described in a previous blog. Two (only) of the Sangre crew walked from here - 25 miles (both Australians). Another eight (including me) walked from the Sacred Heart Church at Nambe (8.5 miles) and a further large group walked the final 2.5 miles from where the bus parked into El Santuario. We left Sangre at 6.30 am and my group was walking by 8 am. I'll post a couple of pictures showing the scenery and some of the steady stream of people and cars. I walked with an Irish Sister who works in Birmingham, and she is 20 years younger than me and kept me on my toes with her speed (but I kept up!). The State authorities give big support to the walkers and close off a lane of the freeway. There are big yellow notices directing walkers off the ramps at times onto parallel quieter roads, and traffic is urged to "watch for walkers" and drop speeds.

1. Myself & Bernadette en route 2. At a free food stall 3. The view ahead

The amazing thing was the number of young people. I would say the majority of walkers would be young, although there were a great variety - even a few in wheelchairs. Lots of strollers held babies, but at least one held two little dogs with their coats on! A few people carried crosses - some small and manageable, others quite large. All along the way there were roadside stalls offering free fruit, water, and even first aid and sunburn cream. When asked why, one group said, "Jesus said, if you give even a cup of cold water in his name ...." and they had been coming back for years. There were lines of portaloos at various places, and the Sheriffe' car, and other police cars and motor cycles cruised up and down frequently. When we arrived at El Santuario the crowds were large and we joined a queue to get into the Church. People were wandering around just doing ordinary things. Some would have had very sore feet because they may have walked all night, many from Santa Fe, but some even from as far as Albuquerque, which must be nearly 100 miles!

It took Bernadette and I about two hours to do our walk (and we left the rest of the group of 7 'for dead'.)

We were in the queue for about an hour and actually got into the Church, but did not go right through with the crowd to where the 'holy dirt' was, because we had reached the time where we had to leave to walk back to the bus. So, we sat down in a pew and prayed for a little time.

1. The queue to the Church 2) People just mooching around 3) Queueing beside young people
By the time we left, the road was absolutely chockers with people and cars, and the State Police had mounted horse posses to join the throng. Their main duty would have to hav been traffic control, but drivers were very careful and considerate with large groups of people on both sides of the road, mostly going towards Chimayo, but also returning. On the way back to the bus Bernadette really forged ahead with a very determined stride and the oncoming groups parted like the Red Sea so I followed peacefully in her wake. There was a very long hill to climb to leave Chimayo and it was just over 2 miles to the place where the bus had parked.

As we drove away, we saw one man carrying a large cross on which were written the seven 'deadlies' or their derivatives: resentment, anger, lust, gluttony, to mention just a few. As we drove along the highway, there were still many, many small groups heading to Chimayo - they would have had hours to walk yet (about 12.00 noon). There were many more people walking all along the road as we drove out than when we arrived, and many many cars parked along the stretch near where the side road enters the highway.

On Friday evening we went to the Good Friday Service (the one usually held at 3 pm in Australia) at Santa Maria de la Paz and as we returned from there about 9 pm there were still a few Pilgrims on the highway. Someone told me that the pilgrimages continue over a week. Today, as I write this it has been snowing lightly (again!) and the hills are lightly whitened. Tony and Anne, who did the 25 miles yesterday, are very glad it wasn't like this then. Bernadette wore a pedometer and was able to tell me we covered 11.5 miles which was a good distance, but manageable. Needless to say, I slept like a top last night.

April 1st - After the Retreat

The 'snowy' photo was the view outside my bedroom window (mercifully, the screen wire doesn't show up) on the first day of our Retreat. I was hoping the quite-large snow flakes coming down would show up, but you can't really see them. It is supposed to be spring, as I have mentioned earlier, and the environment is getting geared up, so this was not really expected. We had two subsequent days when we had snow - once it was too light to stay on the ground, but only yesterday we had a light snow cover until lunchtime, although it was melting all morning.
If you wonder why you are being shown a photo of a cloud on the right, look closer! There is a common black eagle near the centre and another one in the left hand corner - click on the photo to enlarge, if you are curious. I put the photo in really to show that the weather wasn't all snowy.

Even on the snowy-at-the start days it was possible to get out, so on Wednesday I did a fairly long walk after lunch along the road that goes deep into the mountains in the Santa Fe Forest. There are houses as you go along, and well into the hills, there is a sign that there is private land beside the road and people are to stay on teh road for half a mile. I walked to the snow gate, which is still shut, and then on a little way to where the snow was still on the road, although you could have driven there. I met another participant, Anne, who took a photo of me (looking VERY charming!) and then as I went past the private land there were buildings of various sizes in what appeared to be a 'colony' - perhaps of artists. Santa Fe is full of them. Then there was a genuine-looking Indian tepee right beside the little stream. I'll put the photos below:

The Retreat was a very good experience and it was a great group to be part of. With all the participants being either priests, brothers or sisters, there is a common background which makes our living together very easy. It is inspiring to see the sincerity of life and purpose of those around me, from so many different areas and backgrounds. Each person here has made a personal commitment to Christ in their lives and is still keen to live that out to the best of their ability after many years of living in a great variety of places and ministering in a wide variety of ways. No photos of that.

There was plenty of time for reflective walking and I had time to notice many things: all the trees are not budding at the same time. The Juniper and Pinyon got going first, and the Juniper caused major hay fever episodes for all the local population. The flowering trees have come out, and now the Sycamore?/Oak trees have finally shed all the brown leaves they carried throughout winter and are putting little shoots out on the ends of their twigs. Other trees such as Willow and Aspen down near the Rio Chapungo which flows throught the propery, have very green-looking branches by now. I haven't taken pictures of all of this. Today a crowd of us are heading off to town to a Beethoven Concert at 4 pm followed by an evening meal. That should be good.

This is a great place to celebrate Holy Week and Easter. Being in the Northern Hemisphere has its advantages for everything in the Liturgy reflects the seasons, which are all upside-down in Autralia - not that I mind. May you all have a very Happy and Blessed Easter.

Bye for the present. You will hear more of me. Rita

Friday March 23rd - Before going on Retreat

1) Visit to Sandia Mountain which overlook Albuquerque (these were the mountains we had such a long time to look at when we were held up with the accident on the Freeway!).
I thought it was worth-while showing you a couple of photos brought home by those who went on this optional trip the other day. It was the day I was on the cooking of 'brunch' (in a team of 3 for 40 people) so I decided prudence was better than an excursion, and did not regret my decision when I collapsed on my bed and caught up on an hour's sleep after spending the morning flat out in the kitchen preparing brunch! However, those who went, had a wonderful time with the cable train to the top (15 minutes) at over 13000 feet, then spectacular views in every direction, plenty of snow still about, and wonderful food at the restaurant there. Put this on your next trip-to-USA schedule.

2) St Patrick's Day

Don't think life is all work and excursions! We also have parties, and St Patrick's Day last Saturday was the cause of much shennakins! Below are a couple of photos, although I could have cluttered up the blog with all the possibilities. You can see we had Community singing (I am at the keyboard), lots of decorations of which the centre photo is but a sample, and much dressing up - I had nothing green but put a serviette on my chest for the photo (although it fell off after the first photo and is not to be seen when I am at the piano!) There was also dancing, eating, drinking, and much talking till late ( I cleared out about 10 pm)

3) We had another Water Colour Lesson on Tuesday. The topic was painting flowers and I was very pleased with my result, so I photographed it on 'large' and you can see it below. I will start the auction at $1000 US! The fact that all the others looked lovely too (there are about 16 in the class) is not to be considered in making your bid. Perhaps you would be better off bidding for the teacher, Brother Joe.

For the next lesson, which comes after the Retreat, we have been told to bring a picture we want to paint. We also have been given a couple of pieces of good quality art paper to do some painting during the Retreat if we wish. You never know what masterpieces you will see.

4) Santa Fe Visits to Art Galleries (perhaps Inspired by my excursions into the art world?) I visited a couple of Art Galleries on my Wednesday afternoon trip to town. The first one, the Monitu Gallery, was really enjoyable. I loved the scuptures and took lots of photos - I will treat you to a couple. Unfortunately I did not make any record of the names of the artists. There were also beautiful paintings. It is the quiet season for tourists, so it was easy to get around.

The three pictures from the Manitou Galleries above show:

i) Reclining Cougar on seat outside the Manitou Galleries (life-size)

2) Rolling Horse - a miniature sculpture upstairs inside

3) Painting of a Pueblo - beautiful colours, I think you will agree!

The next three pictures from the same galleries show:

1) Two sleeping foxes - the sculpture appeared to be done in wood (on the floor near a wall)
2) An Indian woman and her children interacting (miniature)

3) A mother bear and two cubs - close to life size. I hope that is the closest I get to these!

5) The next pictures are from the Nedra Matteucci Fine Art Galleries

The first three were all taken inside the Garden you go to at the rear of the Gallery building. The man at the desk suggested going there first if time was short. What good advice! These pictures show:

1) A group of dancing people and, in the trees near them, some deer.

2) Nearby a life-sized deer stretches to lick her/his side.

3) At the side of the beautiful pond, an elephant sculpture becomes a fountain.

As you enter the gardens, you are greeted by 1) this absolutely joyous statue of a boy. Nearby, you can see what I found to be 2) a truly beautiful statue of a woman and child on a seat talking about a book. Up the back of the garden, 3) two 'gardeners' are chatting during a break. The whole garden is enclosed by a fence which can be seen in this last photo. It is a peaceful and truly wonderful place. The young woman attendant at the Manitou Galleries actually recommended seeing this one because of this garden of sculptures.

FINALLY

I could bore you to death with photos from these galleries, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of what an enjoyable experience it was going through them. Even walking from one gallery to another was filled with interest. Look at 'Loretto Inn' (right beside the Loretto Chapel with the miraculous staircase). Presumbaly this building was originally a Convent? Not too many Inns have a Crucifix (unusual - perhaps 'resurrection') at the entrance. There also appear to be other statue/s further in along the drive. The building is typical adobe.

We start the Retreat which marks the middle of our 100 days here at Sangre de Cristo on this coming Friday evening (23rd March). Don't expect any further blog entries until a couple of days after 1st April (Sunday) when we finish. I am looking forward to this very much. We have had a lot of input and it will be good to have a quiet, uninterrupted time to process it all. I'll get out for a good walk every day too. The spring blossoms are starting to come out as also the crocuses, jonquils and daffodils. Trees are budding, and most days are sunny and mild. Tonight there was a very little rain, but it didn't last. It is still cool but the days are quite warm.

All the best to everyone from Rita.

March 16th - A Few Observations

The weather is getting noticeably warmer here. The pictures on the right and the left show the same valley about 10 days apart. Even though the views are from a different angle, you can clearly see the change in snow cover and vegetation. Even though it is an arid area, there is a much closer network of roads and settlements than in arid areas of Australia. (Reminder: click on the photos if you want a better view and they might enlarge).

The left photo below shows another view towards the area just on the Santa Fe side of where we live, and you will see what look like quite a few roads in the area. In actual fact, a couple are disused tracks on our property which no vehicle - even a 4WD - could drive on. I sometimes walk along the dirt one that seems to go straight into the distance, but it actually turns onto State Road 592 just where you see it disappearing on the photo. The main road has quite a few vehicles but those that pass as I walk along are extremely careful to give me a wide berth and the drivers usually wave. The general attitude is very friendly, which is nice. There are no 'utes' over here - only 'dump trucks' (Picture 2 - showing one such truck on State Road 592) which are very common around here. Another interesting thing is how bi-lingual the place is. As you shop in Santa Fe you hear a lot of Spanish being spoken. Our cook and handyman (husband and wife) are bi-lingual and speak Spanish to each other and English to most of the rest of us with equal ease.

March 13 Water-Colour

One of the things I am doing to 'improve' myself is watercolour painting. We have done sunsets, and then we put mountains in the background and foreground - using all the right techniques of course. Today, we put in sky, mountains and

silhouettes in either 'warm' or 'cool' colours. I tried photographing my superb efforts, but most of them are a bit dark. I will publish a couple of them here so you can be smitten with admiration! I was going to put them in a large size, so you had some hope of seeing them, but had trouble getting them to stay on the blog. Never mind, you may be able to click and enlarge them. There were better ones - as you would not find hard to imagine! Next week we do flowers.

March 9th, Albuquerque Visit

Albuquerque is about 70 miles from Sangre so we left 8.30 am and arrived right on 10 am in time to see the Indian Cultural Centre and Museum there until 11 am. It was all too little time because there was so much to see and a very interesting gift shop. There was one section devoted to 'Code Talkers' during WWII. Aparently the Indian languages were used by native speakers to communicate by code and the enemy never cracked the system. eg. The Indian soldier's word for 'dog' was used to specify 'd', the word for 'stone' 's' etc. as he spoke to another member of his tribe across the airwaves. This system was essential to victory in several major battle

Other sections of the museum were devoted to displays from the different Tribes of their lifestyle at different periods. It was very complex and advanced, and there are a lot of ways it influences life here today - eg. adobe housing, beautiful pottery from local clay, handwoven objects. I didn't get a really good impression of the Spanish imposition of Catholic religion on a very spiritual people. However, today the people are both Catholic and Traditional and practise both their Catholic faith and their original Spiritual customs. The comment was that they believe there is only one Creator God. No photos, sorry - not allowed.

We moved to 'Old Town' Albuquerque - a reminder of the past in what is a very modern and busy place with a lot of industry, major roads and heavy traffic. I'll show you a few photos I took of this:

On the left you can see a bit of St Felipe de Neri Church which has been in continuous use since 1706. The Convent on its left is named after a Sister Blandina who brought a mason from Santa Fe to rebuild it after the first one, built in 1881 collapsed. The Sisters of Charity served there.

The Old Town is very adobe-looking. Here are a couple of photos:

You can see the entry to the Old Town area has been greatly embellished. In a cafe area (where I lunched) you can see a genuine adobe wall with wooden window bars. The cafe was in a walk-through courtyard and all the tables were out of doors under shelter. Very charming.

A couple of other photos will give you a bit of an idea of the style of the area: First, the plaza itself (the church is on one side); secondly, a couple of 'Queen Anne' style buildings which also feature in the area; thirdly, part of the courtyard beside the Church (to the right - opposite the convent side). The taller building may have been the original school - the only one in the town originally.

I spent most of the afternoon at the Albuquerque Museum with another Sister. Before going in I photographed some of the multiple statues outside the very impressive building. They go in a lot of very life-like statues but there are also modern art sculptures there which you may glimpse in the background. Here's a selection: Our trip home was delayed by what a radio announcer described as a 'horrible' accident along Route 66 (Freeway with wide space between sets of two lanes). We basically sat for 2 hours! We played '20 guesses' and 'I went on a trip and I took ....' around the bus! Got home at 7.05 pm instead of 5 pm. The two lanes must have stretched for miles and miles behind us but it took us a long time to get even near the accident whieh seems to have involed at least four vehicles when one came across from the wrong side of the highway. That car was an absolutely mangled wreck, split almost in half! News reports last night suggest 6 people were injured and only two in that car were injured seriously ( it is a wonder they were alive). I had plenty of time to take photos of the Sandia Mountains which overlook Albuquerque, so here is my best photo. There is actually a very long scenic railway right to the top which about 18 of our group are going to go on next Sunday. I decided to skip that trip - save my pennies for some other delights, like the Grand Canyon which we are busily planning: That is enough about Albuqerque, but a final note. The radio announcer was also talking about how the flu has arrived here - time to get flu shots! If it takes off here, we'll all be a bit sorry for ourselve. Hope everyone is well and kept out of mischief, as you can see I am. God bless! Rita