With Open Doors

What a wonder to walk through the arch and see the Plaza Major, the major square, the city center of Salamanca at night.

Our guide mentioned that the Cathedral in Salamanca (Spain) is actually two cathedrals of different times blended together. Pointing our attention to this corner, she remarked that we can see the old and the new together “communicating.” If only the old and the new (of anything, in anything) could “communicate” so elegantly and lastingly.

This is another of my favorite photos, this time from the walk up the hill to the Cathedral of Salamanca, Spain.

Queen Saint Isabelle is the patron saint of the city of Coimbra. She is buried in the monastery on the top of the hill overlooking the …. (I forget) … river. She was the wife of King Dennis. Look up the story about the miracle of roses that took place when she was caught by her husband, as she was on a mission to feed the hungry, which her king-husband had forbidden her to do. The charming guide who joined us for a couple hours to introduce us to her town of Coimbra acted like she was warmed by my account of my queen Isabelle. King Dennis wasn’t all bad; he founded the famous university at Coimbra, stating with the faculties of medicine and law. (Did you hear that, my friends, doctor” John and “counsellor” Erin?) Oh, yeah, search online to see the Harry Potter-style capes the students at the university wear until this very day. The bus did not stop, so we could not photograph any of the university students.
T all bad

This statue in the Carmelite monastery where Sister Lucia spent her years as a cloistered nun. The sculpture created this statue after interviewing Sister Lucia in the monastery.

The morning we left Fatima, I lit a candle so that my prayers – and your prayers – would continue in that holy place.

Every night in Fatima there is a public recitation of the rosary, with each decade being prayed in one of the five different languages used. After the rosary, there is a procession through the square. Go to my YouTube channel – http://www.milfordandrewpastor.wordpress.com – to watch the video of the candlelight procession on the second night that we were in Fatima.

This is how the last of the Glorious Mysteries of the rosary is depicted in the Basilica of Fatima: Mary is crowned as Queen of heaven and earth.

One of the promises of Our Lady in Fatima was that, if people prayed, there would be an end to Communism. This remnant of the Berlin Wall is on display near the entrance to the sanctuary of Fatima. Maybe we pray-ers could ask Our Lady to join our prayer that the wall of suspicion, fear and sadness that stands between the Israelis and Palestinians would one day fall. Maybe someday a piece of that Wall in the Holy Land could be on display in Fatima, too, as evidence of the non-violent force of prayer for forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom for the people who live on both sides of that ugly structure.

Lucia had a sister named Carolina. They were cousins of Francisco and Jacinta. This is the room that Lucia and Carolina shared. As I stood at the doorway of this room, it struck me that we have a Lucia and a Carolina, not extremely common names, in our tiny town of Milford. No, they are not sisters. They do know each other, though. And they are not Portuguese, but Italian and Polish.