Guanajuato

As for the places I've been, so far in Mexico, the State of Guanajuato has got to be the most beautiful of all the States of Mexico. The first images are taken from Cubilete, which is the geographical center of Mexico. It is two hours (which I was told it was only 45 minutes out of) the capital city of Guanajuato. Barely made my bus! The terrain is beautiful as are the people. During the Cristo Rey revolution, the statue of our Lord, Christ the King, was destroyed, but was rebuilt in the 1930-60s to what we see today. The chapel at the top, underneath the statue, was breath taking, when I walked in, what a treasure.

The city of Guanajuato is absolutely beautiful. The city folks thought so as well and with the advent of cars, the folks decided to build tunnels to preserve the style of the city. Additionally, the folks also preserved the culture of following musicians through the streets (as you see in the first photo). While I was in Guanajuato, they were having their international film festival, oops, missed that memo! At least I was able to secure a hotel room (one of the last hotel rooms left, from what I could gather, in downtown Guanajuato). In this photo, it is still early, so the older folks are dancing, in about another hour, the music changes from Mexican Polka to American/Mexican Pop/Rock and many of the young folks emerge from the bars, coffee shops to dance.
The legendary "callejon del beso" or alleyway of the kiss - it's worth a quick read at:
http://www.guanajuatocapital.com/ingles/Nleyen.htm
This is just a quick shot of the colors, right before nightfall, of the houses. Plaza practically litter the town, but how I have come to truly enjoy those plazas. One of the interesting things concerning the town of Guanajuato, supposedly, when the folks want/need to paint/renovate the exterior of their houses, they need to secure a permit...so as to maintain the color and style of colonial Guanajuato.
The Cathedral of St Ignatius of Loyola, on the feast day of St Ignatius (July 31). The Cathedral marks the center of the city with a small plaza in the center.


I had a layover in one of the towns, Irapuato...thought this would be a great thing to add to a parish picnic!

A big calendar...and early Mexico City

Pues, yo estuve delante del infamoso calendario aztecas. Este calendario es muy grande. La historia del calendario es muy interesante. En realidad, hace 500 años, el calendario fue parte de un piso para peleas. La razon este calendario no fue terminado es porque detras el frente, dos grand grietas.
Yo de pie frente de la réplica del vestido de la cabeza de Moctezuma. El real cosa hay en Bélgica.
La ciudad de México en el año de 1600. La antiguo ciudad como esta la ciudad hoy de Vienna.
El centro de México en 1600. La catedral esta hoy arriba de los gran piramides.
Un altar para los sacrificios...el canal es para la sangre de la cabeza!

Templo de la Cruz

Presbíteros cambian parroquias cerca el tiempo en Estados Unidos, en 1 de Julio. Arriba están P. Sergio y yo en su ultima día en Morelia. Me él cae bien.
Una madre me preguntó "por favor, padre, hablas con mi hijo en inglés". Diferente veces, la gente se ha practicado inglés conmigo, pero, usualmente, les prefieran hablar en español les ayudarme.
Arriba, P. Sergio aceptó la gracia de la comunidad y la gracia de la nueva pastor, P. Gerardo.
P. Sergio habló con la comunidad por la ultima tiempo son les pastor.
Yo pienso un buena foto debajo la cruz. Me sentí allí durante la ultima mensaje de P. Sergio.

Saints Peter and Paul celebrated in a local parish

The day of days, for me (outside of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the conversion of St Paul (January 25nd), is June 29th, the feast day of the martyrdom of Sts Peter and Paul. The local parish, which is a stone throw from my new house, is called San Pedro. Every year the parish has a Mass (with the bishop) and this year a person donated the Crystal chandelier that is pictured in the above photo.
The parish paid for the mariachis...here you can see they're just warming up for the folks just getting out of Mass.
The chairs set out for tacos, enchiladas, etc and drinks (though I didn't see any beer, otherwise I probably would have stayed longer!).
A view of the tents from the end of the street. In attendance for Mass (which the church was plugged) around 500 people. Not bad for a Mass in the middle of the week!

México...Again!

So we arrived downtown Mexico city...and what did we find...a gay rights parade!




A couple frescos in the national palace by Diego Rivera...he never did finish the project, a little thing called death happened to him!


A view from the Latin American Tower in Mexico City overlooking the national palace (straight ahead) and the Cathedral (to the left). The Cathedral has sunk some 15-20 feet over the past couple centuries...the Mexican government and the archdiocese are trying to reinforce the foundations of the Cathedral (as well as other churches). Our guide on this trip said that the ground is kind-of like chewing gum...When the earthquake of 1985 struck MC, the cathedral sunk some 5 - 10 feet, it raised up an old holy site for the Aztecs that was lost to being built over some 500 years prior...this site is now viewable next to the cathedral only about 200 yards away.

Teotihuacan

A look at the temple of the moon (a la izquierda) and the temple of the sun (a la derecha)
Alfredo habló con "Jeff" "yo pienso tú morirás en esta pyrimada!"

El seminarista "Jeff" de Sacramento pie delante del pyramida de "Sol"

El grupo del seminaristas (la mujer embrazada y yo no fuemos seminaristas) escalamos la pyramida de sol.
La vista de la techa del "Sol". Para nosotros (un gordo y un mujer embrazada) - escalamos la pyramida en 10 minutos...nada más! Nosotros fuimos fuerte!
El grupo se me perdió - yo encontré ellos arriba del "luna"!
Para la pyramida de luna...solomente una persona lo escala a media punta...porque el servicio del parque tiene un excavación arriba de esta punta.

Una mapa de Teotihuacan:
http://www.advantagemexico.com/mexico_city/images/teotihuacan_map.gif

Para estudiantes en la escuela, se llama "Baden-Powell Institute" - estudiantes pueden ir a diferente lugares por $50 (USD) - $150 (USD). Hace un fin de semana, diferente estudiantes de BPI y yo ibamos a la ciudad de México for $150 (USD) con un noche en un buen hotel cerca del centro. Nosotros visitamos La Basilica de Guadalupe, el centro, fuimos a Bellas de Artes y también un lugar muchas lejos de la ciudad se llama Teotihuacan. Muy interesante lugar viejo. Esta ciudad no es parte de Maya o Aztecas. La gente construyeron la ciudad no existieron cuando las Aztecas construyeron la ciudad de México en 1500s. Un interesante cosa, cuando las Aztecas construyeron la ciudad de México, esta punto como Vienna, Italia! Un ciudad en un lago y las calles fueron agua! Ahorita, las calles de México son concreto.

My new "family"

My hope, while here in México, is to find positive culture experiences. After 5 weeks with one family, I asked for a change. Though I do live further away (my walk time from school, since I ride to school with Rocí [pictured on left] is 35 "Fr Ben" minutes...which is a good clip in the streets), the environment is quite engaging. The family is a blast to be with...their attitudes about life and culture are great...Rocío (the woman in the middle...i.e. the mom) is a fantastic cook! Carlos (the father) is an ENT doctor and quite the runner...one day I'd love to run as much as he does...especially since he turns 70 this Novemeber and the son (Gabriel) who is great in conversation and loves fútbol. Not pictured are two other children of Rocío and Carlos and their families.

I live, now, about a 15 minutes from the mall "Las Americas" and the local cinema. The one theater is called the VIP cinema...apparently they have lounge chairs in the theater and the folks wait on you. You pay double for this "luxury"...which is about 90 pesos or about $9 American!

They are a great family...and I'm happy to be a part of their lives.

A trip to the old center of Michoacan

The local church...which the natives built (1530s) near Pátzcuaro
The local bishop (who at one time was the judge till the locals wanted a fair bishop so, at that time, the 82 year old man was ordained priest, then bishop...quick like Anselm! This bishop believed that there was an importance to preserving the culture of the people...and not "evangelizing"it away, as if the people's history was not important. After his death, the center of Michoacan...and the building of the Cathedral, happened in Morelia...some short distance away.

On the front of the doors, the natives carved small icons on the faith, then painted the icons...the paint is long gone, but he carvings still exist.

The inside of the church...beams cut from the forests (now all but extinct here...red cedar trees). The wood didn't have time to dry, so the posts began to twist. At the time, the locals didn't know how to build a large building with a stone roof, thus the red cedar ceiling.
An early confessional...Jackie in "the box"but no priest is present on the other side to hear her confession...however there was a priest taking the picture!Inside the monastery next to church. The rooms are built on the west side to make the most of the afternoon light so the monks could read or grade the students work...benches were built into the walls near the windows as seats for this purpose. The east side has the kitchen and classrooms for early morning light.

For a quick way to get people to attend Mass and because building churches took so long, the local priests built "open air" churches. The faithful would gather in the courtyards for Mass. Though you are not able to see in this photo, above the two center columns are a sun (on the left side) and a moon (on the right side). These were symbols of gods to the locals...this was an evangelization tool used for the locals as a way to say..."it's okay to worship and enter here...your past gods are present to adore the one God."

Visit to Mexico City...part 2

On the outside of the old basilica.
Inside of the new basilica.
A picture from behind the cathedra.
The view from my seat during the ordination at the basilica.
The Cardinal waiting for the ordinand to step forward for a promise of obedience.


Fr Antonio and I concelebrated the ordination Mass of 23 men to the permanent diaconate at the Bascilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I wasn't all that close, during the Mass, to the image of Our Lady, but after Mass, I walked up behind the cathedra (the bishop's chair) to take some time to pray close up with the image of Our Lady and take a few pictures (I figured I'd be escorted by the security guards after a few minutes...I was!) - but they just smiled and said "bueno padre. No más." The other picture of the church in the distance is the former basilica, but is now condemned, but the city and diocese are trying to save it.

Visit to Mexico City...part 1

In the above picture, Fr Antonio, our weekend chofer Nacho, and I are headed to the basilica...not exactly what I had pictured in my mind!
The last minute...literally, with Fr Antonio. My cabbie was waiting for me outside the walls.
This is the first Mass I ever was able to concelebrate with Fr Antonio, of course he was nice enough to ask if I would like to celebrate this Mass in English or Spanish - I said, whatever is easiest for you...so it was in Spanish!


What a great gift Fr Antonio has been in my life. A priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, he has to be one of the most hard working spiritual priests I know. I had the opportunity this past weekend to visit with him for 3 days. We had some great laughs, conversations, and time for prayer. We were able to celebrate three Masses together: one for the La Salle brothers, another with the Cardinal in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the last one in the mother house of the Missionaries. As you can see, Fr Antonio is quite a bit smaller than me, but he makes up for it in character and spirituality. Fr Antonio's principle work now, in Mexico, is to give retreats and spiritual direction to priests. He teaches in the local university and will be receiving his doctorate in Divinity this December. Thank you Fr Antonio for the gift you are to the world, to the Church and especially to us priests.

One more thing while I was in Boise

Well, Sam Anger, a parishioner of Risen Christ, has been trying ever so hard to get me to go biking with him - but I'm totally out of shape, he's like in amazing shape - no need to get embarrassed! At anyrate, I met he and his buddies coming up the hill while I was thanking God continuously that I was headed down the hill. We took a photo op, then Sam pushed his cronies on...way to go Sam! One more thing - you may notice I don't have my helmet...I forgot it in my pickup - I was politely reminded not to do that again! Thanks Sam! Until this Fall - keep up your biking, Sam!