Set at 1,236m this monastery is higher than anything in England and Wales, and most of Scotland, and perched on the side of a mountain. It can be reached by road (with a lot of bends), Cable car or train from the valley below. Difficult as it is to get to, millions each year do, and boy is it worth it.
Apart from the breath taking scenery, stunning architecture and amazing paintings, this place, as a working monastery simple oozes spirituality. You can but stand in awe in the main chancel and breath in the atmosphere, history and,as far as I am concerned, presence that this place holds. Yes it has all the iconography that doesn’t sit well with me, but at the same time is has a presence that you can’t get away from. We also had the pleasure of listening to a choir fro Gloucester singing in English which demonstrated the acoustics of this building. A poor recording (from my iPhone, but gives you an idea.
The side chapels are, in some cases, ornate and too intricate for my liking, but some are simple and demand more than a moment to stand and ponder whilst thoughts run round your mind. Two of these come to mind, the prayer chapel, and the chapel with an image of Mary holding the body of Christ with such an expression of pain, questioning and anguish. Both these chapels were so moving and emotional. I wonder how many of the tourist visitors felt something of a spiritual presence in these two places of this mesmerising building? And the main attraction was till to come.
La Moreneta (“the little dark-skinned one” or “the little dark one”) is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding in one hand an orb representing the World, and holding Christ child in the other, and is high above the high altar. Tradition is that you touch the hand holding the orb. I didn’t, but that didn’t detract from the experience of being where millions of people had been with their prayers and supplications. The queues for this experience were long, leading me to believe that most people were not just here to look, but to be part of this place. I’d love to know how many people had a spiritual event whilst here.
The other aspect of this that I had never considered before, and which changes my viewpoint of images of Mary and the Christ child, s that of Mary ‘offering’ Christ to the world. A humble servant of God saying to the world, here is my child, God’s son given for you, offered to you, free, just take and receive because he is for you no matter who you are. Just ponder that for a moment. I did!
So musch to say about this place, and future blog entries may make reference to it.
We finished by walking the stations of the cross. Some of the modern depictions left me a little lost, but the final one didn’t.
If you want a mountain top experience this is it in so many ways. No wonder Dan Brown used this for the start of his latest novel Origin.
Holy Places - a journey of discovery 