Carrying Ashes

[dionisio choperena]

Rosina - thanks for all the messages and wonderful descriptions...safe
travel back to the states.

Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rosina Lila" <BlaroliaAOL.COM>
To: <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 4:10 AM
Subject: Re: Carrying Ashes


> Hello you all,
> For those of you who may not know..... one of my reasons for going to
Assisi last Christmas was to inter the ashes of a (very, very) loved one.
> I am now in Rome, after travelling all around the Italian northern country
side where the snow is entirely different from ours,  (It snowed yesterday
in Rome.... for the first time in 25 years, I think) getting ready to go
home to New York next week.  The last thing I will do before leaving this
lovely country will be to go up to Assisi to deposit some "so long" flowers.
> It is terribly sad to lose a beloved companion, but somehow knowing that
the earthly remains, and part of your heart, rest under the shadow, as it
were, of dear St. Francis, is a little comforting.
> I finally got around to sending the Santiago pictures from the opening of
the Holy door to Pieter of Holland yesterday; perhaps he will make them
available in the Net. The one of the shower of stars is particularly
noteworthy.
> St. Francis chose to denote his life devotion to Christian virtues by
drawing a large "Tau" on the back of the old tunic given him by the then
Archbishop Innocent, when St. Francis disrobed himself in the public square
renouncing all wordly possessions.  From then on he used the "Tau" as his
signature, sort-of; the two extant letters in his handwriting have the "Tau"
drawn throughout.
> During Christmas in Assisi there is a life-size Nativity scene reproduced
in the garden area in front of the upper church. The scene last Christmas
was framed with a large Tau fashioned from dark-red live brumble bushes,
with the word PAX, also in greenery, at the bottom.  I took a picture of it
which came out half-way decently and sent it to Pieter as well; perhaps
he'll post it.
> Meanwhile, here in Italy the Instituto Cervantes in Piazza Navona has a
lovely exhibit on the Camino called "Sentimientos del Camino". They have
large plasma TV screens showing the VERY BEST Camino video I have ever, ever
seen: pilgrims, pilgrims, pilgrims; speaking in tongues coming down the
Pyrenees; in Roncesvalles, Puente La Reina, Sto. Domingo, crossing the
Meseta, climbing up to O Cebreiro, negotiating rivers, walking in the rain,
waiting in the albergues, leaving them in the morning with a flashlife, etc.
etc. etc., until arriving at Santiago and the Mass with the Botafumeiro.
> All types of pilgrims, all ages, conditions, etc..., crying, laughing,
thinking, resting, trascending one emotional border or another.
> The video has no commentary, and it certainly does not need any; it is
just terrific..
> I asked the people there whether a copy could be obtained and they told me
that it had been prepared just for the exhibit.
> Well...., maybe a copy can be tracked down later.
> When I go to Seville next April for Holy Week I'll see whether some of the
Friends people there can get a copy.
> So long for now, and a big hug!
> Rosina
>