[Gocamino] (no subject)

[Rosina]

Hello you all,
I wanted to e-send you my favorite Christmas card, but the list does not transmit? attachments. I also wanted to forward the Christmas greetings from the Santiago Archdiocese, but no forwards can go through....?And so,.
Last January, when in Austria,?I went to visit what must be the dearest and most wondrous of all Santiago pilgrims' albergues.? You are, no doubt, familiar with the lovely Christmas carol "Silent night". Well, more decades and decades ago a priest in a humble church up in the Austrian/Bavarian alps, near Salzburg, was preparing for Christmas Midnight Mass and discovered that the church's small organ had been gnawed into by mice and was unplayable. Unwilling to have the Mass without music he got together with an impoverished music-teacher friend of his and between the two they created, and played that night, what has become the most played and sung, all over the world and in many languages,??Christmas carol of all time.? The original church is still there, now protected by a larger and stronger super-imposed one (as is the gnawed-into organ and the original guitar;? both the priest and the music teacher are buried there). Next to the church is a wooden alpine chalet which is used as a pilgrims' albergue in the Jakobsweg (Way of Santiago}. While one may think of the "Miracle of O'Cebreiro", which also occurred because of a midnight mass at Christmas, the scenery and atmosphere around the alpine church are entirely different.....:very quiet, very still, very silent, like that?night that inspired the carol; the celebration is made even more touching by the lovely Austrian costume of celebrating their Christmas Mass entirely by candlelight.
The card I wanted to post and send to you all is a pencil drawing of a woman leading her children to that small alpine church for the midnight Mass of Christ.

Since I can't post the card, let me send you my warmest personal wishes for a Merry and Happy Christmas, hoping that you will receive the greatest gift of all:? that of Faith, with?the hope and soul-comfort that it provides and the goodness that it inspires.

Hugs and hugs!

Rosina
ps If you give me your address I?can send you the card by regular mail, if you wish.