Music, Humanity, Tolkien and TOB

I have returned from the most awesome week of my trip so far. I attended a Theology of the Body (from now on referred to in the acronym TOB). Institute course called Theology of the Body I: Head and Heart Immersion Course in beautiful little Quarryville, Pennsylvania and taught by the most awesome Christopher West.

There I was surrounded by little beauties like these butterflies...

... whilst having a very real encounter with Beauty itself. Honestly, it is going to take a while to process everything that happened on that week so bear with me.

As I was being completely bombarded with Theology of the Body, a particular world kept persistently rising to the surface. I am a complete and utter Tolkien nerd. There. I said it. I own just about every book he has ever written (and slowly working my way through reading them). Those movies go on every time someone is sick in our house. I read the LOTR at least once a year and I am making my way through The Silmarillion for the second time.

One of the reasons I love reading The Silmarillion is that every time after I put the book down, I had an intense urge to draw and to physically create something. However, I have always intentionally squashed that desire with "you're not good enough... you need to practice more... It will never be perfect..." So back to Theology of the Body, what connected The Silmarillion and TOB together was music.

God is a lover and he calls us with music, a symphony that every leaf, every stick, every rock, the very heavens and earth are a part of. God did not create the world and then add human beings as an after thought. He created the world for human beings and the world to be a sign of his love for us. The centre of the bible is a book known as the Song of Songs, music is a part of the essence of what it means to be human.

Tolkien knows this so profoundly that the first book in The Silmarillion begins with the creation of Middle Earth. Music was so profoundly connected to the essence of existence, that Middle Earth literally the fruit of the music played by the Ainur (spiritual beings who become guardians of Middle Earth) after being taught by Ilùvatar, the one creator. This is why Tolkien puts songs throughout the LOTR (and often annoys people by doing so), because the very earth that the fellowship walked on was created by music and every creature of Middle Earth, even Orcs was the fruit of music.

I was sitting in front of the blessed sacrament, trying to process all of the session on Genesis and Original Man the beginning of The Silmarillion hit me square in the face. It wasn't your average passing thought. I saw it. I hadn't picked up that book in over a year and suddenly the words came alive and I saw it. I had an uncontrollable urge to draw. So I did what I have not done before which was nearly trip over myself in haste to get my sketch book and pens and draw with wild abandon.

That was one of the most awesomely simple experiences I have ever had. Me, pen and paper. Did I produce Van Gogh or a Leonardo? Nope. Did I even bring the full vision of what I saw onto paper? Only the vaguest shadow. But I was free to create and articulate without this little voice stuffing it down for when I was 'qualified' to do so. The best part is I have not stopped doodling and sketching.

Maybe when I've refined a few things I may share some of those drawings, but as they are, they are not ready for any eyes but mine. This is but one small thing I have taken from that week. So stay tuned, another is coming.

*If you want to know more about Theology of the Body, I highly recommend that you check out Christopher's website. If you want something a little more meaty, he gave two excellent talks at WYD in Sydney 2008. Download the first one here and the second one here.*

A Long Day...

So I mentioned that we had a 6 am flight today. Yeah that meant being on the road at 3 am. So instead of sleeping, we had a last hurrah at the hostel bar and polished off the last of their red wine. When I say we, I mean myself, and a handful of others who did the sensible thing and not sleep after arriving at 8 pm from the Missions.

It was a four hour trip each way to the missions through the Argentinian countryside. On the way back we had a mad jam session with Fernando, our guide. Best guide ever!

To get to the airport, we had to cross the border to Brazil and then check in at the airport. Both of which left us with about 45 minutes to take off and with people at various states of sleep deprivation. I was a bit manic. Just a bit...

We were heading to Paraty (pronounced Para-chee in Portuguese) which is about another 7 hour drive after a 4 hour flight to São Paulo. I dozed on and off on the plane and then some more on the first half of the bus trip. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop which had tonnes of yummy pie type things.

We stopped at a place called Aparacedia. It is home to the 4 biggest Marian Shrine in the world and the second biggest Basilica seating 45 000 people.

Inside houses the apparition of Aparceida from the 1700s. The story goes some fishermen were having no luck with their fishing when their nets dragged up the body of a statue and then the head of our lady. She was a little terracotta statue and she was Afro-Brazillian. The fishermen then proceeded to have a massive catch and she is the patroness of Brazil and the first black Madonna ever. 

That is her there! Tiny! We stayed for mass at the cathedral and it was a lot of fun! The Portuguese are quite charismatic and they sing as much as possible!

It was then back on the bus to Paraty, 5 hours away. Nathan and I hung out at the back of the bus and had an awesome chat. It was a full on drive with the bus careening around a road similar

To the Bulli exit off the princess highway or the Old Pacific Highway. We were treated to this awesome sunset

We finally arrived in Paraty after and epic trek. I had been away for 40 hours and was delighted with the awesomeness of this budget hotel. 

We had fried fish for dinner which was ok. The epic wine drinkers from Iguazu then had a Jonny Walker Black nightcap. It was 20 reals (about $10) and slept! 

Jamie's cough had gotten to a full blown chest infection and we both had a horrible night's sleep. But breakfast was awesome with this kind of setting and fresh fruit. 

We then had half a day in Paraty where we did a walking tour and went to Sunday Mass. 

Paraty is a colonial town built in the 1700s on the gold route to Rio. When the gold ran out, Paraty was abandoned. Then later in the century the coffee industry restarted the town. Then in the 1850s the emperor of Brazil buil a highway bypassing Paraty and it was abandoned again for 100 years. To give you an idea of how abandoned it was, a dude in the 1920s wanted to build a house so he picked the only vacant block, a street corner!

The rest of the town is world heritage listed and is perfectly preserved. 

We then went to Mass at the largest of the 4 churches in the town, Our lady of Remedies. It was the last day of a 9 day festival in honour of St Rita of Cascia. 

Funny story about this Church, so it was supposed to have bell towers but they discovered that because the foundations were on reclaimed swamp, the church started sinking so they had to scrap the bell towers and stuck them in the second floor windows instead!

A church dedicated to her is currently closed for restoration and it looks beautiful already. 

The mass was an experience and a half! So much singing and joy! 

It was then checkout, on the bus to Rio! 

Friday 13... TWICE.

So today was Friday the 13th. What could possibly go wrong? That's just a silly superstition anyway. 

Fun Fact # 1: The Superstition around the number 13 dates back to the Legal Codes of Hamumbri (I think I spelt that right) around 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. There must be something to this superstition if it has been around this long.

 So to today's events. T'was an early start. I was at the airport and checked in at 6:15 am. I chatted with the new people I was meeting. There is a grand total of 18 of us and after going through security our first stop at Lauren's insistence (not to mention my stomach) at maccas. We boarded our flight to LA at 9 am and we were away! I watched Pussin Boots (not Dreamworks best) and Jane Eyre (also not the greatest) and a bunch of random documentaries. The last hour I got right into the Conspirator (a film about the trial of a supposed conspirator in Abraham Lincolin's Assasination, Mary Sarrat) and much to my dismay, the crucial dialogue was continuously interrupted by landing announcements. We arrived at Seoul around 5pm with 2 hours to kill. I went walking. I had a serious case of hyperactivity given I had slept an hour on the last flight. That is when Friday the 13th started to catch up with us. Our plane was delayed so instead of arriving at 1:30pm, we arrived at 3pm with mass in the Mary of the Angels Cathedral at 3:30. The cathedral was 40 min away and we hadn't got through customs yet! So at 4 pm we all got through but one of the poor girls got pulled up and interrorgated because the idiot at the customs desk stamped her documentation with the wrong date! At this point we were dead exhausted. None of us had a good flight. It was packed and economy sucks. I barely slept a wink and most others didn't either. And we were hungry. At least I was! We then had more delays due to a miscommunication error between the bus company and the travel agent. Another hour later and thanks to the good humored Arnold the bus driver. We set out for the cathedral to this an amazing LA sunset. 

Fun Fact #2: the original Name of LA is 'Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de La Renia de Los Angeles del Rio di Porciuncola' which is named for the church built around the origial chapel where St Francis of Assisi started the Franciscan Order.

We arrived at the cathedral. The original church dated back to the 1800s but it was destroyed beyond repair in a 91 earthquake and rebuilt on its current site in downtown LA. Now it is a very modern Cathedral, and modern cathedrals can go horribly wrong. Not this one. It's huge! The windows are white alablaster abd the buidling's color evokes the desert and mountains that surround LA. There is beautiful timber and polished marble. The most amazing was the tapestries on the wall. They all were hand made and the depict he communion of saints, all the church calendar and the American saints too. There are also 12 unnamed people ther amongst them representing the unrecognized saints and the future saints. We had Mass in the crypt and it was lovely. A good way to begin the pilgrimage despite the dramas. It turns out we have Peter Comensoli to thank for the trouble. Jackie Francois did the music for us. We then finally arrived at the Hoilday Inn back at the airport and I finally got some dinner! A beautiful salmon and salad. I love America because you don't get charged for sides! Funny. I forgot all about how hungry I was whilst in the cathedral. We have a 6 am flight to Mexico City tomorrow. The best thing is it will no longer be Friday the 13th!

Today's prayer intention:
For all the men, women and children who have suffered at the hands of the culture of death. Lord, show them your Love and infinite mercy. Lead them to healing and show them that you can forgive, even if they themselves can't.
Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of life, pray for us.