We had a couple of hard days but we are still walking.  Yesterday we crossed the mountains into green and beautiful Galicia (Ga-LEE-thee-ah).  All this Irish-looking green–you know what that means.  Even as I type, our laundry is tumbling in the overpriced secador. Keep reading

(Leon, Spain: 8250 walking-around steps)

Acts 9:1-19a
v. 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.

Today I went in the cathedral, wrapped in stained glass and bathed in rich afternoon light. An adjacent museum contained treasure after ecclesiastical treasure–paintings, statues carved from wood and stone, manuscripts, gold and silver items, stone from the cathedral, jewelry, a piece of fabric from the seventh century, a delicately written and decorated thousand-year-old enigmatic hymnbook full of notes without a key signature. Common themes in all the art, of course, were the birth and death of Jesus. I passed a display of crucifixes–Jesus’ death again and again. Betrayed in the altarpieces, tortured in the paintings, crucified in the statues, over and over, here in Leon and all around the world–there must be enough representations for every person who ever believed, and every trespass we have all committed. On the cross he felt the sting of every sin as he suffered the righteous wrath of God on our behalf. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross!
….See all your sins on Jesus laid: The Lamb of God was slain,
….His soul was once an offering made for every soul of man. (Charles Wesley)

************************

Enough of the albergue culture–the enforced bedtime business and getting kicked out the door in the dark of the morning. Keep reading