Hardly anyone writes a longhand letter anymore as we are so hooked on our keyboards, as I am doing at this very moment. Yesterday a small package showed up with a long letter and two precious items from Italy. The letter wasn’t from Italy although the author has special ties there. No, but it was from Rho SWBC in San Diego, CA.
It is just swell seeing handwriting as it says so much even without the meaning of the words and the meaning of the ideas. Sometimes our Caminoheads leave Comments on the blog and sometimes they write emails and sometimes letters. The letters being the rarest seem to hold the most value. Thank you Rho.
She spoke of writing poetry and about sometimes pieces are written in five minutes, sometimes years and some never finish.
She spoke of Mother Mary and her relationship with her. She filled me in on the Icon of the Lady of Loreto and a vial of healing oil from the same place that she enclosed. Rho said that she had a healing experience there but didn’t explain. Would love to hear the rest of her story someday.
But you see, I named Rho our Southwest Bureau Chief and she had little idea of what that meant or what she was supposed to do. But do you see what I see? She just is a gem of a person and her sensibilities I wanted to hold close to the neighborhood here, our Caminoheads blog. Our place where we try and keep the flame alive for ourselves and others. Thank you Rho for just being you.
OK, off to my day. Miss you all. Love, Felipé.
You are most welcome Felipe and I thank you. I read your message just after a special time of prayer and I appreciate your thank you for me just being me. I needed to hear that today. 😊 I also apppreciate knowing that you see in me something that I can contribute to this wonderful community you have built here!
When I was in Loreto, Italy last fall, as our pilgrim group was approaching the main church for mass one of the other pilgrims leaned over to me and whispered “prayers get answers here”. I wondered briefly what prayer that might be and continued on my way. I experienced a soulful healing for a very old, deep wound during that mass and I will gladly share the story with you. Perhaps in another hand written letter.
The story of this special place in Loreto is that inside a larger church is contained the house that Mary was born in and where the angel greeted her and informed her that she would give birth to Jesus. Originally built in Palanstine, the house was moved when it was threatened to be destroyed. I have read two stories as to how it came to be in Italy. One is that the angels moved it. The other is that the Angeli (the Italian word for angels) family moved it. Either way it has been proven that the stone, mortar, and size all align with the foundation remains in Palestine.
As the SWBC (perhaps the only BC who has yet to walk the Camino) I am a pilgrim at heart and the path calls to me. This year an opportunity has come for me to return to Italy and do a 10 day pilgrimage from Assisi to Greccio which will finish in Rome. My time for Spain will come…
Rho ~ Let me address your last paragraph first. You are a pilgrim at heart, we can see that. It is important to know that the pilgrimage is a calling and that we are pilgrims because of our intentions, sometimes long before the actual trip. You are just where you are supposed to be at the moment!
I must read up on the happenings at Loreto. It sounds as though you have a deep connnection there. I myself am getting closer to Mary everyday, it has been a long journey, a pilgrimage for me.
Please know that you contribute greatly to our neighborhood even though you my not be conscious of that. Peoples and places influence me and that comes out in the daily writing of Caminoheads. It is though I am channeling all you. So glad you are here. Felipé.x
What a lovely gift and letter. I agree on that front, that a return to handwritten letters holds so much more.
Glad for the marvelous sunset as well. Has healing balm effects.
Be well my friend…
Nancy ~ Yes, a lovely gift and letter in the late winter, just when I needed such a thing. Yes, the handwritten letter brings us close. It is such a special thing these days. I can’t remember the last time I actually wrote one. It might be years. And the sunset was amazing. I was on the ferry coming from my treatment and there it was. I would jump out of the truck to get a shot of it and then jump back in. And I was reading or something and would look up and it was even better and I would jump out of the truck again. Did this all the way across. Special! Felipé.x