Going to Church in Cuernavaca and a Trip to Mexico City

The Church of the Sacred Heart in Cuernavaca is a 15 minute walk from my Mexican family´s home. Evelia goes to that church. I attended the 7:30 service on Sunday and to my surprise the priest looked very much like my friend Edgar Hallock at Grace! I thought of Edgar on Sunday as the priest celebrated Mass.

Women are not ordained in the Roman Catholic church, but a lay woman, Maria helped the padre up the steps to the altar, led the chanting and served the consecrated bread to the congregation. Maria also prepared all the majestic and beautiful varieties of flowers in many large vases all around the altar and the church. There is a room at the back of the nave just for flower preparation. I thought of Barbara and Mary and the altar guild as I prayed for Grace Church on Sunday, the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist.

Sunday I took an excursion offered by the school to Mexico City with other students to visit two art museums. One was the former hacienda of Dolores Olmedo. Her collection of ancient Mexican indigenous works, ancient works from Asia and paintings by Diego Rivera was enormous and impressive. For our brown bag lunch we ate in a flat bottomed boat with a picnic table on it and sailed on the canals of Xochimilco. Mariachis, flower vendors, food vendors and camera vendors had their own boats and sailed alongside the many other boats selling their wares or services - lots of music, laughing and dancing! The islands and canals were created by the Aztecs.

After the boat ride we drove to Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera´s home, casa azul, in the art district of Mexico City. There was a large open air market near casa azul where many artists sell their beautiful handiwork. Sunday was sunny and warm. Some people were playing music and dancing all over the open air market. The artitsts were selling their beautiful work. There was a church across the street where a band was playing outside. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with new Spanish words and so many interesting places to see after one week in Mexico. But I have loved every bit of my time in Mexico so far.

I expect my camera to arrive on Thursday, so I hope to start posting pictures. Hope I can figure out how to post the photos on the blog!