Art, cathedrals and random awesome revelations

One thing I was not expecting in traveling to Spain was that my faith would grow. You see on one hand, Spain is a "Catholic" country, but on the other, it can be described as pretty dead spiritually. One of my tour guides last weekend said that around 97% of the country identifies itself as Catholic, BUT only about 30% of those people are actually practicing Catholics. It's almost a paradox as Spain has so much religious history and so many beautiful religiously-affiliated monuments and cathedrals. Anyway, all that being said, I wasn't expecting for my faith to be deepened.

However, I've been surprised for the best. In the past two weeks I have visited at least five cathedrals (I lost count), one convent and one synagogue. I've also been to the Prado Museum twice and seen hundreds of paintings of Biblical scenes, especially Christ figures. And I've found that it's impossible to see so many different images of Christ, and so many historically significant religious places, without experiencing something internally. It first hit me at the Prado when I saw a painting by Sebastian Martinez called "St. Joseph with the Child." It was basically a painting of toddler Jesus reaching his hand into a bowl of fruit to take one and Joseph holding him back, reprimanding him. It opened my mind so much to think about what sacrifices Joseph might have had to make, or what humility it must have forced him to have, knowing his son was the Messiah, and yet still having to take a fatherly position. Then, seeing various interpretations of Christ on the cross has allowed me to focus mentally on His sacrifice and what that means to me. I once heard that Catholicism tends to focus more on the suffering Christ and Protestantism on the resurrected Christ, and I think that is so true--I normally identify more with the Jesus who defeated death, but being here has really made me consider the suffering Christ, and it has given me a very special appreciation and awe that I had been lacking for a long time.

Another awesome thing was seeing the difference between the medieval, Romanesque and Gothic churches. The medieval church was small and circular. The Romanesque church was in the form of a Latin cross but built with simple stone and small windows to focus on prayer and mediation. And the Gothic churches are extremely ornamented. They're huge, with numerous side chapels, lots of gold embellishments on the organ and other pieces, and have a lot of separation between the choir/church officials and the rest of the congregation.

(Medieval church in Salamanca)

                                                        (Romanesque church in Segovia)

                                                          (Gothic cathedral in Segovia)

              (Gate added to separate the choir from the congregation in Salamanca's Gothic cathedral)

Anyway the Gothic cathedral was a good example of what the Reformation was trying to reform. As beautiful and amazing as the Gothic cathedrals are, the only thing I could think of was all the money that it must have taken to build such a luxurious building. I will not judge those who built it (they intended it to be luxurious because it's God's house), but I definitely gained a new appreciation for the Protestant Reformation.

Lastly, I have been so blessed in my relationship with Luis. He suggested that we start a Bible study over Skype and it has been awesome!! Already I have grown and we have both grown together, which is so cool. I love it.

That's all! I tried to make this entry short but it looks like I've written a book already... sorry! Hasta luego :)