
The Pope is coming to celebrate the 100th anniversary oh the apparition of Our Lady
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TgUmiz1SZM?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0?ecver=1&w=560&h=315]
Guess many travelers will find the sometimes hysterical activities around this event a bit strange.
But coming from Himalaya where it’s not unusual to see devoted buddhist pilgrims prostrating for days ‘just’ to visit a sacred temple and/or get blessings from an important Rinpoche we really don’t think about it.
[caption id="attachment_27740" align="alignleft" width="176"]We notice it of course – and enjoy it. Its part of the traditions that reminds of the culture we have decided to settle in.
So the other day – when I passed by a group os singing Pope pilgrims on my way to my morning swim I couldn’t help thinking about Tings Kathmandu.
Every morning around 5 am we hear the bells from the small street tempel 20 meterts from our door: Our local friends and neighbors getting their tikas and blessings on the way to the market 🙂
Thomas
VATICAN CITY — When Pope Francis travels to the Portuguese town of Fatima this weekend, he will be lending his blessing to a religious phenomenon that has captivated Catholics for a century: It involves visions of the Virgin Mary, supernatural meteorological events and apocalyptic prophesies of hell, Soviet communism and the death of a pope. For doubters, the Fatima story is a trumped-up tale built around hallucinations. For believers, Fatima’s message of peace, prayer and conversion from sin is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago, when three illiterate shepherd children first reported seeing visions of the Madonna. The pope will canonize two of those children on Saturday and is likely to make his own Fatima message of peace and conversion as a weapon against secularism and the persecution of Christians today. Read Nicole Winfield and Barry Hatton’s details about the weekend’s events in The Washington Post