Barcelona - Day Three

Greetings:

Last night we heard the most sensational solo contemporary flamenco guitar concert in a lovely old stone church. Pedro Javier Gonzalez was really really good. Fabulous tone and technique, a brilliant musician.


Steps away from our hotel too. We're right in the center of the Gothic Quarter and it's still amazingly quiet. We finally have Kay, Meg and Marilyn and we're 17 now.

Tonight is our presentation to singers in the Barcelona area. We've heard that 20 women might show up. You know me, I've scoped out the xerox shop and have made up a page of songs that we sing in Spanish.

We're having a blast. Wish you were here.
Kate

Day One - Barcelona

Greetings:

We're just back from our first excursion in Barcelona...an open air bus tour around the northern part of the city and 4 major Gaudi sites. We toured through La Sagrada Familia Cathedral and it was totally amazing and wonderful. We sang "While God waits for his temple to built of love, men bring stones."

The weather is mild and the air is soft...about 68 F. Rain predicted for tomorrow. Our hotel is in a lovely old part of town, one block from Las Ramblas.

A lovely group has "galvanized" here and we have sung 4 times since our arrival at the airport yesterday morning long before dawn. We are 15* with 4 more joining us in a few days and 4 more joining in a week. One of us, Marilyn, missed her connecting flight in Atlanta and will join us tomorrow morning. We sang hoping she would catch our plane..."Gather Us Together" and "Blessings on Your Journey."

All's well. I send love and prayers.
Kate

*8 Bay Area, 4 Santa Fe, 2 Pittsburgh, 1 Ann Arbor

Bells at Montserrat

The bells of Montserrat Monastery (near Barcelona). It was a Sunday and the bells were pealing. It is an absolutely beautiful place.

PRESS RELEASE

Women Sing Peace Into the World

For Immediate Release—November 8, 2009

His Holiness the Dalai Lama made a statement last year in Dharmasala, his home in exile. He said, “Women are more compassionate and have more power to understand and feel the needs of others as compared to men.” Last month at the Vancouver Peace Summit he stunned the audience with this statement, “The world will be saved by the western woman."

In our modern world fear is prevalent everywhere. It is the driving force in government, finance, healthcare, marketing and pervades our lives in many other ways. A subtle prevailing fear is that we will not be relevant or make a difference. For some, this means notoriety, but many people are hungry to make a difference for the better. The events of 911 and daily news stories of terrorism and violence have shifted people’s priorities from gaining social status and feeding greed to following their passion and finding a meaningful expression that becomes their legacy. Women especially are beginning to find their “voice” and their feminine power to change the world for the better.

The recent news of the tragic murders of men and women at the Ft. Hood Army Deployment base in Texas has shocked our nation into another level of awareness—that war and strife are futile and senseless. Chaplain Cornell Mike Lemke shared comforting thoughts at the candlelight ceremony saying, “We are military, we want to make things happen. But now is not the time to make things happen. Now we need to listen and speak soft words.”

A movement has been sweeping across the country and has even crossed international waters in the last nine years. It began with one women sitting at the bedside of her friend who was dying of AIDS. In the morning she was busy with necessary tasks around his house—housecleaning, laundry, and dishes. But, in the afternoon she sat by his side and sang to him, noticing a marked difference in his mood and his comfort level between the morning and afternoon activities.

A few years later this same woman, Kate Munger, gathered with 15 women in Berkeley, California, and the Threshold Choir was born. Kate says that the mission of the organization, which is to sing for and with people at the thresholds of life, creates a shiver down the spine of women who are called to this volunteer work.

Currently there are more than 80 choirs across the United States, Canada, Australia and Iceland numbering more than 2000 women. These women know what it means to listen and sing softly bringing comfort and peace to those they serve. For the most part they sing at the bedsides of people who are at the end of life. This is a time when fear and pain can dominate a life day and night. The songs, which are sung in a "lullaby voice," can actually bring comfort not only to the person who is dying but also to the family members and caregivers as well.

This month 24 of these women will re-enact the tradition from the Middle Ages of making a pilgrimage to Montserrat, Spain to visit the shrine of the Black Madonna. There they will sing songs of peace and joy in the monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat, where in the Middle Ages and beyond many Jewish, Christian and Muslim pilgrims joined together in song and dance to honor their successful pilgrimage to bless Her Holiness. These women have compiled a repertoire from many traditions and languages—Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Catalan and English, including the beautiful Libre Vermell, which they will sing in the Basilica at Montserrat.  Their prayer is that these three monotheistic religions (called "The Family of the Book" in the Qu'ran) will once again coexist in respect and peace; their prayer is for peace on earth.

They will share their experience in a documentary to be released sometime in 2010. To learn more about the Threshold Choir, visit their website at www.thresholdchoir.org.

Barcelona Highlights from Joan Chu's Trip in 2008

Books on Medieval Spain

I tried to post this earlier but guess it did not get through. I have been reading some books on Medieval Spanish history, particularly on the three religions and how they coexisted. (Like a good librarian!)

I recommend either of these two books:

The Ornament of the World-How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menoca, 2002

A good overview. Focuses on the South. Stories of the people are wonderful: El Cid, Maimonides, Don Quixote, Moses of Leon, Averroes, Heloise, Arabian Nights, etc.

A Vanished World: Medieval Spain's Golden Age of Enlightenment by Chris Lowney. 22005

Another overview with stories of individuals. Goes up to Christopher Columbus and talks about the Golden Age for each faith.

Quote from Ibn Arabi, A Sufi mystic and writer, 1165-1240

"My heart has become capable of every form, it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba and the Tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran. I follow the religion of Love."

Jacquelyn Marie

VIRTUAL TOUR OF MONTSERRAT ABBEY

This is so cool. You can do a virtual tour of the monastery. Don't you just love technology?
http://visita3d.com/vv/montserrat/index.php?ext=ing