Monastery: Montserrat

Montserrat Monastery:  In 1982 Pope Paul made a  special visit to this monastery tucked away in a very special range of mountains north of Barcelona, Spain.  One of the unique features of the monastery is a Black Wooden Statue of  Virgin Mary with Jesus situated on her lap.    The Black Madonna is believed to have been carved in Jerusalem at the beginning of religion.  I'm not sure when that was, but she has certainly has been around awhile.  She was not originally black in color...the statue has simply blackened with the passage of time.  She was found inside a cave in a mountain called "Montserrat", which means "serrated mountain".  The monastery was built near the cave and millions of people from all over the world stand in lines for hours to touch the statue.

We made the journey up the mountain via train and cable car to experience first hand the energy of the monastery..........it was a breath-taking day in many different ways.

The basilica that the Virgin Mary statue is in was BEAUTIFUL. It's always so hard to figure out how they got all the necessary materials to this remote area of the mountains to design and construct such an amazing place. 

At the Monastery we had a wonderful visit with a young couple and their precious blue eyed 20 month old baby girl from Poland.  What delightful people ........currently living in Ireland to save enough money to go back to Poland to open up their own food catering business.  Very inspirational people...........our visit with them made us count all of our blessing two fold. 

We are experiencing a wonderful journey.

"May You Allow All The Mysteries Of Your Life To Unfold"

Love

Denny and Renee 

Entrance to Montserrat Monastery

Unique Statue at the Monastery

Captivating Life-Like Face of the Statue  

Black Madonna with Jesus on her lap

 Inside of the Basilica where the Black Madonna is located above the front altar 

Montserrat Monastery