Churches | Cross of the Day

Black Iron Cross

Black Iron Cross Fence
Nambe, New Mexico Cemetery
Karen Rivera 2009

July 11, 2011 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Cemetery Crosses, Churches, Crosses, Folk Art, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Rustic Crosses, Traditional Crosses | Tags: Abobe Churches, Black Iron Cross, Cemetery Crosses, Churches, Cross, Cross of the Day, Graveyard Crosses, kdsebastian, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, Nambe, New Mexico, Old Churches, Village Churches | Leave a comment

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is Transformed

In Santa Fe, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is honored within the parish’s santuario. Outside, a 12-foot bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands near the entrance, its base often decorated with fresh roses. Parishioners accompanied the statue from Mexico City, where it was cast in bronze, to Santa Fe in 2008.

Church is converting a weedy slope in front of its parking lot into a shrine that tells the story of the iconic Our Lady of Guadalupe. The church also will create an Institute for Guadalupe Studies and a Marian Resource Center and Library in the old Guadalupe School and Convent across Agua Fría Street.

The area will be called “Santa Fe’s Hill of Tepeyac.”

“It’s a place where people can come and look for resources about Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Nguyen said.

The Santa Fe Hill of Tepeyac is “a wonderful way to pay honor to our Mother,” parishioner Diana Lujan said.
More from the Santa Fe New Mexican

July 6, 2011 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Christian Photography, Churches, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Hand Carved Crosses, Historic Churches, Holy Family, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Madonna, Mission Churches, Mother of God, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Nuestra Senora, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Outdoor Photography, Photography, Rustic Crosses, Saints and Martyers, Sanctuario, Santa Fe, Shrine, Stone Churches, Traditional Crosses, Vintage Crosses | Tags: Abobe Churches, Bronze Statue, Christian, Churches, Cross, Cross of the Day, CrossoftheDay, Karen Rivera, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Photography, Santa Fe, Santuario, Tepeyac | Leave a comment

Alley Cross with Thunderclouds

Alley Cross
Dave Siemer 2010

Crosses are everywhere you look, even in an alley in a small town in Oregon.

July 4, 2011 | Categories: Architectural Crosses, Art, Artists, Christian, Christian Photography, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, Dave Siemer Photography, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Iron Crosses, Oregon, Ornate Crosses, Religious Art, Traditional Crosses, Vintage Crosses | Tags: Christian, Churches, Cross, Cross of the Day, David Siemer, Inspirational Photography, Iron Cross, Old Churches, Oregon | Leave a comment

Vintage Sanctuario Photograph ~ Classic Northern New Mexico Adobe Church

Church at Sanctuario, 1950’s
Chimayo, New Mexico
Scanned Vintage Postcard
Karen Rivera

This vintage postcard of Sanctuario left me stunned. I’ve shot hundreds of photographs of the church but I never saw it as a real small Northern New Mexican town chuch like those scattered all over the state until I found this postcard.

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Art, Cemetery Crosses, Chimayo, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Descansos, Folk Art, Graveyard Crosses, Hand Carved Crosses, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Patron Saints, Religious Art, Rustic Crosses, Saints, Saints and Martyers, Sanctuario, Santa Fe, Santos, Shrine, Spirituality, Stone Churches | Tags: Adobe Casas, Adobe Churches, Architectural Detail, Art, Artists, Black Iron, Blue Doors, Chimayo, Churches, Georgia okeefe country, Graveyards, Hand Carved, Hand Crafted, Hand Painted, High Road to Taos, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mission Churches, New Mexico, New Mexico Photography, Northern New Mexico, Nuestra Senora, Patron Saints, Photography, Religious Art, Road Trips, Saints and Martyrs, Sanctuario, Santos, Scenic View, Shrine, St. Francis de Assisi, Stonework, Village Churches, Vintage Photographs, Wayside Attraction | Leave a comment

San Antonio Church ~ Punta de Agua, New Mexico

Punta de Agua
Highway 55, Southern New Mexico
Karen Rivera

The small villages along Highway 55 have always held a special place in my hard-scrabble New Mexican heart. Using the few resources available in the barren, harsh acres early settlers recycled the ever-present rocks into homes, walls, and churches.

In Punta de Agua, the rough-cut stone San Antonio Church stands as a monument to an earlier example of sustainable and green building.

If you’d like to walk through Punta de Agua at street level, click here to go to Google Maps, then click satellite.

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Art, Cemetery Crosses, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Graveyard Crosses, Hand Carved Crosses, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Patron Saints, Rustic Crosses, Saints and Martyers, Santos, Southern New Mexico, Spirituality, Stone Churches, Traditional Crosses | Tags: Architectural Detail, Blue Doors, Churches, Classic Churches, Classic Mountains, Classics, Cross of the Day, Crosses, Hand Carved, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Manzano, Mission Churches, Mountainair, New Mexico, New Mexico Photography, Outdoor Photography, Patron Saints, Photography, Religious Art, Road Signs, Road Trips, Saints and Martyrs, San Antonio, Santos, Scenic View, Stone Churches, Village Churches, Wayside Attraction | Leave a comment

San Ysidro Church with Silver Cupola and Cross

: Church at San Ysidro, New Mexico

Old Adobe Church
San Ysidro, New Mexico
Karen Rivera Spring 2010

The village of San Ysidro, originally a farming settlement, was named after Saint Isidore the Farmer in 1699. San Ysidro holds an annual Fiesta in his honor each year in mid-May.

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Architectural Crosses, Art, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Hand Carved Crosses, Hand Painted, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Patron Saints, Rustic Crosses, Sandoval County, Spirituality | Tags: Adobe Casas, Adobe Churches, Architectural Detail, Black Iron, Churches, Cross of the Day, Crosses, Folk Art, Georgia okeefe country, Hand Carved, Hand Painted, Inspirational Photography, Jemez Springs, Karen Rivera, Mission Churches, New Mexico, Religious Art, Road Trips, Saint Isidore, Saints and Martyrs, San Ysidro, Sandoval County, Santos, Scenic View, Shrine, Stone Churches, Stonework, Village Churches, Wayside Attraction | Leave a comment

First Catholic Church in Oregon for Sale?

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church with Trolley
Jacksonville, Oregon
Karen Rivera 2009

One of the most charming reasons to live in a small town is hearing the Sunday Services down the street from my house. Even though I have to leave, I never thought the historic Church would. It’s been there since 1858 but it’s being closed and probably put up for sale. To say my community is stunned is an understatement.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Jacksonville in Southern Oregon was the first Catholic Church built in Oregon. I’ve watched as the parishioners paid for a new heating system, painted the outside, installed new carpet and wallpaper, upgraded the doors and windows and refinished the pews without help from the diocese. Volunteers mow the lawn, rake the leaves and set-up the Sunday picnic benches. Their meticulous yard work makes me wince when I see my front yard. Apparently, self-maintenance and donating a cash collection every week in exchange for a monthly 4 hours of Masses wasn’t enough to keep the doors open for the 100 or so members.

This is a comitted group of people who have been taking care of each other since 1956. It’s not just a building that’s going to be lost.

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Art, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mountain Churches, Oregon, Spirituality, St. Joseph | Tags: 1858 Churches, Architectural Detail, Church, Churches, First Catholic Church, Historic, Historic Church, Historic Churches, Historic Register, Historic Restoration, Inspirational Photography, Jacksonville, Karen Rivera, Old Churches, Oregon, Religious Art, Road Trip, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Village Churches | Leave a comment

St. Joseph’s Church ~ Los Cerrillos, New Mexico

Courtyard, Saint Joseph’s Church
Los Cerrillos, New Mexico

Los Cerrillos has always seemed to me to be the perfect example of a New Mexico boom town. Once the unofficial capitial of the state, it’s now a modern day ghost town on South 14, a few miles north of Madrid.

After the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880, shipping the gold, silver, lead, zinc and turquoise from the 3,000 miners in the area no longer had to be shipped by wagon. Los Cerrillos grew to feature 21 saloons, 5 brothels, 4 hotels, several dance halls and a real honest-to-goodness Opera House. The construction of Saint Joseph’s Church on Main Street confirmed that civilization had truly arrived.

: Casa Grande Trading Post, Cerrillos Turquoise Mining Museum, & Petting Zoo

Today, the washboard streets and dusty storefronts are a mostly undisturbed reminder of Old West meets celluloid. 13 films have been shot in and around Los Cerrillos, including the 1972 John Wayne movie The Cowboys shot just outside of town. A remnant of the production of Young Guns lingers on a two-story stucco wall. The real Wortley Hotel (Motto: No Guest Gunned Down in Over a 100 Years) is in Lincoln, not Los Cerrillos.

: Los Cerrillos porch ceiling

On weekends, Mary’s Saloon and the Casa Grande Trading Post, Cerrillos Turqoise Mining Museum, & Petting Zoo swarm with tourists from the City Different stopping off on the Turquoise Trail. Several seasonal businesses open up with the return of the tourists, adding whimsical touches.

Several artists call Los Cerrillos home. Metal sculptures and eclectic murals are scattered though the tiny town. A few of the gritty, sandblasted storefronts now make it possible to walk under the stars as you stay out of the sun.

My connection with Los Cerrillos was very short-lived. My job working weekends at the Tiffany Saloon and Melodrama ended when, as usual, my confidence in British mechanics was misplaced and my 1961 Morris Mini-Cooper needed a new engine.

The Tiffany Saloon and Melodrama burned down in 1977 but you can still find traces of it, and other long-lost buildings, by looking for the metal yellow signs all over town.

Karen Rivera 2010

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Adobe Churches, Art, Churches, Community, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Folk Art, Historic Churches, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Patron Saints, Saints, Santos, Spirituality, St. Joseph | Tags: Christian, Church, Churches, Cross, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Folk Art Crosses, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Los Cerrillos, Memorial Cross, Mission Churches, Mountain Churches, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, Old Churches, Prayer, Religious Art, St. Joseph, Tiffany Melodrama, Village Churches, Vintage, Wooden Crosses | Leave a comment

The Entry Fee to Heaven ~ Sunday Services as Honest as the Horses We Ride

My favorite kinds of church services are ones that happen outdoors. There’s just something about a group of people singing hymns outside under a blue sky early on Sunday morning that touches me. It seems to be more of a direct spiritual connection when the sound echoes directly up to the sky without a roof in the way.

Chasing down an overheard reference in an Old Colorado Springs coffee shop, I stumbled on another of Colorado’s unexpected treats. Driving through most small towns, you wonder where the end of town is. In Penrose, 35 miles south on 115, you won’t have that problem. The town ends after a few blocks when the paved road abruptly does.The town has no stop lights, a volunteer fire department, and almost no problems except for what seems to be a group of entitled clowns.

The Sunday I stopped by the Cowboy Church, there were more horses than cars. The steam rising in the cold air from riders and the huffing of the horses was a scene out of a cowgirl’s dream. When they read the Rodeo Cowboy’s prayer at the end of the service in memory of long lost friends, I wasn’t the only one in tears.

Rodeo Cowboy’s Prayer

Our gracious and heavenly Father, we pause in the midst of this festive
occasion, mindful and thoughtful of the guidance that you have given us.
As cowboys, Lord, we don’t ask for any special favors.
We ask only that you let us compete in this arena.
We don’t ask to never break a barrier,
or to draw a round of steer that’s hard to throw,
or a chute fighting horse, or a bull that is impossible to ride.
We only ask that you help us to compete as honest as the horses we ride
and in a manner as clean and pure as the wind
that blows across this great land of ours.
So when we do make that last ride
that is inevitable for us all to make, to that place up there,
where the grass is green and lush and stirrup high,
that you’ll tell us as we ride in that our entry fees have been paid.
These things we ask.
Amen.

© Clem McSpadden. In memory of Howard Manuel, Jim Moore and Zachary Vanwhy.

November 16, 2010 | Categories: Art, Churches, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Community, Cowboy, Cross of the Day, Crosses, CrossoftheDay, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mountain Churches, Mountain Splendor, Spirituality | Tags: Christian, Churches, Colorado Springs, Cowboy Church, Cowboys, CrossoftheDay, Heaven, Inspirational Photography, Karen Rivera, Mountain Churches, Outdoor Service, Penrose, Religious Art, Road Trip, Rodeo Cowboy Prayer, Sunday Services, Wayside Attraction | Leave a comment