Thursday, October 16, 2008

Prayers for healing


People come to the spring alongside the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels to pray for healing of ailments and injuries. Many of them will leave behind a token or medallion, called a milagro, of the body part or organ that is injured or diseased. The church has displayed the milagros of body parts in glass cases in the basement of the church near the spring that I showed in yesterday's photo. This is a photo of one section of one of the cases.

The church displays manny of the milagros grouped together, so there might be an entire case of legs, or hearts, etc. I chose this photo because it displayed the greatest diversity of different types of organs or body parts. You will notice the milagros of those praying for help for their legs, feet, eyes, lungs, hands, spine, and more. (I apologize for the reflection in the glass covering the case, but it was unavoidable.)

I don't know about you, but this makes me wonder about the lives of each of the people who left these milagros. How are they and their families doing now?

2 comments:

Sharon said...

This is very interesting. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. I wonder though, about the two guns I see here. Do you suppose it's someone suffering from a gunshot wound? The other strangee thing is at the very bottom and looks like a horn. I wonder what that could be for.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

I share your puzzlement, Sharon. I don't understand the guns, the knife, the horn, or some of the other items. One of the items looks like a cow's udder. Maybe such items seek healing from a wound, or for a cow, or seek to improve one's horn playing ability.

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