Sacred Sites...

“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus

This is the church within the walls of the Castle at Mértola, Portugal. It was, before the Moors were expelled from the city in the early1200s and it was renovated and reconsecrated, a Mosque. Mértola is full of history. The city dates back to pre-Roman times. You can’t dig a garden plot without turning up artifacts, and any excavation will uncover layers of buildings underneath. In fact they call it a Museum City, and there has been an active archeological program there since the 70s. Under the foundations of the Moorish Mosque the archeologists of Mértola have discovered the walls of a paleo-Christian temple and perhaps even a pre-Christian worship site. People have been worshiping on this spot, this same spot, for thousands of years. I think there are places where you just feel closer to God, places that encourage you to open your generous eye...and this might be one of them. And, of course, it takes a generous eye to get beyond the history, beyond the conflicts of the changing religions that have occupied this site over the generations, but it was and is, the one God, creator of the universe, our loving creator who we are blessed to call Father, Savior, Friend, who draws people to this spot to worship. Of that the generous eye has no doubt. Happy Sunday!