A part of Mazatlan not everyone sees

In January of 2011 I was hunting on line about things to do in Mazatlan and I came across an article about a new Catholic Church that had just received a massive wood sculpture of Christ on the Cross. It was enormous, made from one piece of wood and then trucked here from somewhere south of here. And of course I wanted to know more. Here is a link to the blog I wrote about finding the church and meeting the Priest and discovering the story of the Church. It is called Saint Marys of the Americas.

http://mexicobymotorhome.blogspot.mx/2011/01/serendipitous-day-more-adventures-in.html  Read old post first. 

Over the years we have checked back with the Priest to see how the finishing of the church was coming along. In fact I think I wrote about it last year when we were here. [link at end of blog]

As always we have a hard time finding it. But luckily we can usually see the spire in time to turn up one of the one way streets that will get us to it. The spire.

The Ten Commandants and another plaque that says, “

The outside of the church. It is very plain.

Looking up the spire.

We again managed to arrive during the time the Church was closed. But a little gate rattling and the assistant of the Priest came to let us in. We met him the first time in 2011. He and the priest had been sitting on milk crates on the front patio wrapping empty boxes to put under a Christmas tree. After hugs and kisses and some small talk they led us inside the church. As always the sight of the Crucifix was breath taking.

And so much more work has been done since we were here last. In the blog I wrote in 2011 the Priest told us about collecting a statue of the patron saint from every country in the Americas. At that time they were stored in cabinets in the basement. Now they are on display around the church. This is from Ecuador. The statue, the plaque and the country’s flag. He plans on adding information about every country too. 

The statue of Argentina.

The big windows behind the choir loft are beautiful and the sun was right so I managed to get a picture of them.

The side windows in the loft. And the sound equipment.

There was a small Nativity scene entirely in white in the front of the church.

Then they took us into the room where the priest puts on his robes for Mass. They wanted us to see the newest statue for the Church – it had just been delivered. It was completely covered with white cloth. The assistant start removing the cloth.

Almost completely off. That is the Priest in the red shirt.

WOW – we felt so honored to be among the first to see this. 

The detail is amazing.

The hands and the folds and colors of the robe.

The ties on the sandals and the feet.

 The small piece of leather at the neck of the robe, holding it together. Notice how the left hand is formed.

It will hold a staff. Bill and the Father talking about it.

John, Jackie and I left them to converse in Spanish and walked out to the back of the church where there is a large patio and a back building used for visitors and teaching.

This mural is on the ceiling next to the stairway leading downstairs and outside.

Since we were here in the Spring all of these murals have been added to the teaching area. The rooms are above them. A very stylized dance about the killing of a deer. 

 This is a game the Indians used to play. The ball is solid leather and the hips are used to keep it moving

With our back to the murals we could see the coats of arms for each state.

I’ll try to find a couple more links of our visits to the church. Please read the first link – this has been built with donations of the people in the neighborhood. Another link from last year with some better pictures of the interior http://lifeinbrowncounty.blogspot.mx/2015/01/football-games-carnaval-and-church.html

Hope you enjoyed this.