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This is Tom Shrewsbury with reflections for the Covenant Network. If I were to ask you to name some famous shrines, sites where pilgrims go to worship God and perhaps bring with them the need for a special favor or even a miracle. Or perhaps they just came for the peace of a special place where they and God seemed closer and the gates of heaven less distant. Well, my guess is that the majority of people would mention Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, or perhaps the Shrine of Divine Mercy and St Faustina Kowalska. Well, then too, there's the Rue du Bac, where the Blessed Mother gave the Miraculous Medal to St Catherine Labouret. And as to be expected, these all still attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year. In fact, I understand that the number of hotel rooms and Lourdes are only exceeded by the number of hotel rooms in Paris. Well, when we mention these holy sites, there are many that immediately come to mind. And I'm sure many of you have other shrines that also come to mind, like one of my favorites, San Giovanni Rotondo, where Padre Pio, or or now known as St. Pio of Pietrochena, lived for 50 years. Well, today I want to tell you about another shrine with which you may not be as familiar. And yet this little shrine is located right here in the United States and attracts more than 300,000 people a year from all over the world. Some say the number is even closer to a half a million. And interestingly enough, that shrine is often called the Lourdes of America. And it's an oasis of peace tucked away off the main highway between Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico in a little village known as Chamayo. And located in that little village is a very special shrine known as El Santuario de Chamayo, the sanctuary or holy place of Chamayo. And it dates all the way back to the early 1800s. Now, if you are impressed with the hundreds of thousands who visit the shrine every year, you should be there for Cinco de Mayo, or the holy days before Easter when thousands of pilgrims make a walking pilgrimage from not only Santa Fe, but as far away as Albuquerque and some from even more distant points. There's also the story of a young man who traveled more than a hundred miles carrying a heavy cross that he left at the shrine as his gift to God. Well, the question immediately arises, what is the attraction of this special place? And why do these hundreds of thousands come here every year? And you know, strangely enough, there is no easy answer. But there is the legend, the tradition handed down through countless generations of what made this shrine a holy Place. This is an area that dates back even before the Spanish missionaries arrived with Coronado back in 1540. The Native Americans at that time felt that there was something very, very special about this area and it was treated as a holy place. But the real story was yet to come. Of course, this area was eventually colonized by the Spanish as they and the Franciscan missionaries worked their way northward in the 1700s, bringing the word of Christ to the local inhabitants. By the early 1800s, there were 12 families living close by in an area that was called El Potrero de Chamayo, which in their native Spanish means the pasture of Chamayo. While there were no newspapers, the news of the day was passed from mouth to mouth and then as time passed from generation to generation, and as to be expected over these 200 plus years, the story has changed a bit, but its essence remains pretty much the same. There are several versions, but the outcome, well, it's all the same. Probably the most widely told story concerns a man named Don Bernardo Abeyta who lived in the area and was a lay religious man in the order of Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piedosa de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, which of course is a long name in my poor Spanish. But he was a member of the penitents and without going into a long explanation, in a way it was seeking through the bishop the repentance and conversion preached by John the Baptist. A person who had committed or fallen into grave sin, sought repentance for their transgressions and a return to favor with Christ through penance. Now I should mention another shrine that bears a relationship and that is the basilica in Guatemala bearing what is called the Christ of the Esquapulas, a large and beautiful crucifix of Christ that was carved in 1595 and placed in the cathedral. And for some reason the corpus on the cross turned brown. People at first thought it was from the smoke of the candles and incense, but that was not the cause. However, a high ranking clergyman visited the cathedral in poor health and prayed before the crucifix and was cured. Word spread quickly and to this day enormous crowds visit what is now the Basilica of Christ in the Esquipulas. And the clay or dirt from that basilica was thought to have miraculous or healing qualities, much like the future water at the Shrine of Lourdes. Now, we'll go back in time now to about 1810 and to don Bernardo Abeyta, who was familiar with Christ of the Escopulas and had a particularly strong devotion to Christ. Well, it seems on this particular Good Friday night, Don Bernardo was performing penance for his transgressions out in the desert hills, when in the distance, he saw a strange light emanating from the ground with the rays going upward. As you can imagine, this triggered his curiosity. And one can almost visualize him moving cautiously toward this strange beacon of light. When he reached the spot, he fell to his knees and began to move the earth with his hands toward the light. As he pulled out the sandy dirt, his fingers felt something hard. It was like wood. Well, he dug faster and it began to take shape. It seemed long with a crossbeam. And when it was completely uncovered, it was a large crucifix. He was so impressed and amazed at what he found. Tradition tells us that he left it there and hurriedly summoned friends and neighbors to see what he had found. Where did it come from? And how did it get there, buried in the dirt? Well, no one can say for sure, but one explanation seems plausible. That explanation concerns a possible Franciscan missionary who may have been traveling in the hills and was about to be taken prisoner by renegade Indians. And to protect the crucifix from any desecration, he buried it for safety. At any rate, Don Bernardo unearthed the crucifix and in his mind, immediately identified it as, like Christ of the Escapolis. So it was given the name El Senor de Escropulas. And the name appears to have stuck through these years. Well, Don Bernardo and his neighbors immediately went with the news of their amazing discovery to their parish priest, Father Sebastian Alvarez, in nearby Santa Cruz, New Mexico. Father Alvarez, as the story goes, accompanied the men back to the site in Chamayo, where the crucifix was resting and immediately carried it to their church with enough people to give the appearance of a happy and formal procession. The crucifix was then placed in a place of honor in the parish church. Well, the following day, word spread about the miraculous crucifix. And when people came to see it on the main altar of the church, they were both horrified and puzzled to find it gone. Had it been stolen or had it disappeared as mysteriously as it had been found? Well, again, as you can imagine, an immediate search was undertaken. And lo and behold, the crucifix was found. It was found back on the hill and in the same place as Don Bernardo had found it the night before. So it was returned back again to the main altar of the church, where people came to see it and to pray. And, yes, it was again placed on the main altar the following day. As the priest and others returned, the crucifix was missing once again. Could history repeat itself? Well, naturally, this time the people went first back to the hill and the original resting place where the crucifix had been found. And yes, there it was, just as it had been when it was first discovered by the shining lights. It appeared to the people of the area that the crucifix did not want to rest in the church of Santa Cruz, but wanted to remain in Chamayo. So, in accord with the apparent wishes of the crucifix, a small chapel was erected in Chamayo, which was to be the permanent home of this very special crucifix. The chapel itself, if you were to visit there today, is about 60ft long by about 24ft wide, with adobe walls about 3ft from feet thick, with several small rooms, as well as a small room adjoining the chapel proper. Now, as I mentioned, El Sanctuario de Chamayo is often referred to as the Lourdes of America, undoubtedly because of the many cures reported to be taking place there. The cures themselves are nothing new. History shows us that as far back as 1813, Fr. Sebastian Alvarez wrote to his church superiors that many cures were being reported by people praying at the shrine. And as a result, more and more people were traveling great distances to pray for healing at the shrine, and that continues to this very day. And so that brings us to the little room adjoining the shrine itself, just off to the left as you face the altar. Now, we must remember that this was before Lourdes. We know that Lourdes had its healing waters from the spring that Bernadette discovered when she was told during one of the apparitions to dig at a certain spot. Well, the shrine at Chamayo did not have the miraculous spring, but it did have its Teresante, or holy earth. Since the miraculous cross had been buried in the earth, there were those who felt that the earth around the cross was also holy, and so they would take a little of the earth near where the cross had been, in the same way that the pilgrims would one day take water from Lourdes, except they often bathed in the water. In Lourdes today, the pilgrims extract a bit of dirt from the same little hole in the floor in the room adjoining the chapel. Only as one can imagine, there is only so much dirt that can be extracted from one little hole in the floor, and people are constantly scooping a fingerful, a handful or a sackful of blessed dirt. And unlike water, the dirt does not replenish itself from a flowing spring. So the shrine brings in local dirt, and after the priest has blessed it, it is deposited in the same hole to meet the pilgrim's needs. With over 300,000 pilgrims a year, one can easily understand that pilgrims remove between 25,000 and 30,000 tons of earth per year. And in this little room there are many crutches, testimonials and other items left at thanksgiving for favors that have been granted. There are a few variations, as I mention to the story of El Centuario de Chimao, but they all give testimony to the power of God and the faith of his followers. Daily masses are held at the shrine, which is part of the diocese of Santa Fe, and one can hardly visit there without hearing a new story of favors granted. For example, here are just a few of the stories One lady in 2004 told about her 15 year old daughter who was diagnosed with a rare cancer and was given only about three months to live. Her mother stated that she had many sites in her bones with tumors, and she had remembered a school trip to Chamayo and requested some of the dirt. She woke up one night with a pain in her leg and mixed with her saliva a bit of the dirt that had been brought to her and applied it to her leg. And when she next went to the doctor, that particular tumor was gone and the doctor could not explain it. So she used more of the dirt and from a medical point of view, for three months to live. The mother stated. That was a number of years ago. She's now married, healthy, and is a musician. Another visitor wrote, telling that she was in need of special surgery that would necessitate the woman having to retire on disability as the best possible outcome. So she made the walk all the way from Santa Fe to Chamayo, and she is now healed, and her testimony and her rosary beads are among those items that are hanging on the wall with all the other testimonials. But perhaps one of my favorite stories concerns a retired teacher whom we will call Trini, which is short for Trinidad. He's a distinctive and articulate man who was formerly a special ed teacher and like so many ed teachers and people, lived a productive professional life, helping so many other people with their difficulties. He told me that after he had retired he became depressed and this depression became so acute and painful that he had made up his mind to take his own life and end the mental pain he was enduring. So he began to put everything in order in preparation for the end, and suicide seemed to be his only solution. He doesn't live that far from Chamayo and stopped by the shrine with its creaky old wooden floor and miraculous crucifix on the altar. He said, I was so depressed, and as I gazed at the crucifix, I said, jesus, please help me. And then he quietly told me, as I was looking at the cross, Christ's head seemed to raise up and his eyes opened up to look at me, And I instantly had a sense of peace. When I got up to leave, I was cured, end of quote. He told me, too, of a boy with a cap sitting in the back of the church when he was leaving. And he said to the boy, pointing to the altar, do you know who that is? The boy nodded, yes, and Trinny asked him if he would like some of the blessed dirt. And the boy nodded again. So he went to the little room and scooped up a bit of dirt for him. And when he returned, the boy was gone. Well, one of the priests at the shrine came in and Trini asked him if he had seen the boy and described him in detail. The old priest laughed, waved his hand and said, oh, he's an angel. I've seen him several times. Trini gives full credit for his cure to El Santuario de Chimayo and stops by there just about every day. He is also a believer in angels. And as we shook hands to say goodbye, Trinny paused for a minute and he said, there's somebody else you should talk to. And he gave me the name and number of a man who also lived not too far away. Well, I finally reached him and said that Trini had told me that I should call him. We'll call him Daniel. I told him that Trini had suggested I call him because I was told he had an interesting story. And he said, oh, yes, the angel Daniel was one of those individuals who, when you hear his voice, even though you cannot see him over the telephone, there is something very pleasant in the tone and you instantly feel you like him. And then he proceeded to tell me his story. It seems there was a time when things did not seem easy. Perhaps it may have been a mix of alcohol or whatever that made him feel empty and troubled. Well, as he phrased it, there was trouble in my life. Then one night, there was what seemed like this voice beckoning me to leave home and bring an apple along as a gift. So he did. He left home, not knowing where he was headed, but followed where he felt he was being led into the desert, into the forest, and found himself at a monastery. It was now 2am in the morning. And he knocked on the door and was greeted by this monk dressed in white. Who said, daniel, I have been expecting you. He was led into the monastery and taken to a room where he was to sleep. When he woke up, it was the next morning. He was refreshed. And he was made to realize that he had been so caught up in the world. That there was no room in his life for God. This monk had a blessed effect on him. It would forever change his life. And as he shook hands with the monk, as her hands entwined, he said, there was a strange feeling as he told me it was a wonderful hand. Those were his words. They transferred something special to him. His life was to change forever because of this experience. He acknowledged God and started going back to church. With an intense desire to be in the presence of God again. Those were his exact words, I believe he said he later went back to the monastery, undoubtedly to see this special monk. And mentioned that he had spent the night there. Only to be told, no, no one is ever allowed in here. So how did it happen? What was the answer? Who was the man? Well, there are more things in heaven and earth than we can possibly imagine. Daniel said for some reason he felt this man in white led him back to Jesus. Because the man in white was next to Jesus when he was crucified. Whomever he was, he brought Daniel back to God. So if you ever go out New Mexico way, Stop by the little chapel on the high road to Taos. I've only touched on a little of this very special shrine. There's a poem that I found that was written by a blind man. And it reads, I am blind. Traveled many miles to Chamayo, a place I love. In its silence and peace I left this gift, A poem. If you are a stranger, if you are weary from the struggles of life Whether you have a handicap, whether you have a broken heart Follow the long road. Find a home in Chamayo. It's a small Spanish town settled many years ago by people with a friendly hand. Their culture still lives today. They will tell stories about miracles in the land since 1830. Sanctuario is the key to all good. A church built as graceful as a flower Swaying in the summer breeze. Nestled in a valley protected by wild berry trees. In the dusty roads of Chamayo, little children with brown faces smile. Majestic mountaintops rule over the virgin land. And when the day is done the sun falls asleep without regret Sleeping in the twinkle of a starry, starry night it's the old country feeling in Chamayo I can't forget. In all the places in the world I've been, this must be heaven. So the thoughts of a man with only blindness in his eyes as it describes the shrine, its pilgrims. Well, it's been said they come to worship the Almighty, to ask for peace in the world and in their hearts, to fulfill a promise and to feel the touch of God. And many do exactly that and find what they are looking for. This is Tom Shrewsbury with reflections for the Covenant Network from El Santuario di Chamayo.