Our Lady of Blessed Multitasking While Parenting, Don’t Fail Us Now: Where Was Lulu Part III

by | Oct 9, 2014 | Travel | 13 comments

If you missed Part I (in which I learn that not all modern architecture reminds me of jello jigglers) and Part II (in which I wax poetic about Lourdes) of the recap, you already missed my favorite part of the trip. Today, you’ll get to see my SECOND favorite part, though, so that’s not too bad.

It’s a nice mosaic, right? I mean, who doesn’t like the Holy Family out for a little stroll?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After Lourdes, we headed off to another, lesser-known Marian apparition site, dating back to the eleventh century: Our Lady of Torreciudad. The Shrine is very, very big and very, very brick.

Inside it are all sorts of interesting things, including a very big altar piece housing a very small Our Lady of Torreciudad statue, and an impressive collection of statues of Our Lady from all over the world.

So there I was, just sitting in a little side chapel devoted to the Holy Family, minding my own business. Ya know, just being prayerful and whatnot, admiring the mosaic scenes from the childhood of Jesus.

Scenes like this one, in which Our Lady is snapping a quick photo of little J on her iPhone 6 so she can share it on Instagram. #callmeblessed #greatthings

Amirite?

This chapel was finished in 1975. The iPhone was introduced in 2007. So EITHER the artist was a prophet who somehow knew that eventually we moms would really appreciate FINALLY having a depiction of the Blessed Virgin to whom we could relate, or . . . that gold stripe is just the edging of Our Lady’s mantle.

But once you see the iPhone, you can’t EVER not see the iPhone.

Our Lady of Blessed Multitasking While Parenting, Pray for Us.

(h/t to Laura at Mothering Spirit for coming up with the perfect title for this image when I posted it on Facebook!)

Stay tuned, unless you’re sick of this, in which case . .  . I’m almost done. Just one more stop before Madrid, and the main event, for which we had MUCH better seats than we deserved. And SOMEONE is going to WIN #whereislulu. I said there would be prizes, and prizes there will be!

Join Kendra on a pilgrimage to England!

“We’ll be spending time in London, visiting the sites of St. Thomas More’s imprisonment and martyrdom ON HIS FEAST DAY 🙌. We’ll have a dinner cruise on the Thames, and visit the shrines of St. Simon Stock, St. Julian of Norwich, and Our Lady of Walsingham. We’ll go to Oxford where the great St. John Henry Newman, J.R.R Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis spent much of their lives. Lastly, we’ll swing by Shakespeare’s house before we head on home.”

Read all about it in this blog post! Or go directly to sign up here!

13 Comments

  1. Athena Carson

    "Our Lady of Blessed Multitasking While Parenting, Pray for Us."

    That really needs to be a thing.

  2. Nancy Shuman

    I'm so glad you offered the explanation that the gold stripe is the edging of Our Lady's mantle, because once I saw it I was never going to figure out what the artist actually intended. And I am never NOT going to see it again. My first thought (before I realized that Jesus was not tall enough for this yet) was that Our Lady was texting. "We found him! He was in the temple!"

  3. Nanacamille

    She looks exactly like she was first in line for IPhone 5 and telling her Mom's group they are one their way. Didn't know about this shrine of Our Lady in Spain.

  4. Anonymous

    HAHA love that my Facebook randomness inspired you! But seriously, this image is amazingly perfect. Why anyone thinks art should be confined to the dusty past is beyond me. Lately I've been coming across all these great images of Maria Lactans (Mary nursing) from the middle ages, and they are incredible! Our Lady was maybe the original attachment parent, because apparently she nursed that little Jesus until he was standing up on her lap WELL into toddlerhood. 😉

  5. Hope

    Love this! Totally looks like an iphone. Love the caption! (and the cute baby)

  6. Kalynne Pudner

    If I ever get to be a tour guide at Torreciudad again, I am so going to point this out to my groups.

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Hi! I’m Kendra.

For twenty years now, I’ve been using food, prayer, and conversation based around the liturgical calendar to share the lives of the saints and the beautiful truths and traditions of our Catholic faith. My own ten children, our friends and neighbors, and people just like you have been on this journey with me.

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