Starting in Bernal, NM

In the next few days I'm going to write posts from my pilgrimage from Bernal, NM to Chimayo, NM.  It started on Sunday afternoon, May 27, 2012 and ended on Sat. morning, June. 2. 

It was the usually sunny NM day, with the sky shaped like a blue bowl covering the entire horizon. The gathering of pilgrims happened slowly throughout the afternoon, with 23 of us joining together (though 30 had signed up for this path).  We met at the Bernal Community Center, home of the Bernal Blue Jays.  Outside Bernal was this Pedernal (of Abiqui) lookalike rock formation, a.k.a., Starvation Peak. It was a great marker to designate the beginning of the pilgrimage.

We said the rosary that night at St. Rita's Church, a saint whose background still remains mysterious to me.  She seemed to be abused by her husband, and saved--both physically and spiritually from the abuse--by the hand of God.