At the top of a mountain, high above the city of São Paulo,
sits a beautiful Santo Daime church called Ceu de Maria.
In this most lovely place,
people gathered to make the Holy Friday spiritual ritual of "Finados" -- as are called the four companions of Mestre Irineu -- who together with him received the foundation of the Doctrine of the Santo Daime. Now, as the ritual unfolded, the people would sing and dance and remember.
And the remembrance would also include the great founders of Mapia who have passed on --
Padrinho Sebastião
and Madrinha Cristina
and now the man who had co-founded and helped to lead this church of Ceu de Maria and who, until the previous night, had lived in this house atop the hill.
Orlando Villas Boas, or "Orlandino" -- as he was known to all -- had been a grande amigo. His passage gave a profound and poignant significance to the mass that was sung at the end of this spiritual work.
I did not not have the pleasure of having known "Orlandino" but the energy of a great love was present throughout the day.
I'm not sure how to best express it? Maybe like this...
Earlier in the spiritual work -- while singing the hymns of Maria Damião -- I had thought of the child Saint John and the man who had grown to manifest his energies
and I had thought of the ones who are coming...
and I had called out Viva as Crianças.
There are a few more photos here.
(Note: The wonderful photo montages that decorate the church here and in Mapia are done by Carlos Gustavo N. Pereira. Thank you "Guta" for such marvelous works.)
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