...what of the spiritual side of this vast country?

Has anything changed on the spiritual side of this huge country since we were last here?    

While it has always been and still is easier to talk about spiritual things and about God here, the huge change I notice is how the Protestant Evangelical church of various types has grown.  We couldn’t believe the enormous buildings - can you see this huge blue church in the small village we passed?

And this one in the centre of Sao Paulo

But also the tiny places of worship in unexpected places.

This is no ordinary garage door - Apostolic Mission is inside!

Elsa and I went to Mass with our hostess in the country town of Braganca.  It was humbling to see how many arrived early to say their own individual prayers on their knees in the side chapel.  Many are not ashamed to show their intimacy with their Maker.  It was the young people who did everything except the sermon and communion itself.  The songs and prayers were flashed onto the screen above for us to join in.  There was a beauty in the simplicity and the obvious friendship between the people there.

In Rio we were open-mouthed when we saw St Benito’s church, with convent and church school. 

The Catholic church has it’s own Universities too.

Spiritism, based on the ideas of Allan Kardec, is very popular. I’m told that there are officially 20M adherents in Brazil but in practice there could be up to 60M (that’s nearly 1/3 of the populations!)  One of our hosts was determined to introduce us to CAFH so we could find inner peace (you can google that for yourselves-it’s a bit abstract for me).

Must go Elsa has 4 visits planned for today - been good to chat"Ate logo" (see you soon!)

Fun fact:-Football was first taught to Brazilians in 1894 by a Scots who came to set up Cotton Factories and formed the first football club-a Brazilian historian told us yesterday or I wouldn’t believe this!