Santa Teresita: Going to Church in San Jose, Costa Rica

It’s interesting how religion is such an idosynchrosy.
At the same time it brings people together, it divides people.
Brings people together:
I can be at a Catholic mass in Denver, Colorado, USA – or – Munich, Germany – or – in the case of today, San Jose, Costa Rica, and I can understand what’s going on and be a part of something MUCH larger than me and where I am, even though I don’t know the language of the mass.
Divides people:
This goes without saying really, for anyone who knows any of their history, but to reiterate:
- Catholicism/Christianity has been used as a way to enslave and kill millions of people throughout history.
- Catholics and Protestants in Ireland have been fighting for hundreds of years.
- Extremism exists in nearly every major religion today and is used as the reason for many of the current global conflicts (which are actually much more about economics – but I digress.)
I’m not sure how to reconcile the conflict of knowing all of this about organized religion, and yet having relied on my faith in times of difficulty, and relied on the religion I was raised in to make new places more familiar.

I think that will be a question/paradox I will let roll around in my brain for a while.
In any case, we went to church this morning.
Santa Teresita is a beautiful building and is about 4 short blocks from our apartment here in San Jose.
(It’s the red cross on the map here – will find a different graphic soon.)

Santa Teresita, San Jose, Costa Rica
The service itself was PACKED! We were very surprised. Neither of us can remember going to a service (Catholic or Lutheran) that was so completely full, except on a holiday like Christmas or Easter.
Here is the inside of the Santa Teresita church.

Santa Teresita in San Jose also has beautiful stained glass windows.
Santa Teresita, San Jose, Costa Rica
It was neat to be able to follow along with the mass 100%. The only time I couldn’t understand what was going on was during the homily/sermon, because, well, I don’t yet speak Spanish.
We’re really looking forward to getting out of the city as well.
Our apartment is great here at Hotel Aranjuez, but the sound of car alarms going off about every two hours, the train passing through and honking every 30 minutes, and the general noise of city life, are an experience we’re ready to escape for a while – especially since we’re in Costa Rica – supposed land of nature and tranquility.
Perhaps if we had taken the city tour, we would have more of an appreciation for why people live here in San Jose, but it was $35/person that we didn’t want to spend.
La Tortuga Feliz should be a definite departure from city life. (with solar panels for electricity – which we understand is used pretty much exclusively to pump and heat water and cook food).