En Divina Luz

While it seems like only yesterday — back in 1994, I published my first big book with my long-time publisher the University of New Mexico Press, titled En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico. It was one of those books, that through its creation, profoundly changed my life. I came to know a group of men who live for something so much greater than themselves and who devoutly practice, among many things, true acts of kindness so popularized and perhaps even trivialized on bumper stickers today. 

En Divina Luz is about the Penitente Brotherhood, a Roman Catholic lay order of pious men devoted to the passion of Jesus Christ. It is also about their moradas — hundreds of modest, utilitarian houses of worship and meeting built by members of the Brotherhood and scattered across the landscape of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. While En Divina Luz translates from Spanish to mean “In Divine Light” the meaning of this organization and their buildings is so much more . . ."

–from my Field Notes Blog