It's been a while - and I have to return to the reflections on the three churches I began last spring/summer, after returning from London/Canterbury/Paris. I think I've been resisting this reflection because of all the experiences, this was the most puzzling.
First, I have to admit the overwhelming awe that gripped me as I approached the west door of Notre Dame de Paris. Awe at its beauty, especially in the afternoon sun, which shone across the front of the church. Awe at its testament to French faith and culture. Awe at the beauty of its gothic design that captured the awesomeness of God.
Second, though, I have to admit the overwhelming sense of disconnection once we went inside. For there was a definite division between those who were there for worship and those that were there for site seeing. The two were absolutely integrated, tourists and children running through the apse, faithful pilgrims deep in prayer, acolytes lighting altar candles for Holy Eucharist, gift booths in the nave where you could purchase refigerator magnets and postcards to send home. And votives EVERYWHERE, constantly being replaced and cash boxes being emptied.
I suppose this is the world in which we live - where the sacred and the profane live, not side by side, but completely integrated. Where the holy and and homey coexist. While I am sure that is the way of the world, I feel a lament that those places that were vortices of faith and worship have lost their individual identity. That the sacred spaces of history have lost their sacrality and that those who enter them may not have the same sense of awe that inspired those who built these great structures, those who make pilgrimage to these fantastic palaces of faith, or those who simply recognize that there are places in our world where the veil between this reality and the divine are permeated by prayer and grace.
Perhaps I am a romantic or a sentimetalist. Or maybe too, too spiritual for my own good. I can't help it - I have stood on the border of the holy, and have gazed on the divine. I want for everyone to share this sensation - of beauty, of grace, and of awe.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
My Soul Magnifies the Lord
“Nor need we power or splendour, wide hall or lordly dome; the good, the true, the tender, these form the wealth of home.” Sarah Josepha Hale
In the mid-nineteenth century, Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor of the Goody's Lady Book, a periodical for women, took it under her wing to be the advocate for a national day of thanksgiving, a holiday established by the federal government which advocated a celebration of the gifts we have been given and a recognition that these are gifts of grace which have been given to us in our Creator's providence and love of creation. She petitioned numerous presidents, and finally was able to convince President Abraham Lincoln that a national day of thanks was not only valuable but necessary.
Her argument came at a most unexpected moment in our nation's history - in the midst of the Civil War, September 1963, she presented the president with a unifying and uniting idea. Along with our responsibility of stewardship over earthly creation, humankind has been given the gifts of abundance, abundant live, abundant resources, abundant beauty. These gifts themselves mandate our praise and thanksgiving to our God.
Go back to the first century of Palestine, which like our own land of the mid-nineteenth century, found itself in the midst of civil strife, community challenge, hunger and oppression. In the midst of that amazing time, our Creator sent a messenger to an unwed teenage girl, that she had been chosen and filled with grace to be the one to bear the Incarnate God into this world. She too, like Sarah Hale, became a messenger herself, proclaiming this great news - that our God who loved us and who cared for us wished us to know it so perfectly that the chasm between Creator and creation would be spanned, that God would become human, and that she, Mary, would be the God-Bearer. Her words, sung out in joy in the gospel of Luke, celebrate the grace of our God.
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
As we begin our Advent journey, a time of preparation for the Incarnation of our God, let us, like Mary, give thanks for God's grace, God's abundance, and God's love of creation. By offering our thanks and praise to God, we do indeed make room for him to enter into our homes, our lives, our selves.
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Shawn
In the mid-nineteenth century, Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor of the Goody's Lady Book, a periodical for women, took it under her wing to be the advocate for a national day of thanksgiving, a holiday established by the federal government which advocated a celebration of the gifts we have been given and a recognition that these are gifts of grace which have been given to us in our Creator's providence and love of creation. She petitioned numerous presidents, and finally was able to convince President Abraham Lincoln that a national day of thanks was not only valuable but necessary.
Her argument came at a most unexpected moment in our nation's history - in the midst of the Civil War, September 1963, she presented the president with a unifying and uniting idea. Along with our responsibility of stewardship over earthly creation, humankind has been given the gifts of abundance, abundant live, abundant resources, abundant beauty. These gifts themselves mandate our praise and thanksgiving to our God.
Go back to the first century of Palestine, which like our own land of the mid-nineteenth century, found itself in the midst of civil strife, community challenge, hunger and oppression. In the midst of that amazing time, our Creator sent a messenger to an unwed teenage girl, that she had been chosen and filled with grace to be the one to bear the Incarnate God into this world. She too, like Sarah Hale, became a messenger herself, proclaiming this great news - that our God who loved us and who cared for us wished us to know it so perfectly that the chasm between Creator and creation would be spanned, that God would become human, and that she, Mary, would be the God-Bearer. Her words, sung out in joy in the gospel of Luke, celebrate the grace of our God.
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
As we begin our Advent journey, a time of preparation for the Incarnation of our God, let us, like Mary, give thanks for God's grace, God's abundance, and God's love of creation. By offering our thanks and praise to God, we do indeed make room for him to enter into our homes, our lives, our selves.
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Shawn
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