USA, here I come!!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Generosity And Warmth
I've been having a wonderful time here in Iceland. One night I saw the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, glowing and flickering. And I've seen some beautiful landscape here, including volcanoes, geysers, and lava rock. I also visited Gulfoss, the waterfall. It was flowing strongly despite how much of it is frozen in this currently frigid wintry weather.
But honestly while I've been here in Iceland, I've most enjoyed spending time with The Missionaries Of Charity. I didn't know that they were here in Iceland before I got here. I first saw them here during Mass at the Roman Catholic Church. Then I wasn't consciously looking for their hospitality center as I was walking up the street and walking right up to their welcome house.
Sister Jan Marie ushered me inside and gave me food and drink. I so appreciated her generosity and warmth and attentiveness as we spoke about the sisters' work and what I'm going to do next in my life.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Messiah
In Horsham here in the U.K., I heard Handel's "Messiah" performed live tonight! Beautiful and inspiring!
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Silence And Solitude
Hello from Belmont Abbey, where I'm here for a week, here in Hereford, in western England, in the UK. I've been enjoying the silence and the solitude, which have been very conducive to prayer and meditation.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Great Comfort
On the 2nd of November, I caught a flight from Vienna to Dublin. I spent the evening of 2 November in Dublin. The next morning I took the train west to Limerick, where I caught a taxi to Glenstal Abbey. I stayed at Glenstal Abbey for a couple of days. It was there that I first experienced monks chanting the Divine Office live. I had not imagined the Beatitudes being chanted before I heard the Glenstal monks chanting them, which I greatly enjoyed. I find great comfort in the chanting of the Divine Office. I appreciate the frequent reminder in the Divine Office of the eternal nature of God.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
On The Prowl
I found it rather appropriate this evening here in Vienna that a woman on the subway
with her face made up like a cat got off at a stop whose first word is
"Rat."
Quiet And Serenity
I was glad not only to get to go inside Tyn Church in the Old Town Square here in Prague today, but I was also glad to get to sit down in one of the pews. They were asking people to be silent in the church, so there was a relative atmosphere of quiet and serenity, and a relative lack of disturbance and distractions in the church.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
In A Reversal
A very interesting phenomenon and facet of my travel right
now: I have been in Copenhagen, Denmark for a little over a week. There is a small Muslim minority here, in Denmark which is an overwhelmingly Christian country. So over the last week I've been in a reversal of the situation in which I was living in Morocco, being in a very small Christian minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. I was not aware of the small Muslim community when I decided to come here to Copenhagen to visit my friend from the USA who has been living here for the last couple of years. So it has been rather interesting and ironic.
now: I have been in Copenhagen, Denmark for a little over a week. There is a small Muslim minority here, in Denmark which is an overwhelmingly Christian country. So over the last week I've been in a reversal of the situation in which I was living in Morocco, being in a very small Christian minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. I was not aware of the small Muslim community when I decided to come here to Copenhagen to visit my friend from the USA who has been living here for the last couple of years. So it has been rather interesting and ironic.
Friday, October 26, 2012
I Knew You Loved Me
I felt You
and I knew
You loved me.
- Tracey Emin
posted inside a church I visited today here in Copenhagen
and I knew
You loved me.
- Tracey Emin
posted inside a church I visited today here in Copenhagen
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Called To Serve Others
After my brief stay of a little less than one full day in Luxembourg, I got up early the next morning, on Saturday, and caught a train at 6:20 a.m. east. After a few hours, I got off the train in Koln, Germany. While I was in the train station in Koln, I exchanged some British pounds for Euros. When I was at the currency exchange office, I was next to the entrance of the train station. Looking outside, I spotted the very wide base of a cathedral. Curious to see the entire structure, I walked outside and beheld a massive cathedral, both wide and tall. It was probably the largest cathedral I had ever seen. I made a note to myself that if I ever find myself in Koln again, I might visit that cathedral.
I took a few photos of the cathedral and re-entered the train station. Since I had acquired Euros, I found someplace where I could buy something to eat. I always like to try to eat culinary offerings native to where I happen to be. Thus, although I was confronted mostly with fast food options in the train station, I bought something which I hadn't previously had occasion to purchase, some currywurst, which is sausage doused in something like barbeque sauce and sprinkled with curry. It works. Once I had eaten the currywurst, I was about to get onto the next of the trains I was catching, since the stopover in Koln was only about 30 minutes long.
I was on the next train for a few more hours until I arrived in Hamburg, Germany. In the station in Hamburg, I enjoyed a few pastries with a liter of milk. One was sprinkled with poppy seeds and covered with icing. Another was a type of jelly doughnut called a "Berliner." I considered that if you are what you eat, then I too can say that "Ich Ein Berliner."
After about an hour in the train station in Hamburg, I was onto the next and final train of my journey that day, which took me to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I've been visiting one of my friends who lives here. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time with her, partly because she has also been living abroad for a couple of years and thus can empathize regarding challenges of living in a foreign country.
In addition to enjoying visiting my friend, I've also been enjoying experiencing Danish culture and Christianity in a culture which openly allows anyone and everyone to practice as Christians. The first full day I was here, which was a Sunday, my friend and I went to a non-denominational Christian worship service at a cultural center here in Copenhagen. I appreciated when the pastor read part of Psalm 139, especially Psalm 139:12, where King David prays to God, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you[.]" When I re-read those words during the service, I was reminded that when we place God before all else, when we value serving Him more than anything else, we are fed by a light which darkness cannot extinguish. Earlier today, upon pondering yet again this safe space in which one can abide, and the unshakeable strength which can fortify one while living in that place, I wondered why anyone would live otherwise.
The next day, Monday, I visited the Post-Tele Museum here in Copenhagen, where one can learn about the history and major innovations in the postal service of Denmark. There one can also learn about telephones and telegraphs, with occasional commentary on the history of those forms of communication here in Denmark. At multiple points during my tour of the museum, I heard, I believe during short films about various communication innovations, quotations of persons opining that particular innovations heralded the arrival of peace in the world, since increased communication would lead to greater understanding, and thus fewer misunderstandings, and thus fewer conflicts including wars. Of course, the world did not witness the advent of enduring worldwide peace with the simplification and expansion of the postal service, nor with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph.
I considered that with more contact, people do tend to understand each other better. However, I also pondered that it's not just the amount of contact, but also the values people hold and bring to those interactions with others which determine the outcome of those interactions. If people don't seek to love others, then more contact won't help to reduce conflict, since people won't be valuing interactions as opportunities for nurturing and loving one another.
Last night, Tuesday, I tried to go back to the cultural center where my friend and I had attended the Sunday service so that I could attend a Bible study session there at 7:00 p.m. However, when it was only a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., I realized that I would not make it there for the Bible study session. Accordingly, when I heard church bells ringing nearby to where I was, I followed the sound of the church bells to the church where they were ringing. I entered the church and sat down in the back row of pews. A man and two women were singing Vespers in what I figured was probably Danish. Thus I didn't understand the vast majority of the words they were singing.
However, I found my experience in that church very powerful, and remarkably helpful, despite, or perhaps because of, my inability to understand the words being sung. Given that for the most part, I was not understanding the words, and thus was not singing, I spent more time considering the church itself than I normally would have. In that church I saw probably the simplest altar I have ever seen. It was covered by a frame which was a height of about three yards, or about three meters. In the center it had a cross, perhaps made of copper. The altar itself and its surrounding frame were composed of unfinished wood.
It was nothing fancy, unlike many altars found in many churches. It was not glamorous; nothing was glistening or sparkling on or near it. It was simple and modest. And when I considered that it was a simple, unassuming, plain altar, I thought, "This is how Jesus would like us to live. Renounce flashy pleasures, and rather live simply. Live our lives with concern for others, giving things up, not keeping them for ourselves, giving them to others, giving ourselves to others, living simply in the service of others."
Unfortunately in this world we place so much importance on appearances. We value things which look good, and often don't consider their meaning, why they are worthwhile. We visit places and structures, often not pondering their deeper significance, which provides, in the most profound and important sense, the reason why they are worth visiting at all. Oftentimes as tourists we visit churches and cathedrals, snapping photos of them. During the same visit we fail to sit quietly, to pray, to meditate, to seek communion with God in these edifices, despite their being constructed for these very purposes! I don't mean to imply that I don't have this tendency; I certainly have photographed churches and then failed to enter those same churches.
This evening, at 6:00 p.m., I heard church bells ringing as I was walking around Copenhagen. I proceeded in the direction of the sound of the bells. I entered Marmorskirch, Danish for "the Marble Church." It has a large dome for its top. Once inside, I saw that the inside of the dome was decorated with paintings of the twelve Disciples of Christ. Soon after I had entered the church, musicians and choir singers started rehearsing for their performance in the Marble Church tomorrow evening of Arvo Part's piece "Passio." They sounded beautiful, approaching the angelic, and I felt that their exquisite musical performance provided an apropos auditory counterpoint to the splendid visual art of the architecture of the church.
I found my experience this evening in the Marble Church at first in a sort of contradiction with my experience in the spartan church last night. Then I pondered that ornate, magnificent human works can certainly provide an appropriate venue for appreciating God. In creating works of art, people may offer them up as thanks to, and in praise and honor of, and in glory to, God. We run afoul when we start to glorify works of art, rather than utilizing them as vehicles for glorifying God, as they should be used to do, and, indeed, were created in the first place to do.
And if we start to focus too much on, and begin to ascribe too much value to, human creations such as works of art, we lose the simplicity through which we can find the most profound communion with God. It may not be glamorous or popular, but when we simply choose to serve others, we act out of love, and thus draw nearer to God.
I took a few photos of the cathedral and re-entered the train station. Since I had acquired Euros, I found someplace where I could buy something to eat. I always like to try to eat culinary offerings native to where I happen to be. Thus, although I was confronted mostly with fast food options in the train station, I bought something which I hadn't previously had occasion to purchase, some currywurst, which is sausage doused in something like barbeque sauce and sprinkled with curry. It works. Once I had eaten the currywurst, I was about to get onto the next of the trains I was catching, since the stopover in Koln was only about 30 minutes long.
I was on the next train for a few more hours until I arrived in Hamburg, Germany. In the station in Hamburg, I enjoyed a few pastries with a liter of milk. One was sprinkled with poppy seeds and covered with icing. Another was a type of jelly doughnut called a "Berliner." I considered that if you are what you eat, then I too can say that "Ich Ein Berliner."
After about an hour in the train station in Hamburg, I was onto the next and final train of my journey that day, which took me to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I've been visiting one of my friends who lives here. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time with her, partly because she has also been living abroad for a couple of years and thus can empathize regarding challenges of living in a foreign country.
In addition to enjoying visiting my friend, I've also been enjoying experiencing Danish culture and Christianity in a culture which openly allows anyone and everyone to practice as Christians. The first full day I was here, which was a Sunday, my friend and I went to a non-denominational Christian worship service at a cultural center here in Copenhagen. I appreciated when the pastor read part of Psalm 139, especially Psalm 139:12, where King David prays to God, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you[.]" When I re-read those words during the service, I was reminded that when we place God before all else, when we value serving Him more than anything else, we are fed by a light which darkness cannot extinguish. Earlier today, upon pondering yet again this safe space in which one can abide, and the unshakeable strength which can fortify one while living in that place, I wondered why anyone would live otherwise.
The next day, Monday, I visited the Post-Tele Museum here in Copenhagen, where one can learn about the history and major innovations in the postal service of Denmark. There one can also learn about telephones and telegraphs, with occasional commentary on the history of those forms of communication here in Denmark. At multiple points during my tour of the museum, I heard, I believe during short films about various communication innovations, quotations of persons opining that particular innovations heralded the arrival of peace in the world, since increased communication would lead to greater understanding, and thus fewer misunderstandings, and thus fewer conflicts including wars. Of course, the world did not witness the advent of enduring worldwide peace with the simplification and expansion of the postal service, nor with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph.
I considered that with more contact, people do tend to understand each other better. However, I also pondered that it's not just the amount of contact, but also the values people hold and bring to those interactions with others which determine the outcome of those interactions. If people don't seek to love others, then more contact won't help to reduce conflict, since people won't be valuing interactions as opportunities for nurturing and loving one another.
Last night, Tuesday, I tried to go back to the cultural center where my friend and I had attended the Sunday service so that I could attend a Bible study session there at 7:00 p.m. However, when it was only a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., I realized that I would not make it there for the Bible study session. Accordingly, when I heard church bells ringing nearby to where I was, I followed the sound of the church bells to the church where they were ringing. I entered the church and sat down in the back row of pews. A man and two women were singing Vespers in what I figured was probably Danish. Thus I didn't understand the vast majority of the words they were singing.
However, I found my experience in that church very powerful, and remarkably helpful, despite, or perhaps because of, my inability to understand the words being sung. Given that for the most part, I was not understanding the words, and thus was not singing, I spent more time considering the church itself than I normally would have. In that church I saw probably the simplest altar I have ever seen. It was covered by a frame which was a height of about three yards, or about three meters. In the center it had a cross, perhaps made of copper. The altar itself and its surrounding frame were composed of unfinished wood.
It was nothing fancy, unlike many altars found in many churches. It was not glamorous; nothing was glistening or sparkling on or near it. It was simple and modest. And when I considered that it was a simple, unassuming, plain altar, I thought, "This is how Jesus would like us to live. Renounce flashy pleasures, and rather live simply. Live our lives with concern for others, giving things up, not keeping them for ourselves, giving them to others, giving ourselves to others, living simply in the service of others."
Unfortunately in this world we place so much importance on appearances. We value things which look good, and often don't consider their meaning, why they are worthwhile. We visit places and structures, often not pondering their deeper significance, which provides, in the most profound and important sense, the reason why they are worth visiting at all. Oftentimes as tourists we visit churches and cathedrals, snapping photos of them. During the same visit we fail to sit quietly, to pray, to meditate, to seek communion with God in these edifices, despite their being constructed for these very purposes! I don't mean to imply that I don't have this tendency; I certainly have photographed churches and then failed to enter those same churches.
This evening, at 6:00 p.m., I heard church bells ringing as I was walking around Copenhagen. I proceeded in the direction of the sound of the bells. I entered Marmorskirch, Danish for "the Marble Church." It has a large dome for its top. Once inside, I saw that the inside of the dome was decorated with paintings of the twelve Disciples of Christ. Soon after I had entered the church, musicians and choir singers started rehearsing for their performance in the Marble Church tomorrow evening of Arvo Part's piece "Passio." They sounded beautiful, approaching the angelic, and I felt that their exquisite musical performance provided an apropos auditory counterpoint to the splendid visual art of the architecture of the church.
I found my experience this evening in the Marble Church at first in a sort of contradiction with my experience in the spartan church last night. Then I pondered that ornate, magnificent human works can certainly provide an appropriate venue for appreciating God. In creating works of art, people may offer them up as thanks to, and in praise and honor of, and in glory to, God. We run afoul when we start to glorify works of art, rather than utilizing them as vehicles for glorifying God, as they should be used to do, and, indeed, were created in the first place to do.
And if we start to focus too much on, and begin to ascribe too much value to, human creations such as works of art, we lose the simplicity through which we can find the most profound communion with God. It may not be glamorous or popular, but when we simply choose to serve others, we act out of love, and thus draw nearer to God.
Friday, October 19, 2012
The Fifth Time's The Charm
Whilst in the Peace Corps, I feel that I started devoting significantly more time to the spiritual journey I'm taking. While in the Peace Corps, I blogged a lot, and I spent a good deal of my time blogging about my spiritual journey. Given that this spiritual voyage is not going to end, I feel that I should continue blogging about it while I can. I love helping people, and I can potentially help others by sharing my spiritual exodus, which I can do through a blog.
However, I realize that I'm not always going to have spiritual commentary to make. Furthermore, I'm cognizant that I might share thoughts which may be either elementary or otherwise unhelpful to others. Nevertheless, I am starting this particular blog to share my journey, whether it be spiritual, merely geographical, or both.
I'm also starting this blog so that when people wonder where I am or how I'm doing, they can check this blog. Through the blog, people might perhaps also get an update on my whereabouts and how I'm spending my time.
Speaking of my travels, I left Morocco on October 17. My friend Yashieka visited me in Morocco for about a week before that. On October 17, we took a ferry from Tangier to Algeciras in Spain. When we arrived in Algeciras, we caught a taxi to Gibraltar, a ride which took perhaps 15 minutes. The taxi dropped us at "La Linea" on the Spanish side of the border. When we got out of the taxi, we walked across the border from Spain into Gibraltar, which is a British territory.
I enjoyed our brief stay in Gibraltar. I appreciated the formidable presence of The Rock Of Gibraltar. There are so many seagulls there, especially circling around The Rock, that I felt like I was on the movie set of a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds." I saw a beautiful sunset, pink and blue, as I strolled alongside a beach on that peninsula called Gibraltar.
After an overnight stay on Gibraltar, Yashieka and I caught a flight to London. Once we had landed at Heathrow, we parted ways, she soon to start making her way back to the states, me to mainland Europe for my further post-Peace Corps travels.
That day, I caught a train, the Eurostar, from London to Paris. I was grateful for its speedy arrival in Paris in only about two and a quarter hours. Upon my arrival at Gare du Nord in Paris, immediately I checked into a budget hotel which was clean, safe and quiet.
This morning I caught the 8:40 a.m. train from Gare de l'Est in Paris here to Luxembourg. This train also only took about two and a quarter hours to arrive. Upon arriving at the station, I went straight to the ticket window to pick up my ticket for the next train ride I'll take, which will be tomorrow. After obtaining that ticket, I walked the very short distance to my hotel and left one of my bags there.
Then I returned to the station, where I delighted in a salmon wrap at a cafe located there in the station. I like salmon, but I wasn't eating it while I lived in Morocco, save for an instance or two when I visited the states during my Peace Corps service. At the cafe in the station, I also had the best millefeuille I've ever had in my life, which I enjoyed with a cappuccino.
After I'd eaten that early lunch between 11:00 a.m. and noon, I headed out to explore the city of Luxembourg. First I set out to cross the river. Upon crossing the river, I spied a beautiful path set just a short way down from the road. I found the path below the road much more appealing than the road, so I descended on the path. Soon after I had set out on the path, I saw a woman with what appeared to be a stick of some kind disappearing behind some kind of paper. I considered that it indeed was a lovely setting in which to paint. I then did a double take and realized that she was not holding a paintbrush, and thus was not painting, but rather was holding chopsticks, and thus was eating. After this major misapprehension, I continued on my stroll through the riverside park.
I headed to the Cathedrale du Notre Dame. However, upon arrival at the cathedral, I learned that it will be closed until the 23rd. I had hoped to attend Mass at the cathedral.
A little while later in the afternoon, I entered the Protestant church in the part of the city known as "Ville Haute," which is part of the city which is at a relatively high elevation, set above the river. However, I soon ascertained that services are held at the Protestant church on Sundays.
Accordingly, I continued on my way. I soon decided to try to visit Neumunster Abbey. I had a slightly difficult time trying to get there. Finally I arrived at Neumunster Abbey, which is set down alongside the river, in the part of the city known as "Ville Basse," since it is a part of the city set at a lower elevation. However, I soon determined that it is no longer a functional abbey. It is now a cultural center.
Thus I set back out on my way once again. This time I found it much easier to get to my next destination, since I had spotted it almost directly down the road from the bridge under which Neumunster Abbey was set. I easily made my way to St. Matthew's Church. However, when I arrived at the church, I found no signs whatsoever on the church, let alone one which advised visitors of Mass times at the church.
Therefore, I set out on my way once again. This time I headed to Eglise du Sacre Coeur, which, in English, would be "Sacred Heart Church." When I arrived at the church, I gladly found a complete list of Mass times for every day of the week. I saw that there would be a Mass at 6:15 p.m., so I went back to the hotel to check in and leave my second bag in my hotel room.
After about a half hour respite at the hotel, I returned to Eglise Sacre Coeur for Mass. The Mass was entirely in French. Also the church was quite cavernous, and the sound echoed substantially in the church. Given these challenges, I understood very little of what was said during the Mass.
However, there in the church, I saw some posters affixed to the columns inside the church. One of them read, "Chretien, pas Chretien, qu'est-ce que ca change? Etre Chretien, c'est devenir comme le Christ." In English, this would read, "Christian, not Christian, what does that change? To be Christian, this is to become like Christ."
And herein lies the question, or perhaps I should rather say the inquiry, or perhaps even better, the quest, the goal, which lies before me. I feel that I have been charged with becoming as much like Christ as is possible. I know that I am faced with a considerable challenge here. I know that I am called to make significant changes in my life. So if you are wondering what thoughts have been running through my head for the last several months, and what is currently occupying my thoughts, now you know.
However, I realize that I'm not always going to have spiritual commentary to make. Furthermore, I'm cognizant that I might share thoughts which may be either elementary or otherwise unhelpful to others. Nevertheless, I am starting this particular blog to share my journey, whether it be spiritual, merely geographical, or both.
I'm also starting this blog so that when people wonder where I am or how I'm doing, they can check this blog. Through the blog, people might perhaps also get an update on my whereabouts and how I'm spending my time.
Speaking of my travels, I left Morocco on October 17. My friend Yashieka visited me in Morocco for about a week before that. On October 17, we took a ferry from Tangier to Algeciras in Spain. When we arrived in Algeciras, we caught a taxi to Gibraltar, a ride which took perhaps 15 minutes. The taxi dropped us at "La Linea" on the Spanish side of the border. When we got out of the taxi, we walked across the border from Spain into Gibraltar, which is a British territory.
I enjoyed our brief stay in Gibraltar. I appreciated the formidable presence of The Rock Of Gibraltar. There are so many seagulls there, especially circling around The Rock, that I felt like I was on the movie set of a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds." I saw a beautiful sunset, pink and blue, as I strolled alongside a beach on that peninsula called Gibraltar.
After an overnight stay on Gibraltar, Yashieka and I caught a flight to London. Once we had landed at Heathrow, we parted ways, she soon to start making her way back to the states, me to mainland Europe for my further post-Peace Corps travels.
That day, I caught a train, the Eurostar, from London to Paris. I was grateful for its speedy arrival in Paris in only about two and a quarter hours. Upon my arrival at Gare du Nord in Paris, immediately I checked into a budget hotel which was clean, safe and quiet.
This morning I caught the 8:40 a.m. train from Gare de l'Est in Paris here to Luxembourg. This train also only took about two and a quarter hours to arrive. Upon arriving at the station, I went straight to the ticket window to pick up my ticket for the next train ride I'll take, which will be tomorrow. After obtaining that ticket, I walked the very short distance to my hotel and left one of my bags there.
Then I returned to the station, where I delighted in a salmon wrap at a cafe located there in the station. I like salmon, but I wasn't eating it while I lived in Morocco, save for an instance or two when I visited the states during my Peace Corps service. At the cafe in the station, I also had the best millefeuille I've ever had in my life, which I enjoyed with a cappuccino.
After I'd eaten that early lunch between 11:00 a.m. and noon, I headed out to explore the city of Luxembourg. First I set out to cross the river. Upon crossing the river, I spied a beautiful path set just a short way down from the road. I found the path below the road much more appealing than the road, so I descended on the path. Soon after I had set out on the path, I saw a woman with what appeared to be a stick of some kind disappearing behind some kind of paper. I considered that it indeed was a lovely setting in which to paint. I then did a double take and realized that she was not holding a paintbrush, and thus was not painting, but rather was holding chopsticks, and thus was eating. After this major misapprehension, I continued on my stroll through the riverside park.
I headed to the Cathedrale du Notre Dame. However, upon arrival at the cathedral, I learned that it will be closed until the 23rd. I had hoped to attend Mass at the cathedral.
A little while later in the afternoon, I entered the Protestant church in the part of the city known as "Ville Haute," which is part of the city which is at a relatively high elevation, set above the river. However, I soon ascertained that services are held at the Protestant church on Sundays.
Accordingly, I continued on my way. I soon decided to try to visit Neumunster Abbey. I had a slightly difficult time trying to get there. Finally I arrived at Neumunster Abbey, which is set down alongside the river, in the part of the city known as "Ville Basse," since it is a part of the city set at a lower elevation. However, I soon determined that it is no longer a functional abbey. It is now a cultural center.
Thus I set back out on my way once again. This time I found it much easier to get to my next destination, since I had spotted it almost directly down the road from the bridge under which Neumunster Abbey was set. I easily made my way to St. Matthew's Church. However, when I arrived at the church, I found no signs whatsoever on the church, let alone one which advised visitors of Mass times at the church.
Therefore, I set out on my way once again. This time I headed to Eglise du Sacre Coeur, which, in English, would be "Sacred Heart Church." When I arrived at the church, I gladly found a complete list of Mass times for every day of the week. I saw that there would be a Mass at 6:15 p.m., so I went back to the hotel to check in and leave my second bag in my hotel room.
After about a half hour respite at the hotel, I returned to Eglise Sacre Coeur for Mass. The Mass was entirely in French. Also the church was quite cavernous, and the sound echoed substantially in the church. Given these challenges, I understood very little of what was said during the Mass.
However, there in the church, I saw some posters affixed to the columns inside the church. One of them read, "Chretien, pas Chretien, qu'est-ce que ca change? Etre Chretien, c'est devenir comme le Christ." In English, this would read, "Christian, not Christian, what does that change? To be Christian, this is to become like Christ."
And herein lies the question, or perhaps I should rather say the inquiry, or perhaps even better, the quest, the goal, which lies before me. I feel that I have been charged with becoming as much like Christ as is possible. I know that I am faced with a considerable challenge here. I know that I am called to make significant changes in my life. So if you are wondering what thoughts have been running through my head for the last several months, and what is currently occupying my thoughts, now you know.
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