Holy Ground

 

Youngest Child was scheduled to serve a wedding last week at our city Cathedral.  It was a very small wedding and it took place in a side chapel dedicated to Our Lady.  I was able to wait for him in the main Church.  This was the first time I have experienced a completely dim and empty Cathedral...it had been closed for the wedding.  I slowly wandered around in the late afternoon light quietly looking more carefully at the walls and the ceilings, the statues and the windows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sacred Chrism for the Sacraments is kept here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add to this wonderfully unexpected gift, the words of the wedding ceremony floated through the Church from the far away chapel. Words of promise and commitment, of trust and love.    I was overwhelmed with a homesickness for Heaven.  I was very certain, as I wandered the Church, that THIS was the real world and the "real" life we lead everyday with its silly problems, its pathetic grasping for small powers and prestige, its fashion and fads and its petty keeping up with the Jones' just seemed so very flimsy and cheap compared to the peace that descended from this empty Church....but not empty!  Full of Christ. 

 

 

 Christ present in the tabernacle in the darkness.  Christ listening to the wedding vows of that couple.  Christ watching me wander the Church.  Christ seeing my homesick heart.    There was almost a tangible grace floating in the air.  

The wedding finished, my son came out to me, and the lights were all turned off.  But Christ is still there watching, waiting, loving us in the dark.  Thanks be to God!