"Lord, I love the beauty of your house and the place where your glory dwells Ps 26:8 (paraphrase)
It is interesting how habits begin. As a teenager I fell in love with the book, The Cardinal. While I loved the main
character, his father had a pious habit that I eventually adapted for
myself. The father was a motorman on a
trolley line in Boston. Every time he
passed a Catholic church he would tip his hat and say, “Jesus, Mary and
Joseph.” For many years whenever I pass
a Catholic church I silently pray a paraphrase of Psalm 26:8, “Lord I love the
beauty of your house and the place where your glory dwells." For the last several weeks while my husband
and I have been traveling in Poland and Germany I have only been in one
Catholic church, a beautiful Gothic cathedral in Wrolsaw, Poland.
My parish church has recently started Eucharistic
adoration on Wednesdays during the day.
Prior to my trip I signed up for a one hour morning shift before the
Blessed Sacrament. The church is not
magnificent like the cathedrals of Europe or even the neo-Gothic churches of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries here in the US. It is very plain, with very little
decoration. I really do not like the
architectural style, the community is the reason I have not changed parishes, and
community is an essential part of the meaning of Christianity.
This past Wednesday I went for my first hour of
adoration. It took me a little while to
settle down and calm my mind. In that
hour I found beauty in my church.
Between me and the Blessed Sacrament on the altar a peace settled upon
me I had not found in many months. I was
aware of others in the church but I was also alone with Him. Again I could say, “Lord, I love the beauty
of your house and the place where your glory dwells.”
Eileen
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