On Sunday, Katie, Curtis and I went to St. Stephen's cathedral for what was billed as an organ concert of a Mozart mass. It being a Sunday, in a cathedral, and a mass, it was actually mass and not a concert, per se. But it was lovely. We got to see all of the pomp and ceremony with the incense and robes and the procession of the icons. We had to stand up and sit down about a dozen times. I know that my father has said we don't do enough of that in the LDS sacrament meetings, but he would never tolerate the amount of concentration this took. I found a woman across the aisle who knew what she was doing, and I watched her out of the corner of my eye to figure it out. The woman next to me was also a seasoned attender, but I couldn't very well turn and stare at her, could I?
After the readings, songs by the choir, the bishop's sermon, the meet-your-neighbors moment, the sacrament and more songs and prayers, they let the masses come up for blessings with the relic. It made me think about us and our relationship to blessings. I am thankful that in the main in the mormon faith, a blessing is a blessing no matter whether it's coming from an apostle or your home teacher, and going to the temple is the same no matter which temple -- you're not going to be healed if you attend in Manti instead of Draper. There are exceptions, I realize, wanting to be sealed by someone important and things, but mostly we believe that blessings come because of faith and worthiness of the recipient, not because of importance or traditions of the giver [or object] thereof.
The cathedral, though, what a place. It is a beautiful place and lends itself to contemplating spiritual things. I took this last picture just because I always take pictures of the other side. It's under scaffolding, but I'm glad that Europe has gone to the trouble of silk screening their scaffolding so you can see what it's supposed to look like. I think it really makes a big difference. And it appears that everything everywhere is being worked on right now. Rob thinks it's for economic stimulus and I suppose that would have a big effect on the population to see lots of diligence and money being spent on their biggest landmarks. It certainly looks marvelous when they're finished.
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