Family

Those of you who have been following this blog know that I celebrated my Twentieth Anniversary as a priest this past June 26 just before concluding the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  In those twenty years I can’t honestly say that I had longings for a family of my own.  Yet recently, the past two months or so, it’s all that I have been thinking about.

At first I thought it was all the various families I saw traveling while on my own journey.  Do I want a family like that?  I was able to spy some magic moments between parents and children; brothers and sisters.  I experienced many couples living out their golden years traveling together towards the sunset of their lives.  Was I longing for that?  The chance to live out my years in that manner I’m sure would be precious.  That must be part of the family life that I am yearning for!

After a few weeks and some reflection I realized what I was missing and longing for was not “A family” but “MY family.”  In the midst of some magical moments during this sabbatical period, it’s “MY family” that I have been missing the past two months.  Not so much Maureen and brothers, though they are certainly part of it.   No, “MY family” is the people of Incarnation.  That’s whom I have been missing the past two months.

I firmly believe God has called me to tend to His People.  For the last four years I have been spoiled to have His People at Incarnation as my own.   They are “My Family!”  I have missed watching the eyes of our little ones in the religious education program and school sparkle in wonderment of their expanding world.  Or our teenagers grow by inches and depth as they mature eager to challenge our world.  “MY family" is one of the most diverse in all the diocese yet united in the Person of Jesus.  I see them on Sundays and when they bury a parent or baptize a child.

In “MY family” I find the challenge to be a better person and priest as they share with me their own life’s struggles.  And I am lacking without “MY” family.  And so as rich as my sabbatical has been I can’t wait to be with “MY family” again.   They are the family I miss.  They are the family I long for.  I really just can’t wait.

Resurrection

Notre Dame du Paris seen from across the river.

The above title is a little over the top but that’s what it seems not only in the district where I am living in Paris, but for the whole city.  The streets are filling again, stores and restaurants have re-opened and kids are walking around with new clothes and school supplies.  Even nature seems refreshed as the evenings now have the fresh cool of an approaching autumn.

Illuminations of the Memorial of the Deportation, Paris.

There has been another aspect of new life.   As the tourists and visitors depart (myself included), we give back the city to the Parisians.  Yes, we take our Euros, Dollars, Pounds, Yen etc. but we give them the chance to live unencumbered again.   Visitors will always be here but we wont smother the good people of Paris till next spring.

Memorial of the Deportation, Paris.

For me, this influx or return of vitality only excites me about the “resurrection” that occurs each September at Incarnation.  The beginning of the new pastoral year is always filled with tremendous excitement and possibilities.  It always reminds me of the phrase from Scripture:   “I make all things new.”

Notre Dame du Paris as een from the Parc Jean XXIII.

This “newness” or novelty is in all of us because of the Life of Christ, which we share.  I have spent over five months rediscovering and relishing this Divine Gift of Renewal.  I hope to bring with me on my return a wellspring of what I have received as well as to continue drinking in what will be shared with me my by my people.

Chartres

Chartres Cathedral.

 I was up early in the rain to head from Paris to Chartres about a 90-minute train trip southwest.  Chartres was founded by the Romans and was an important city as Europe emerged from the Dark Ages.  It had an established Cathedral School (before universities existed) and of course its cathedral.  The present cathedral is about 900 years old and is celebrated and studied because its rather intact through the ages.

Sanctuary, Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral, Chartres.

During the Reformation, Chartres remained Catholic throughout and avoided the iconoclast that many other sites endured.  At the time of the French Revolution it was proclaimed a Temple of Enlightenment (a precursor to a museum) by the Revolutionary Government and was pretty much spared.  And in the last centuries avoided the ravages of those campaigns with its precious windows buried deep in the earth.  There was a close call when in WWII the Americans were supposed to bomb it thinking the Nazis were using it but after better reconnaissance it was seen as vacant and was spared.

Detail of Seat of Wisdom Window, Chartres Cathedral.

I arrived as the clouds stopped their rain and I was able to concelebrate the main Mass at 11AM.  Very nicely conducted with about 10 Altar Servers and five priests (I wasn’t the only visitor).  The Cathedral is being renovated and the Sanctuary is already complete.

Detail of Christ in Majesty - West Portal, Chartres.

After Mass I went for a lovely little lunch at a brassiere nearby and then checked into my Bed & Breakfast.  While I have been to Chartres about three or four times I never stayed overnight.   This allowed me to see the village and to revisit the cathedral when there were fewer tourists around.   In fact I was able to go for free concert at 4:30PM and then a “Musical Prayer Service” at 9:30PM.  At 10PM the ville had its Chartres Illuminated experience where about ten of the historic buildings here were lit up in a funky fashion some accompanied by music.

Stained Glass Window, Chartres.

Up early to concelebrate the first Mass on Monday and to enjoy the cathedral before the crowds arrived, in one sense the highlight of the trip was the cathedral tour given my Malcolm Miller.  An Englishman who has been in Chartres for over fifty years now, he is an authority on the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady de Chartres.  He gave two enjoyable talks at 12PM and 2:45PM on Monday.  I have heard him before but it is always fascinating to hear him.   He has been on TV and comes to the States for talks as well.  These are not my first lectures of his that I have attended but he is kind of a staple of Chartres; he would say a relic.

Medieval Timber House, Chartres.

After a coffee to it and take in the views one last time it was back on the train to Paris to begin my packing.   I leave early Wednesday for my return home!

Cathedral facade, Chartres.

Amsterdam, Susan and Duncan

The Royal Palace, Amsterdam

Interior of Our Lady of the Attic Church, Amsterdam.

Exterior of Our Lady of the Attic Church, Amsterdam.

Coming out of Amsterdam Central Rail Station is one of the worst feelings in the world.  I believe Dante Alighieri must have had some premonition of it that he used when writing about hell in his Inferno.  Because of the canals, there is a tremendous bottleneck of people both going and coming.  The area also has many kiosks where companies do there best to get you to take their canal cruise.  Lastly, parts of Amsterdam City just attracts undesirables and this is just one of those parts.  After “running this station gauntlet” as if it were some type of worthiness test one can experience a picturesque city of canals, restaurants and cafes, museums and even churches.

Side Aisle View of West Church, Amsterdam.

After my time in Breukelen I was able to enjoy Amsterdam.  While I visited the Van Gogh and Rembrandt Museums and, of course the Anne Frank House, I most enjoyed the Museum of Our Lord in the Attic.  It’s the museum that houses a clandestine or hidden Roman Catholic church.  The church is not visible from the street because it is hidden within a row house along a canal.  The reason it is hidden is that after the Reformation Catholics were not allowed to practice their Faith openly.  Now the Dutch were relatively pragmatic and tolerant and so Roman Catholics were not persecuted to the same extent as in other places so this church was tolerated as long as it was not visible.  The museum is a tribute to the generous benefactor who bought the three homes, the craftsmen who retrofitted the building and the Faithful who came and enhanced the two-tiered church.

Museum Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.

There are other more impressive church structures in Amsterdam.  The Protestant ones seem to be just concert halls and the four Catholic Churches have limited liturgies.  The first Catholic church built after Catholics were allowed to worship openly, the Basilica of St. Nicholas, is only open three hours a day and the 12:30 Mass is in a different language (other than Dutch) each day.

Basilica of St. Nicholas, Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is not much of a walking city.   Besides (or on account of) the canals it is very congested in the historic or old city and the bicycles are silent and deadly.  Because walking was difficult I stopped by a café by a major canal thoroughfare to sit and watch the boats go by on a gorgeous summer Saturday afternoon.  While sitting there an English couple arrived and asked if I was using the stools.  Well that led to a wonderful conversation with Susan and Duncan.  They are from just outside of Cambridge and are quite the travelers.  They were in Amsterdam for a long weekend.  It was great sharing part of my afternoon with them.  We ended up in that cafe for almost three hours chatting and watching the various peopled boats go by.

Rembrandt Museum,  Amsterdam.

After Amsterdam it’s back to Paris and then to Chartres to do something that I always wanted to do there.

View of boats passing from my cafe perch, Amsterdam.

Canal View, Amsterdam.