Out of the blue

Alright, so I'm out of the low (thanks Serena). Everyone has their days right? Right.

So on to other things, I went to Mass yesterday in a church that I hadn’t been in in a long time. My step-father‘s family have an annual commemorative Mass said for my step-father’s father, so my sister and myself always try to be present for them at this time. It was also the second week of Lent, and the altar and large cross were decorated in shades of purple and fuchsia.        At first when I went in, the aesthetic differences between the Greek Church and this one jumped out at me.

Compared, the Catholic Church seemed... bare. Very bare. Unattractive, almost. The walls had very large windows of frosted glass panes with a red cross in the middle, maybe four to a side. There was one chandelier on the top, simple two rows of pews, and a very few small statues on the upper sides, where one can light candles. Nothing extravagant and the only thing that would stand out would be the beautiful ceiling drop in the shape of an inverted V, with each panel showing a hand painted scene. The first one starting at Creation with Adam and Eve, and so on until the peak of the V was the Last Supper, and then ending with a painting of our current Pope blessing a youngster. That was stunning, but apart from that, it was quite bare.

Or so I thought. Once I sat down and actually looked, instead of just comparing, I realized that the beauty of the church came from its simplicity. No lights were needed, because of the brightness that came through the windows. Another cleverly placed stained glass window was hidden behind the altar so that the setting sun would shine directly through it and give the back wall a warm yellow glow. The more I looked, and the more I liked this church. Its beauty really was in its simplicity. It was open, and fresh, and simple. It was simply stunning. The priest was also very jovial, and dynamic. You could tell he loved what he did, and it came through in his sermon. He was also the first black priest I had ever seen in a Catholic Church.

So has it become a contender for my wedding ceremony? Heck yes it has! I’ve also been told by a cousin of mine that when she married, she did the ceremony in a Catholic church, and wanted to merge some aspect of the Greek customs within the Catholic ceremony. She decided to include the Stefanos (wedding crowns) within her ceremony. Hmmm...