Reflection on some Churches in Europe

As I sift through my life in these my latter years, (I am now 67!!...how did that happen?)
I think about many wonderful times there have been to engage with the spirituality of European Christianity
And, indeed, of European society

This is a couple of poems that I wrote as my former wife and I did a minor European Tour in 2007.
Our marriage was no doubt well over by this time.
But we decided that we should do it.
And to be fair  we had a great time.




7 May 2007

Mass in Notre Dame 

My bread is shared today
a gift from total strangers
to eat
with others
who speak not
the language of words
the language of peace.
A clasp
A nod
A word or two
not in English
but in Latin
Pax Dominum

On the top of the Eiffel Tower Sue freaked and had a panic attack, I sort of rallied ( what else can you do?)

 

On top of the Eiffel Tower

There is no redemption
but a sense of awe
there is no reconciliation
but a gift of courage.
Here, in a place
equally as foolish
as Babel
awe, courage, amazement
deep in the loins.
Most of us
get it
maybe not
the young, the brash
who think they know it all
Who smoke
to show they can
and shout
lest no one know
how brave they are,
how central
how they are.

But on this foolishness
it is not God
but Paris
all around.
And the wind changes
and cold
and we all
old and young
decide enough is enough
of human invention

6 May 2007 --10 p.m.

Mass in Sacre Coeur

On the steps of Paris
they sing
in impromptu concert
while within the white domed church
Dominus is intoned.
Each, oblivious to the other
the mystery within
flows without

In the cool darkness of the night
we flee
back to the pee stinking tunnels
and the steps
that crush the knees;
it was mystery
it is over

4 May 2007(?)

In La Sistina

We lost each other
Making our our way to the centre
I stood alone
while a spikey haired man went
"Shh!"
then would scream in anger
"No pitch!" and then "I said No Pitch!"
It does not alter the wonder
of a ceiling or a wall
declaring the mystery of God
it does tell us
No pictures! No pictures!
Save the pictures in our heart(maybe)
which we could not share
because we were lost

Devastation

The last time I went to Europe I came back and said....I don't need to go to Rome again (don't let me fool you...if you'll pay I'll go!) and I don't need to go to London again (see above) 
BUT if I never go to  Paris again then I will feel diminished 
This last attack threatens that.
I do not want to never be able to go to Musee D'Orsay, to the Picasso Museum, the Rodin Gallery...and to Notre Dame.
Mind you (going back to Rome) I love the Lateran Basilica and assisted at Exposition for a week!

Shopping spin

I tire of the drivel that passes for genuine comment by those who constantly bemoan that Adelaide shuts down for public holidays. The usual comment is that "Travellers think we are a backwater".

With two daughters having traversed three continents in the last 3 - 6 months, and they have just spent Christmas in London I make the following observations:

You cannot surely call Rome, Turin, Florence, Paris, or London "backwaters". Yet in all of those places there have been times when touristy stuff and/or shops have been closed. Indeed the transport system in London seems to almost shut down for 48 hours over Christmas. My prospective son-in-law traipsed all the way out to Greenwich to find it closed, and Regents Park Zoo closed early on the particular day he wanted to go. In Italy, and often in France, the great museums and galleries are almost always closed on Mondays. The department stores are not open 24 hours a day.

I observe, too, that though the supermarkets were open on Sunday, at Blackwood it was almost dead

I always think when these chamber of retailers whiners (or who ever they are) go on about this it is clear that they are not going to be the ones who are going to have their festive season broken into by having to staff endless unregulated shopping. It will be people like my niece E who works for Myers and who has a young son who delights to have his mother round. She's not complaining, but sometimes we all seem a bit tired from too much opening.!

Mastering the art

Some mornings I know when I have mastered the art of making coffee, when I make my morning espresso and think I am standing at a counter in the San Giovanni station in Roma, with all those other people.
Ahh good times!
Like this morning!

Churches, churches, churches.....and not a place to pray

There certainly are a lot of churches here. We visited St Peter's yesterday and there were bucket loads of people. Though a spot of rain and a bit of heat got rid of many.
I find something faintly...well not faintly...repellent about all this religion. Much of it is about building being done to glorify worldly achievements of powerful men (almost always men )
But every now and then, even in the great basilicas, there are little spots where you can only go if you intend to pray with young mafiosi stationed at the entrances to ensure that ice-cream lickers stay out.
Today we walked to the Coliseum (which is within viewing distance... what an amazing thing to be able to say) stumbling across the wonderful basilica of St Clement where there is a 17th century churchj built on a 12th century church added on to a 4th, 6th and 8th century church....which in turn is on a pre Christian Mithraic temple. Unebleievable almost to Australians.
Maybe this afternoon we will go and see Spiderman3 at the Barberini (cui) to neutralise all this culture and history!!

New experience

We are having extraordinary experiences that we would just never have in our short stay in Rome.
It raises lots of questions about everything to do with life, culture, church and art.
Here near the Lateran Basilica, a huge concert is happening. The noise, as noise does, dominates everything.
It was amazing to me that amidst all this the side Chapel of the Holy sacrament is kept for silent prayer...and it is palpable. Today, however...the harsh culture of the world closed the front door of the basilica. It seems strange to me that in Rome of all places a majore religious building can be subordinated to decadent pop-rock culture. It is difficult to think that in Cairo, Jerusalem, Bangkok or even sleepy old Adelaide, people's religious sensibilities would be so readily trounced

Decisions, decisions.... I want it all

Necessary preparation for our forthcoming trip is the reading of books and magazines, and the endless delightful conversations with people about things to do.
It is now over twenty years ....well thirty actually...since I was in Europe, and I don't really remember a thing...or the things I do remember are very partial. The Pompidou Pyramid, for example, the London Eye didn't even exist.
And perhaps I am a little more expansive as a person and aware of all sorts of things that I didn't realise I could be aware of when I was in my 20s. Although, par exemple, I saw lots of visiual art my definitive art experience had not yet happened...which happened at a Monet exhbition in Melbourne probably 15 -20 years ago.So I know that one of the things I wan to do is try and see a few more water lilies, whether we get to Giverny remains to be seen.
But S and I also talked about whether or we should walk Scafell Pike...it would be unusual for us to do such a thing, can I still do it? (I have done it a number of times in my teens ...but these days I ache).
Every time we think about England we think of another thing to do. Althorp, Blenheim, The Old Vic. I even told my cousin the other day that we probably weren't going to stay with him..I feel guilty and I have thought of a way that we possibly can.
But we can go no further north than Edinburgh, but I would desperately love to go to Iona and the Hebrides
Then there is "The Unofficial Guide to Paris", and excellent book which we stumbled across which will keep us amused; nibbling cheese and croissants, walking the Left bank, doing little side trips, hunting out those Monets.
The truth is that I want it all, and there is too little: time, money, energy.
Thank goodness I have temporaily lost the Rome book!