July 25: Mass in Monserrat, and Blown Away in Barcelona

[long entry today!]

Even though we had just landed in Barcelona, we took the morning to drive an hour out of the city to Montserrat - a really cool mountain and national park. Near the peak is also the site of a Benedictine monastery that has been there for centuries. Access was via a winding switchback road; very scenic and super fun to drive on.

Arriving at the monastery area, we were met with a couple of disappointments. We had hoped to do a morning hike, but were told all trails in the park were closed due to wildfire risk. The site also has a school for boys (ages 9 through 14), and apparently they give a public singing service most days of the week. We had hoped to hear boys choir sing, but were told they too are on summer vacation. This news took some of the enthusiasm from this outing.

We did have opportunity to attend part of the daily mass (Catholic church service) in the sanctuary. The monks were dressed in full robes, and they did much singing - in unison and chant-like, sometimes accompanied by a gorgeous organ. Couldn’t understand any of the spoken elements, as it was all in Spanish (or Catalan - a local dialect in these parts). But having grown up attending Catholic schools, I could recognize much of the liturgy. Our kids had questions about things like Eucharist and smoke coming from censer.

A side bar here about the use of incense; it is a physical practice pointing to a spiritual reality. Smoke of incense represents the prayers of the people, and that prayer is a purifying/sanctifying practice. We are all in need of sanctification (removal of sin), and prayer is a pathway for that.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice! —Psalm 141:2

Drove back to Barcelona, and I dropped off family at our flat to start a short siesta. I went to park the car, bought some snacks from a nearby convenience store. A bit of a crisis happened when I got back to the flat and couldn’t find my phone. I had no way of alerting the family, and no way to get into the flat (they had they keys, and I had a digital key, but it was on my lost phone). Had to backtrack to the parked car, and found it there; I had temporarily set it down on the car roof! Whew!

Once I was back in the flat, the boys put pants on (import of this will be apparent soon) and reorganized stuff for our walking outing into Barcelona. Our goal was about a one-hour walk to get to La Sagrada Familia Basilica, via pit stop at Starbucks. Walking through central Barcelona pretty interesting; it’s a fixed grid of same-sized city blocks, completely filled with same-shaped octagonal buildings. Stores and shops at ground level, apartments in upper floors. These city blocks are separated by one way streets, and city sections divided by more major roadways with well-defined lanes for pedestrians, cyclists/scooters, and motorists. Public transit is also very organized, although we didn’t end up using any on this trip. We pushed hard on foot to get to the basilica for our booked entry time.

There is good reason why La Sagrada Familia is arguably Barcelona’s most famous landmark. There really is nothing like it elsewhere.

Another side bar about our overall trip so far. Our primary motivation for travelling has been to celebrate as a family our 25 years of marriage. We could have chosen a trip that involved trying to cross paths with friends and missionaries around the world, having our horizons expanded by seeking what God is up to among them. Instead, we chose to focus on having a nuclear family experience. Interestingly though, you could say we are still expecting to see what God has been up to in the world. We have been chasing beauty, seeking the sacred spaces - not merely looking to be entertained, but inspired. During our first honeymoon 25 years ago, seeing such spaces as the giant Gothic cathedral in Seville represented a major builder of my faith. I was inspired by the vision of the cathedral architects, who knew they would never see their creative ideas fully realized, as it would take up to several hundred years to build. It made me wonder “what kind of God is deserving of this much devotion of time, creativity and vision?”

La Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona causes the same kind of wonder. The church’s first stone was laid in the late 1800s, and it remains unfinished and under construction to this day, over 130 years later! Antoni Gaudi, the chief architect and visionary, sought to innovate from the typical neo-gothic style of his day to something quite new, but still very much anchored to his faith. The whole exterior is meant to be a visual reminder of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus; key moments in the gospel narratives are captured in sculpture. Meanwhile, the towers outside and sanctuary inside are not filled with the typical iconography of so many Catholic cathedrals, but seem to celebrate God’s revelation in nature, from towers adorned with colourful clusters of fruit, to tree-like pillars, to stained glass shining with the spectrum of colour. The glass panels simply state names of the saints of faith, and sitting in this space, you can believe that you can be one of them.

Gaudi’s vision was extraordinary - working on the design over 40 years, he left enough guidance behind for future generations to continue the task, while at the same time he was OK with those generations taking it in new directions. So the sculptures telling the story of Jesus’s passion, for example, are in a different modern style from the sculptures about Jesus’s birth and childhood.

I suppose there can always be some things to critique, things that grate against good taste.

Getting inside to see the basilica is not free and not cheap - I’m not certain it would even be free to attend mass here at the moment. It is a model for construction funding that seems to be working, though. There is strict airport-style security to get in; which is probably a comment more on human nature and current culture than anything else. (But they did temporarily confiscate Luke’s frisbee during our visit! Apparently frisbee is a no-no in church…) We were told that there is a dress code for people entering the church - hence us men wearing pants - but no one else seemed to follow these instructions... In addition, some of the exterior - the clusters of fruit on the towers, for example - seem kind of ugly, almost like something you would expect in Vegas, rather than part of a holy place. (Speaking of ugly, our visit here coincided with the current Pope’s visit to Canada to apologize for the Catholic church’s participation in the evils committed against indigenous people through the residential school system.)

However, having experienced several churches on this trip, this one was a particular thrill for our boys. Both Thane and Luke declared it was a highlight of the whole trip so far.

We left the basilica (reclaiming Luke’s frisbee first!), and walked back towards one of Barcelona’s major city squares (Plaça de Catalunya). We had only been snacking up to this point in the day; hadn’t really had a meal. Tried to get into Hard Rock Cafe; quoted 1.5h wait, settled for McDonald’s again. Maybe not ideal for our last meal before leaving Spain, but we did already have our special paella meal in Peniscola.

Sore-footed and sweaty, we got back to the flat and quickly headed for bed. Beth benefitted from a foot rub: 22,944 steps today!