Just outside my window is a small church, Sant Jaume.
After a long day it was nice to sit in the dark,
undisturbed.
Not far from here is another church, de la Basílica de la Sagrada Família. Visitors come from all around the world to wonder.
An architect friend told me I shouldn’t miss it, and that I should prepare.
And so I learned that in the mid-19th century, Barcelona was modernized, resulting in a significant expansion of its city limits. Talk began about the construction of a grand cathedral. On December 31, 1881, a group calling itself the Spiritual Association of Devotees of St. Joseph acquired a large plot of land upon which to build it. Architect Francisco del Villar was commissioned to head up the project. Resigning after just a year, del Villar was succeeded by Antoni Gaudi i Cornet. Barely thirty years old, Gaudi devoted the remaining 43 years of his life to the project.
While Gaudi was alive, construction began on the crypt, apse façade, first sections of the cloister and the Nativity façade. Fearing there would be times during which resources would be scarce, Gaudi planned the construction in phases, believing that would make it more difficult for the project to be abandoned.
Gaudi was always experimenting with scale plaster models which he thought were more effective than plans. The models and drawings left behind after his death in 1926 have made it possible for subsequent architects to remain true to his work.
The Sagrada Família Basilica, still unfinished, is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
So with that bit of history, and a pleasant walk through old Barcelona, you arrive.
And your pace slows,
And you imagine the mind of Gaudi,
And you enter,
And are cautioned,
And then welcomed,
And the organ announces the hour,
And the soprano begins,
Ave Maria Gratia plena Maria, gratia plena Maria, gratia plena . . .
And you look up,
And you see,
All around,
And you keep looking,
And seeing,
And time ceases,
And again the hour is announced,
And you’re reminded of that old, dead language,
Pater Noster qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra . . .
And in some inexplicable way, it comes to life,
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven . . .
And again you wonder,
And finally leave,
And look up one last time,
And recall Gaudi’s words:
Glory is light, light gives joy, and joy is the happiness of the spirit.
And, in the moment, the reality of the world in which we live makes little difference.
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