-Salzburg and Munich

Last Friday I left for Salzburg with the school. As I said in the last blog, Salzburg was where The Sound of Music was filmed. When we came to those areas in the town, the women in the group went wild (and some of the men, too), dancing and singing to the songs. If you remember there is one part in the movie where Julie Andrews and the children run under an ivy tunnel singing. In Salzburg, it was actually blocked off, but the students wanted to go through it so bad, they were really looking forward to it - so they did anyway. And not just a few, almost all of them just ran and ran and ran, singing and waving their arms. They were happy. It was hilarious to watch them loosen up and run free.

I visited many churches in Munich and our priests celebrated Mass in one of them. On Saturday we went to Munich. We had Mass as soon as we arrived there in the Church where Pope Benedict was a cardinal. It was a white, gothic church, very beautiful with many side chapels. After Mass, there was a short tour and then we had the rest of the day for free time. I walked around the city with three other girls. We went to many churches, a food market, and walked through many streets. The open food market was neat to walk through because we were able to experience the culture and see all sorts of food.

The hostel (my first hostel!) we stayed at for the weekend was in Salzburg. On Sunday we went to Mass at the Cathedral in Salzburg; the Mass was in German. It was different than Mass in America, how they stand and sit. How they leave the pews for communion was also different. Either way, there was still praise to God - and that is the most important.

What I enjoyed most was worshipping God with people who have a completely different cultural background than I do. I did not understand what was said during the Mass, but I was fully aware what was happening. I knew that what they were saying was worship to God.

There was a choir that sings at that Mass that people from all over come to hear. Now what is sad about that is that they attend the Mass just to hear the choir, not out of reverance for our Lord. Another thing is after all the students attended the Mass, we all had different opinions of what we thought of the Mass and the choir, but here is what I thought:

I know that it is sad that they are only attending Mass for that sake, but they are there and that is great; however, I did not notice that the entire Mass or think about it - I do not think even once. All I could think about was how incredible this choir was and that they were doing this at Mass, for the glory of God - our ultimate goal. They work this hard to sing so well TO PRAISE OUR SAVIOR. It also made me think of how beautiful the cathedral was and how much work and minute detail went into the architecture just for the glory of God. How beautiful.

That's what I want to do.
Just as the choir and architects did, I want to give glory to God in the way that I am called to, with the gifts that I have been given. Spend all my energy and time into serving Him. Amen.

Christopher, maybe one of your drafting projects in school will be to design the inside of a Church. Make it grand!