Through Him, with Him, and in Him

The October 6th edition of the Magnificat has a meditation from Blessed Henry Suso, Living our Repentance Daily and one sentence jumped out at me this morning before Mass: "Do not be surprised if everything does not turn out according to your expectations." This made me smile because that was the focus on yesterday's article, Best of Plans Sometimes Do Not Turn Out As Expected. 

Today, I "expected" to go to Mass at the oldest church in Paris, Saint Germain des Pres and one of the oldest Romanesque churches in France. According to Travel France Online, the Basilica, dedicated in 558AD, was previously called Saint-Vincent-Sainte-Croix Basilica, and built on the ruins of a Roman temple, and renamed Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 754AD. It was destroyed by the Normans in 885AD and restored again in the 17th century and the 19th century. 

However, instead of going to Mass in this beautiful church this morning, which was again undergoing an interior reconstruction, Mass was held in the small primitive chapel as you entered the church and turned in the small gate to the right. The very close and intimate surroundings made the experience even more beautiful than in the immense church adorned with stained glass, and statues, and king's tombs and huge murals painted by Flandrin in the 1840s.

The bare chapel with simple wooden chairs and one tiny statue of Blessed Mother became more magnificent as Mass began and we became one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, with some of the local members responding in French and we responded in English. At the end of the Mass, the priest and the French parishioners turned to the tiny statue of Our Blessed Mother holding Jesus and sang the Hail Mary in French. The melodic voices reverberated off the stone walls and filled the chapel with love, devotion and joy.

Sometimes we have such high expectations of peak experiences and are extremely disappointed when those expectations are not met, but then we must remember that the first chapel was a stable area for animals, where shepherds gathered, and the choir was a host of heavenly angels above the fields of Bethlehem.

Thank you, Lord for the little things and for the priviledge of being able to attend Mass in this tiny little chapel.

My second Aha! moment of the day was in standing in the original cellars where wine was bottled and distributed for King Louis XIV and learning about the wines of France. Our guide said something that stopped me in my tracks. He explained the special qualities of the dirt, sand or even rocks in the different regions and then harvesting, making and bottling the wines and how they created the corks as stoppers. And then he said, "The wine never stops developing in the bottle; The wine is alive."

I immediately thought of the priest who consecrated the host and the wine at Mass this morning. The wine was alive, and after the consecration, it became even more alive when transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It was given to us to bring us alive in Christ and it is forever changing and developing us through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.