Thursday, May 8th, 2025 (continued)
This evening at Christ Church Cathedral, we went to see a choir service. Unlike a typical church service with a sermon and preaching, this choir service was a short (about an hour) program that consisted of music, scripture reading, and prayer.
Before I talk about the service and my experience, I want to take a moment to recognize the absolute beauty of the architecture of Christ Church. The Cathedral’s origin dates back about 1,000 years ago, having been built (originally as a timber church) in 1030 by Norsemen. The building is vast in size with the most exquisite stonework/masonry, stained-glass windows, and mosaic-tile floors. The Gothic style simply took my breath away when I walked in.
In addition to the architecture, the choir sound was so eloquent and beautiful. When they first started singing, it gave me chills down my back (in a good way). The best way I’d describe it is “raw”, it was a very spiritual and powerful experience. Regardless of religious beliefs, the service was both spiritual and beautiful.
Now, the unreal events that unfolded while we were at that randomly attended service… the announcement of the new pope, Pope Leo XIV.
Towards the end of the service, when the priest was praying, he began to pray about the protection of nations, the guidance of political leaders to make decisions for the betterment of their nations, and for cooperation between worldwide leaders. All of which, at least for myself, felt very distinct to be prayed about in a Catholic church (not in a bad way, just in a way that I could recognize that they were praying about it for a reason, but at that point, I didn’t know why yet). Then, the priest prayed over the new pope, again asking for guidance.
To me, I found it unbelievable that we were in a very prominent and beautiful Catholic church, in a distinctive Catholic country, as a group of Americans, when they announced the new Catholic pope, an American from Chicago…
If you were to ask me, I’d say we witnessed history in the making in the most real and raw way possible. The dots were connected so perfectly that I was overwhelmed by how simultaneous it all was.