God's Grace as Lion Repellent

As a general rule, I like to make sure I am in good graces with God before I seek out lions and other deadly animals while on safari.  Its just plain good sense.  

Tony and I walked over to St Joe's Cathedral yesterday to pan for a mass outing - to check out the scene - and I think we both thought this was a mass that Grandma and Bea would be wise to skip.  They have enough spiritual capital in the bank for an eternity and a half.  Playing the traveler's dispensation card seemed simple and smart considering the humid temps, lack of A/C, uneven floors, and multiple stone steps.  Wooden kneelers had me thinking about calling this one in.

Apparently Grandma and Bea abide by the same general rule as I do and they insisted on going.  At ages 88 and 86, they take piety pretty seriously.  Its ingrained.  So the gang of 6 taxi'd over to the cathedral and went to mass said in Swahili.  True, we didn't understand a word of it but the cadence and ryhthm of the mass is the same in Swahili as it is in any language and we simply soaked it in.   We were the only white people in the church, but that was OK because that made us very popular at peace time.  Semi-celebrity status in fact.  

Everyone agreed that despite not speaking the language the mass was one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences of each of our lives.  It was aesthetically unparalleled.  Start with a beautiful church and a beautiful sunny day streaming through stained glass.  Then add in some excitement for your senses with some incense.  Add a 40 person choir decked out in shiny yellow robes and belting out tunes, and you have unmatched sensory and spiritual stimulation.  The choir was amazing.  If paul simon is looking for some backup singers to his follow up to the Graceland album, we have found them.  Their beauty of their voices were matched by their coordinated bobbing and weaving, hand waving and fluttering, stepping in place, and of course snapping and clapping.   Rows one and three would lean to the right while waving a hand while the rows two and four would do the opposite. 

I have no soul whatsoever, but I was feeling it.  Carol, Theresa, and Bea were actually brought to tears.  So how is it that this was the most spiritually fulfilling mass of any of our lives despite   the fact that we didn't catch a single word?  I think Bea said it best.  "God was there.  We are different, but we were all there for the same reason and God was there."  Predictably, Carol cried again when she heard Bea say that!  (And I'll be damned if this passage hasn't gotten the tear ducts of Kim Charles working right now!)

So Tree and I decide to walk back to the hotel and we're met by more street people than we had schillings for.  Many of them were amputees, and its anybody's guess as to whether they were political refugees who lost their limbs from land mines or if the losses were due to polio or something else.  Its fitting that we left that church with such a high and were immediately countered by harsh reality (on the way back to our 5 star hotel no less).  The collection baskets we stuffed full and the donations we made to our friend Sister Yuda's charity helped to soothe our conscience but the experience as a whole reminded the two of us that charitable giving might satisfy immediate needs but its a bottomless pit unless accompanied by some advocacy work.  My personal hope is that the experience is profound enough to jump start my on-again off-again spirituality.  (But in the short term I'd be happy with a shiny halo and beaming heavenly grace to ward off the lions!) 

This will be the last dispatch until Friday or so.  We head to the Serengetti in the morning, and I doubt that there is any internet where we are going.  We'll update you upon our return.  Have an excellent week.