The Big Guns: European Churches

The Big Guns: European Churches It wasn’t the reason I wanted to go to Europe. No, I can’t say any one thing really pulled me into coming along on this trip. But it was certainly a wonderful experience. Back at home, the churches I attend are well under a century old. The main one I go to weekly just celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, compared to the churches we saw on the trip, the ones back home are only babies. My favorite one, Rouen Cathedral, has been around for a good 200 years— at least— and it’s still standing strong. It’s built in a gothic style, with tall pointed towers and gargoyles to keep out evil spirits. Unlike Notre Dame in Paris, which was crowded and offered little peace and quiet, you could hear a pin drop in Rouen Cathedral. The stone pillars inside stood perfectly spaced like enormous cement trees, climbing over your head and melting into the ceiling. That ceiling seemed like the sky, so tall it was crazy to picture someone building it. On the outside the church was massive, but I had seen massive. I have been to big cities with skyscrapers that stretched to the sun. However, the experience of being inside something so great can only be described as powerful. Powerful enough to make you feel a part of the church, part of the ancient walls. Inside the Rouen Cathedral, I stood in the church soldiers attended during the Hundred Years War, where Joan of Arc’s executor prayed. Generation after generation, people would go to that church long before I was ever born. And they won’t stop coming. Our guide explained to us that the church still has masses every Sunday and also holds other religious celebrations as well. People will continue to include the Rouen Cathedral in their daily lives, just like they’ve been doing for hundreds of years. Though the building is aging, the locals are making an effort to preserve the church. Sections of the building, walls with intricate carvings for example, are netted to keep away birds. During the world wars, the stain glass windows were removed to prevent them from shattering. The church as a whole was very well kept for its age, so I know it was well taken care of. Something that made the Rouen Cathedral stand out from other ancient churches was the line of saint statues that went all around the back of the altar. I don’t think they were made for the church. They seemed to be created at different times, judging by the wear of each statue. Though I looked, I was disappointed to not find a Joan of Arc statue. Considering she was executed in the very same town, I thought they would’ve had something related to her in there. I suppose they saved that for the monumental Joan of Arc church a few blocks away. What spoke to me at that church? The quiet. We went into three churches over the course of the trip. I guess you could say they were all the same. But the others were much more crowded, lacking a sense of peace you can only find in silence. You could really hear your thoughts in that building. Ceilings so high made a person seem so small. I knew I could wander for hours in that building, yet still not find everything it had to hold. It’s the memories in the church that seemed to speak to me. The old voices of the wall call out to you: listen. You’ll never know what stories you’ll find.