French Quarter, New Orleans

I’m been singing the praises of the food and people of the city of New Orleans.  It’s amazing how much revitalization has taken place since the storm.  I saw no destruction except some buildings were still closed.  The French Quarter was certainly alive and welcoming tourists and ready for business. I look forward to going again someday.  I’d like to drive there and have time for more visiting. This trip was for the IDAA conference at the Hilton and to quote Jim Croce "there’s just never enough time to do all the things you want to.” 

St. Jude Church, New Orleans

I loved this church in New Orleans. Ironically I had gone to the near by great cemetery where the still remembered Voodoo queen is laid to rest only to find the cemetery closed.  I then happened on St. Judes. St. Jude is the Saint of Lost Causes. I certainly have thought myself that on occasion.  Probably why of I love the great Blues numbers played so well in New Orleans, “Oh When the Saints” .  I do want to be in that number but am so easily distracted by the world.  While I know I was interested in the ‘shrine’ of the voodoo queen, as an artist,  the Lord of Creation, the Jesus of my understanding, intervened and took my steps to the nearby St. Jude’s.
It was open and inviting. I walked in, crossing myself with a bow, then kneeled in the pews and prayed.  I like to pray in churches. I like to sit and meditate.  I did this for a while until a cell phone rang and the only other person in the church, a woman, began to carry on a conversation with some distant person about groceries and shopping.  It was my cue to leave.
Outside there was a crypt to the Virgin Mary and a garden. Lovely places to sit and contemplate faith, hope and deliverance.  I was lost but now I’m found.
Jesus Christ mean’s ‘christ within and christ will come again’.  Often for me the sense of lost and found is moment by moment. I listen to the latest in politics and this seems like hell, then I see someone helping another and I feel I’m in heaven. It’s perspective.  I like St. Jude.  Probably because it took the Beatles to introduce me to this saint.  Then throughout my life I’ve had the sense of being lost and found.  There’s a sense of alienation, something triggers a feeling and memory and I’m back in the past my life being threatened and feeling that sense of helplessness, horror and imminent death or dismemberment.
St. Jude’s was a lovely church to visit , pray and meditate in. I love these sanctuaries.  I am so thankful for the work through the ages of Catholics and Christians that have created these shrines in the west. I am thankful for religions the world over that have made ‘third spaces’ that remain today where I can visit and feel safe. I can even feel a bit of serenity at times.  New Orleans is a city of energy and also peace.

 

St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Lousiana

I love to visit churches. I once loved to visit castles but today churches appeal to me. I wonder at the inspiration that has given rise to such extraordinary architecture. I love the church art too. Mostly I love to sit and pray where thousands sometimes millions have come through the centuries to meditate and find communion with God alone or together.
St. Louis Cathedral has seen so much.  It’s the oldest Catholic Church in the USA.  The original place of worship was 1718 with the permanent St. Louis church at the present site since 1727.  Destroyed by fire in 1788, the Spanish church was completed in 1794 then the present church was built over the Spanish foundations and completed in 1851.  I loved the Fleur de Lis.
When I arrived for mass a wedding was taking place. I felt badly as an intruder but sat quietly until I could escape and return. But it was a blessing to see the handsome groom and beautiful bride joined in the sacrament of marriage by the priest, their whole community of friends and family so well dressed and gathered for just this occasion.  Later I came back and I gathered mass was cancelled but I was able to take photographs and light some votive candles as well.
The gift store was open and I purchased yet another rosary.  I also bought a stature of St. Joan d’Arc. Her statue was in the church and the lovely woman in the shop told me of the great statue of St. Joan d’Arc gifted to the town by France.  “St. Joan D’Arc is a special saint of New Orleans,” she told me.
General Jackson, greatly outnumbered by a British force of 10,000 won the battle of 1815 , though the war of 1812 was over by that time. Later he went to the Ursuline Convent Chapel to thank the  the nuns who had prayed all night on behalf of New Orleans.
I received a prayer from the lovely lady there which reads as thus:
“O Jesus, eternal God, I thank you for your countless graces and blessings. Let every beat of my heart be a new hymn of thanksgiving to you, O God. Let every blood circulate for you Lord. My soul is one hymn in adoration of your mercy. I love you, God, for yourself alone. Amen.