Paris Comment Je T'Aime

So just some a quick update about my time in Paris. I had a wonderful time, absolutely fantastic. So I got into Paris after a long and sleepless flight from Detroit. I wandered around the terminal until I could find my way out. (I didn’t need to collect my luggage there ) so with my carryon bag I went to the RER Station and hoped a train down to Notre Dame. I went into the cathedral and just wandered about. After I was done there I wandered up the Siene till I found a restaurant I sat and had really bad pizza and, a coke and just people watched. I didn’t think it could get any better in Paris until an accordionist came over and serenaded the restaurant. Hilarious what is more stereotypically parisienne than that. I continued to sit and enjoy the day and then a film crew came and set up across the way. It turned out that Woody Allen was shooting a movie in pretty cool. After Lunch I wandered through the city and just enjoyed the architecture. Beautiful City I personally love it. I had dinner with a wonderful Belgian beer, Trappiste Rocheforte. Then I went back to the church and sat in a park at the back of it with Wifi and hung out on the internet and listened to some live Jazz music. By about 6:15pm I went to a church service in Notre Dame (I wasn’t content with just the walk through tourist experience). It was a very conflicting time for me to sit in that church and listen to the mass. It was very beautiful to here the mass in French in such a location. The place oozed feelings of holiness (Def. A place that feels set apart by God. Not a presence of good energy or anything else but a feeling a sacredness). Unfortunately that was very tarnished by the tourist crowd taking pictures with flash even of the mass. As I sat there I was blown away at how God’s house had become such a huge tourist attraction. I was glad to see that the entrance to the Cathedral was free, but the flashing lights of cameras just ruined alot of the place. I could sit there, hearing the mass chanted and be left with an elevated feeling like I was sitting in the throne room of the kingdom of God and yet at the same time be insulted by the ruining of the beauty of the place when the flashes went off. It kind of makes me wonder how my time will be here in South Africa. I wonder if I will just be a spectator like those with the cameras taking pictures and enjoying the architecture of the church, or if I will be a worshiper present to God and the community. This Sunday I am going to try to find a church and see about getting myself well rooted in a couple of weeks. Please pray for me around this issue as well!