On Thanksgiving Day, my family walked to the largest church building in Canada, St. Joseph’s Oratory. It was just a break from a day of cooking and lounging before we sat down to eat.
It was one of the first wintry days of the year with rain and chilly winds. Instead of enjoying the Oratory’s lookout and walking into the woods as we planned, we decided to take refuge inside the church.
Inside the building were hundreds of visitors. They were eating in the café, visiting relics, viewing the crèche exhibit, lighting candles in the grotto on behalf of loved ones, praying in the basilica chapel, and attending services in the smaller crypt chapel.
There were festive smells of bread, turkey, and pastries coming from the café. This and the nativity sets in the gift shop evoked the spirit of Christmas in the middle of October for me. As I looked at a snow globe featuring Mary with baby Jesus while peaceful music played, and noticed two young mothers caring for young babies, I realized that something different was happening in me: Being in this Jesus-focused space reconnected me with a sense of wonder at the birth in a Jesus in a way I hadn’t felt since my childhood.
We entered the basilica chapel. While the exterior of the building has a Renaissance revival style, the interior is decorated in art deco and is quite modern. The immense domed space felt like an appropriate reflection of transcendent and spiritual things, like an acknowledgement that divine love encompasses all of humanity and creation.
I noticed details I never had before. Low on the walls are quotes to ponder carved beautifully into stone. Stained glass depicts scenes of Joseph, Mary’s husband, caring for the child Jesus. I noticed semi-private spaces behind the pews where visitors ponder life-size relief sculptures depicting the stations of the cross. I noticed the beauty of mosaics depicting scenes from the life of Christ on the backdrop of the sanctuary. I felt renewed trust in the power of simple spiritual practices to bring inner peace and hope, whether memorizing a quote, lighting a candle, or gazing at art depicting the face of God.
This trip to the Oratory filled me with gratitude for welcoming, inclusive, interactive sacred spaces that are open to the public like the Oratory. Sometimes when we grow up religious, we are conditioned to be suspicious of other faiths and to not allow ourselves have a spiritual experience in their spaces. So it was once with me. Now I feel free to reclaim the world’s inclusive sacred spaces as my own, as spaces that help me ponder and experience spiritual mystery and divine love. I was just getting out of the rain, but the Oratory let me to experience, joy, connection, love, and wonder just by passing through the welcoming building.
