The rites of consecration which our family attended in person here in Doha was a surprisingly four hour celebration, but one that none of us will soon forget. It began at 10 am, and had more than a couple of thousand faithfuls in attendance. With a one lane road as the only way in AND out of the area, the children and I headed out "early" that morning, hoping for some great seats. By the time we reached the church's new location, right in the middle of the desert, we quickly realized that we were not going to fair so lucky since it seemed that majority of the faithfuls had arrived around 8 AM and were already occupying all of the seats available on BOTH floors. Luckily our friend, Gina, whom we were meeting up there, arrived a bit earlier than us and secured one of the last spots against the wall. We were all very happy to at least be inside of the church, anywhere we could be, which was much better than the other few hundred people that did not make it inside the doors and had to listen to the celebration from outside via loud speaker. I remember that as I walked in through the front door of the church, I couldn't help but feel excitement and humility at the same time; knowing that we were all about to witness something very SPIRITUAL. Our curiosity had overcome us as we wondered what the church would look like. Because of the country we live in (and out of respect to the generosity of the Emir and the people of Doha), I knew not to expect to see the CROSS in the skies of Doha, nor hear the bells toll in the air. Inside, though, the huge building had all of its concrete walls painted in a light blue color with puffy clouds of white as if the entire church was in the heavens. Then, we noticed that ever so discretely, there were holy images painted on these blue walls. What a wonderful and unique idea! The one that Nicholas spotted almost right away, was the one of Jesus on the cross located at the very center of the the churches roof top. I could only hope that these images burned into their minds and hearts for ever!
Unfortunately, due to the shutdown, Rolando was unable to attend. Hence, I became even more determined to ensure that my children experienced as much of the celebration as they could. So I started taking turns putting each of the children up on my shoulder so that they might see better. One of the volunteers that saw what I was doing, took sympathy on me. He helped me out with holding Nick up for a few minutes, and I was ever so grateful. So, Gabrielle was able to view the parade of flags that was being celebrated in a dance. Nicholas saw some other cultural dances that were performed, and the smoke from the burning of the incense. At one point, we were up close and personal, when the Bishop came to the station of the cross which we just happened to be standing next to, blessed underneath the portrait and continued on his way. As the mass continued, and the hours went by, the children's curiosity did not waver. They so patiently sat through the entire celebration, and upon the end of this consecration, we all simply hiked back through broke concrete and dirt back to our vehicle in silence. We reached our vehicle @ 2pm, but didn't make it out to the main road until 3:15PM!! Yes, we were stuck in traffic getting out of the "parking lot" for over ONE HOUR~and the kids still didn't complain once! I was ever so proud of them. I knew the Holy Spirit was in them on that Holy Day!
Then, a couple of weeks ago, as Rolando and I sat in our living room and were sorting through our sling-box channels, we came across the consecration of Houston's Co-Cathedral! We proceeded to sit through that celebration as well, realizing that it was truly amazing for us to be able to watch this. I excitedly told him that these were the exact same rituals that the kids and I had personally experienced at the church in Doha...but that it did not make this one any less special. Rolando called my mother in Texas who informed us she was already watching this, so the short conversation brought some comfort to us knowing that we were sitting through the same humbling event as our family and several thousands of others in Texas!! The interview that Ilona had with the Cardinal stated that the statues and the beautiful stained glass for the church were made in Florence, Italy; and were made from the same material that the infamous Statue of the David was created from. This of course caught more of our interests as our family had visited and stood directly in front of the David back in Mach of 2007. I have no more words to share about all of these experiences, but I hope you can see from the fact that we even took pictures of this televised event; feeling lucky and ever so blessed to have witnessed all of this; and we feel that they have brought us some PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!! (At least to the hearts of our family!)
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