Prayers and Pride

We finally have good internet again!  We have been on the River Cruise where internet is sketchy at best.  We have safely arrived in Paris tonight and the hotel has high speed internet.  I am ready to post about our adventures!

First, I wanted to tell you, I prayed for the Presbyterians in La Porte yesterday on Pentecost day in a church that was built in the early part of the 4th century - 313 to 329 to be exact.  According to Medieval tradition, Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine donated her house to the Trier Bishop Agnitius who converted it into a Bishop’s church, and as soon as the Edict of Tolerance guaranteed religious freedom to the Christians, he began constructing a Cathedral.  It was significantly enlarged by Bishop Maximinus (329 - 346) to include four Basilicas and a baptismal font the size of a swimming pool.  The footprint of these early church structures was enormous!  Today the original Cathedral has been damaged and altered many times as one might imagine.  One of the Cathedrals was replaced with a 12th century gothic cathedral right next to the first one.  The other two cathedrals and the swimming pool baptismal font are gone.  The picture is below.  It was an amazing experience to pray for you all in such an ancient church!

Interestingly this church also claims to have the seamless robe of Jesus.  Constantine’s mother was quite a mystic.  She made a trip to the Holy Land at one point and identified many of the significant sites of Jesus’ life including where the crucifixion took place and where the empty tomb were.  Now... she did this through spiritual insight rather than archeological evidence.  Amazingly, these are still the sites the church holds as “original.”  Helena also returned with many relics including the seamless robe of Jesus.  Before you get too excited, you need to know that there was no mention of this relic in writing until the 11th century.  However, when the alter was taken apart at one point, a robe was found.  It is kept in a holy place high above the high altar at the very front of the church.  I made my way up to the location and peered into the hole where the box was, but one really cannot see anything.  I was impressed by the people around me who were awestruck by standing so close to what they believed to be the seamless robe of Jesus.  I was more curious than anything.  Here’s what I saw!

You might also be interested to know that the people of Trier yesterday and the people of Luxembourg and France today were on holiday because it was Pentecost yesterday.  They take this Holy day seriously.  That is, they have serious fun.  Everyone had the day off, and yesterday there was a party with music and food outside of Trier Cathedral.  They were having a marvelous time even in the pouring rain!  So Happy Pentecost to you all!