Mother's Day Mass At Sagrada Familia

That's right...my mom is rolling over in her grave right now...I attended MASS at the Sagrada Familia last Sunday on (the U.S.) Mother's Day! This one's for you mom!

The past few weeks have been super busy with out-of-town guests staying with us here in Vall d'Hebron. My dad came and we had a great time not only in Barcelona, but also up in Paris and Normandy. It was a jam-packed and fun year 12 days! (Just kidding dad!) To keep the fun going, Diana's mom and dad arrived this past week. The two Chiquinquireños are here for almost three weeks and so far it's been loads of fun.

Diana had read that they were going to celebrate a mass at the Sagrada Familia and she wanted to take her folks. I left the apartment with them as I was going to wait in line while they checked out the outside of the church and take some pictures before the mass. When we got there it was bad news right away. It turns out that you had to have a ticket to get in to the mass and they were only available in advance from your local parish church. Oh well, we decided, we'll just take some photos and leave.

We walked around the church snapping pictures...pretty much no big deal. When we were on the Nativity Facade side of the church, I saw a priest talking with some folks near the fence and I told Diana to go beg for a couple of tickets "for her elderly parents". She went over and while she was talking to the priest a woman overheard her and told her that she might have extra tickets. Diana followed her over to the gate and the woman gave her four tickets to the mass. The woman said that she was waiting for someone she knew to show up that was going to use them but that she couldn't wait any longer and needed to get inside. Here's my ticket:

Wow! My mom would be so happy, especially on Mother's Day, if I attended. How could I say no? Oh yeah, one other thing I forgot to mention was that this was, as far as I know, only the second (official) mass they've had in the main worship space since the pope came to town last November. Can you say historic for two reasons?

The mass was a very nice experience and the place was packed with people. Like a concert, they have video screens so that you can see the "action". During the mass, I happened to look up at the monitor at one point and there on the screen was the woman who gave us the tickets; she was a member of a choir group from some former Soviet state that I can't remember the name of. Very cool!

I pretty much spent the entire mass amazed by both Gaudi's creation and how much people talk while in church. On Gaudi, the guy's a frickin' genius and every time I see something he did I'm even more convinced of it. On the talkers, my parents would have killed, killed, killed me if I talked during mass. You should have seen the extended family of five (two kids and three adults) behind me that were having full on conversations. Wow. What idiots. I'm not very religious at all but I'm sure that at least some of the other people at the mass were.

So, mom, if you see/hear/read this post, first, thanks for reading and, second, I hope that I made you happy by attending mass last Sunday. I miss you all the time. Happy Mother's Day!