Google Earth Pictorial: Basilica of King St. Louis
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I’ve almost had 2 breakdowns today. The first because I am supposed to leave Collinsville, IL tomorrow. I’m starting to experience the same anxiety I had in Chicago. It is comfortable here. It is safe. There are plenty of churches here. Why do I need to leave? The big world is scary and only an idiot would venture out past his safety net. I look in the mirror and ask, “Hello idiot! Have we met?” 

The second breakdown is coming from the stress of figuring out all the financial matters associated with leaving the country for a year and forming a new corporation. AD SODALITATEM has long term goals in the promotion of global solidarity, to do that, we have to start showing our financial accountability today. Imagine, a corporation’s first project having bills coming in from 35 different countries, back up and emergency plans galore, and all of it taking place with 30 different conversion rates between currencies, all of which change daily.  

Conversion. I went to Mass today at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (different from the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France). They are both dedicated to the same man, which is even more confusing. The Mass today celebrated the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  I took a class on St. Paul’s writings. There is a debate about whether Paul was “called or converted.” The debate is interesting, but I think the safest scripture scholar would say, that based on Galatians 1:11-12, Paul felt like he was called, that the words of Jesus came to him. Luke’s three accounts of St. Paul’s story in Acts of the Apostles added the bright-white-light stuff and knocked-off-the-donkey stuff. I wonder who in the Vatican we have to petition to get the feast name changed to the “Feast of the Calling of St. Paul?” Whatever. Either way you look at it, Paul had to change direction in his life.  

The words that spoke most directly to me were once again found in the psalm, “Go out to all the world and tell the good news.” OK. Fine! I got my plane tickets purchased! I’m ready to go out to all the world. I got one year to do it. Now what?”  

Well the Gospel gave a few things to do. Jesus said, 

     - “Proclaim the Gospel to every creature…” OK, even squirrels. I got it. No problem. I’m carrying a bag of nuts to entice them in case they get scared.      

     - “Drive out demons.” Working on that. A demons are still plaguing me, but I’m learning to trust my Spiritual Director more that Christ gave us authority over demons. Still a little weird for me to admit there is something I can’t see or feel.

     - “Speak new languages.” Got it. Been working on my Spanish for a few years now. Should be OK.- “Pick up serpents with their hands” Yikes! Help! Staying home is sounding better by the minute.

     - “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” I got to admit, I’d like to do that, but even after 15 vaccinations and $500 worth of medications that I’m carrying around, I got to admit that I’ve got some risk issues to work through. Whether St. Paul was “called” or “converted,” I don’t know. I do resonate with my own calling to be on this pilgrimage, on this journey. I didn’t choose it, and I don’t know that I would want to if I could. Every week, I’ve been on the edge or in the middle of tears. Even the United States has proved to be wearisome.  

Of course, at the time that St. Paul went out to the whole world, it was a lot smaller (at least in the Judeo worldview). St. Paul was a tent maker. He could find work wherever he went. I have a hard enough time with tourist visas. I can’t possibly imagine fighting to get permission to work and earn a living in other countries today.  

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis represents the "mission to the whole world" The city of St. Louis was once considered the western frontier of Christendom. From St. Louis went out great explorers and missionaries, Marquette, DeSmet, DuBourg. These are now memorialized in the mosaics of the Cathedral. And you won’t have any problems finding mosaics in the Cathedral Basilica. It is covered in mosaics. It was designed to be “the Rome of the West” and now holds the largest collection of mosaics in the world, with 20 different contributing artists; the mosaics cover 83,000 square feet, using 41.5 million pieces of glass in 7,000 colors.  You can find out a great deal more about the Basilica at www.cathedralstl.org. After you have downloaded Google Earth onto your computer, you can click here to see my pictorial of this massive church.  

In the Basilica you can find mosaics telling about the life of the patron, King St. Louis IX. His world view included in the Crusades. Go out to the whole world? Well, I guess it begs the question, what is the whole world?  The "world we live in" is something I am willing to grant relativism (but not impartial relativism for reasons I’ll explore later). The world is different for a young girl in a mining village of the Congo. The world is different for an undocumented immigrant in the United States. The world is different for me who can publish a few musings to a website which can instantly be accessed over the entire planet. The world was different for King St. Louis IX. The world was different for the explorers now memorialized in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. The world was different for St. Paul, and I’m willing to bet the world is different for you, even than it is for me. We are all called to go into that world. Pray for me, as I try to find the courage to go. I will return the prayer.  

Also pray for me to handle the “snakes” part, I’m still a little scared of that.