Notre Dame

Was invited to play in Paris. A few gigs came of this including one on a boat (there is nothing in the world quite like messing about in boats)

It was great to see my friends from Auckland- Madelaine and Aaron- and be able to invite them up to the apartment that I was a guest in. A perfect little apartment right in the heart of Paris.

My hosts had given me the most ideal conditions like something out of a movie….being met at the station and delivered there in a Porsche was just one of the things that went with this dream visit.

Cannot claim to have given much in return and certainly knew no way to be able to live up to the circumstances I found myself in.

I stayed up very late and slept late and explored the vicinity with the wide eyed wonder of a child.

Notre Dame - Western FacadeThe first thing that I noticed was Notre Dame…..a building I have always loved but this time it was real!

What a miracle of architecture. It took a century to build.

Nowadays it’s more of a tourist trap than a building within which to reverence the creator. …

Such kind of worship has given way to a worship of another kind.  No priests in evidence other than priests of commerce.

There is a whole adjacent block dedicated to selling junk to tourists and even a shop inside the church itself.  How did this happen and why do we let it happen? Commerce don’t belong here! It was a holy place now forced to exist for tourism.

It was a church now its a shop. Its surreal. It’s like when a beautiful woman goes on the game and her friends don’t pass any comment.

How DO Christians feel about their churches being offered up to this desperate game?