Things to ponder...shhhh

It been an odd summer so far. We haven't had the hot, humid summer whether that we're used to in the summer. There's been a lot of rain and thunderstorms (yuck). It was probably nice for my mom when she came to visit for a couple of weeks. Vancouver has been stinky hot all summer. Apparently my dad couldn't stand the heat at his place and slept at my mom's with the windows open one night. My dad rents a room so there probably wasn't any wind coming through his window.

I hope my mom enjoyed her visit. She turned 60 while she was here and we celebrated with a Chinese birthday cake and had a few of my friends that knew her over to share in the celebration. FYI...60 candles causes a lot of smoke when blown out and sets off the smoke detector :)

My mom has become quite devout in her Catholic faith these past few years and so we took her to Montreal to visit a few impressive Catholic church sites. Aidan made an interesting comment while we were there. He noted how all the churches we visited concentrated on the different people and saints but where was Jesus Christ? How come they didn't teach about Him? Words to ponder from a 10 year old.

While sitting in Notre Dame Basilica, I wondered whether it's better to have the humble, non-decorative chapel that we are used to in the Latter-day Saint faith or to have beautiful architecture and ornate churches to worship in? Our faith does not put up the cross or statues of religious people. Instead of using the cross as a reminder of our faith we would rather remember how Jesus lived and not how he died although the Atonement is important to us. While sitting in the basilica, I felt a sense of awe and noted how quiet it was while everyone was waiting for mass to begin. Everyone whispered if they dared to talk at all. It was a similar reverence as if we were in one of our temples. I pondered whether or not this was due to the beautiful building we were sitting in. Everyone was in awe as I was of the church. Lately our ward leaders have continuously encouraged us to be more reverent during sacrament meeting by taking inconsolable babies out to the hallway sooner and to reserve chatting with friends for anywhere but in the chapel as we should establish the chapel as a place of quiet reverence. I don't know if it's just such a habit that members are forgetting what has been counseled to us but it just hasn't been working. It's hard to break a bad habit.

So I put the question out there...would it help us be more reverent if our chapel was ornately decorated and giving something for us to concentrate on visually? I have my own opinion on this but I'll share that afterwards. I'm interested in your thoughts.